Bending the arc of nonprofit leadership toward justice: Impacts of racial representation and organizational publicness on diversifying executive leadership

• Published date: 01 January 2023
• Author: Kelly LeRoux,Alejandra Medina
• Date: 01 January 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13534

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Bending the arc of nonprofit leadership toward justice:

Impacts of racial representation and organizational publicness

on diversifying executive leadership

Kelly LeRoux | Alejandra Medina

Department of Public Administration, College of

Urban Planning and Public Affairs, University of

Illinois Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Correspondence

Kelly LeRoux, Department of Public

Administration, College of Urban Planning and

Public Affairs, University of Illinois Chicago,

400 S. Peoria Street (MC 278) Rm. 2118, AEH,

Chicago, IL 60607, USA.

Email: kleroux@uic.edu

Abstract

Nonprofits are critical partners in the delivery of government-funded human

services in the US, but there is evidence of a persistent racial leadership gap in

the sector, whereby Black and Latino Executive Directors are dramatically

under-represented. Why does this gap persist despite increased attention to

this issue in recent years? And what organizational and community-level fac-

tors do shape the likelihood that nonprofits will hire a Black or Latino Executive

Director (ED)? We answer these questions through a mixed-methods sequential

design, drawing on survey data from 606 nonprofit organizations across the

US, along with interview data from 12 nonprofit executives representing expert

informants in the Chicago metro area. Consistent with theories of representa-

tion and publicness, we find demographic representation at the board level

positively linked to the hiring of a Black or Latino ED, but government funding

has inconsistent effects. We further elaborate on these findings through our

qualitative data.

Evidence for Practice

•Nonprofits can increase their likelihood of attracting/hiring a Black or Latino

Executive Director or CEO by increasing the representation of these groups on

the governing board.

•Public organizations have an opportunity to increase the representation of Black

and Latinos in nonprofit executive leadership positions, by requiring nonprofit

contractors and grantees to diversify their boards where possible and to create

a plan for inclusive governance.

•Foundations need to fundamentally re-examine their grant-making practices

through a racial equity lens. While the rhetoric of diversity, equity, and inclusion

(DEI) has echoed through the sector with increasing volume, foundations are

largely viewed by nonprofit executives (White and non-White alike) as not

“walking the talk”; there are widespread perceptions of racial inequities in the

distribution of funding.

•Nonprofits should discontinue practices that contribute to inequality of opportu-

nity, such as offering unpaid internships. Foundations, and perhaps public orga-

nizations can help to create a more diverse executive leadership pipeline for

nonprofits by creating funded fellowships and internships.

Received: 22 August 2021 Revised: 9 June 2022 Accepted: 10 June 2022

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13534

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium,

provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

© 2022 The Authors. Public Administration Review published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society for Public Administration.

Public Admin Rev. 2023;83:103–116. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/puar 103