June 7, 2017

This article was published by the Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits.

The goal of the National Council of Nonprofits' Nonprofit Knowledge Matters newsletter is to shine a light on trends affecting charitable nonprofits so that staff and board members, and those funding nonprofits, have ready-access to background on important issues that can inform their decision-making.

For instance, on June 6, 2017, Building Movement Project released a new report, Race to Lead: Confronting the Nonprofit Racial Leadership Gap, offering data to back up what we know: Nonprofit leadership doesn’t reflect the racial diversity of the U.S., and that’s a problem for the entire charitable nonprofit sector. The report challenges assumptions about why people of color are underrepresented in leadership roles.

We encourage you to visit the Race To Lead microsite, read the full report, and consider these central issues: As nonprofits shouldn’t we be better positioned than other segments of society to challenge norms and assumptions about race; face our own biases about who is qualified to lead organizations, and adopt forward-looking equitable practices in the workplace, in the boardroom, and in the C-suite?