Lack of access to diverse talent is biggest impediment to board diversification
| Author | Amy Dodds |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/ban.31170 |
| Date | 01 October 2020 |
| Published date | 01 October 2020 |
8 Board & Administrator
DOI 10.1002/ban © 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC • All rights reserved
Lack of access to diverse talent is biggest
impediment to board diversication
BY AMY DODDS
It is well known that board diversity has numer-
ous benefits—unique viewpoints, stronger financial
performance and better access to the community
are just a few examples. However, many nonprof-
its report that they have yet to achieve the diverse
representation on their boards they desire because of
recruitment challenges. These are the findings from
CariClub (cariclub.com), a company that pairs young
professionals with nonprofits and foundations, which
recently released the results of its first Accessing
Diverse Board Candidates survey. The analysis sur-
veyed 1,000 U.S. nonprofits to have a better under-
standing of how severe the lack of board diversifica-
tion is, the reasons for the lack of diversity and what
boards are willing to do to rectify the situation.
Key findings from the survey include:
• 95% of nonprofits are actively recruiting to di-
versify their governing/executive boards; 60% are
doing the same for their associate/junior boards.
• The least represented groups are Hispanic or
Latinx (77% on governing boards and 74% on as-
sociate boards), Black or African American (72%
on governing boards and 68% on associate boards)
and Asian (58% on governing boards and 50% on
associate boards).
• 87% of nonprofits report that finding the
right recruitment channels has been the biggest
obstacle to diversifying their board.
• 83% of nonprofits are willing to increase their
governing board size to accommodate an increase
diverse representation; 88% said the same about
their associate board.
More than half of all respondents (51%) dis-
agreed with the statement “Does your board reflect
the community your organization serves?”
To address these problems, CariClub is develop-
ing a program to create board-matching programs
specifically to place people from underrepresented
groups on nonprofit boards. This service will be
free for nonprofit organizations.
“Nonprofit organizations have always strived to
maintain a diverse board of directors, but it is a
challenge to build and sustain a pipeline of highly
qualified candidates,” said Rhoden Monrose, CEO
and founder of CariClub. “This data will help us
expand our work to address the pipeline problem
and support these nonprofits as they improve their
diversity, equity and inclusion.” ■
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