Candid Releases Report on Diversity in Nonprofit Sector
Candid released The state of diversity in the U.S. nonprofit sector (opens as a pdf), a report analyzing demographic data from 59,550 public charities collected over the last five years. It is the most comprehensive data set of its kind to date and establishes a benchmark to better track efforts related to diversity, equity, and inclusion for funders, nonprofits, and researchers.
“The social sector has made big promises to prioritize equity—both in terms of who is leading in the sector and who is, or is not, getting access to funding. But we have lacked data that is standardized and accessible to measure where we are and track progress over time,” said Candid CEO Ann Mei Chang. “This report is a foundational step in fulfilling our mission to provide the data the sector needs to become more efficient, effective, and equitable.”
The 73-page report provides an overview of the nonprofit sector across four demographic categories: race, gender, sexual orientation, and disability status. The report is divided into four sections, leveraging demographic data nonprofits provided voluntarily about their own organizations:
- Diversity among nonprofit employees in the sector overall, including at different levels of leadership.
- CEO diversity by organization size, revenue, cause, and location.
- Nonprofit board composition, including average board size and average representation of different identities on boards.
- Differences between organizations with majority BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) leadership and majority white leadership.
The report’s findings include:
- The nonprofit sector as a whole is racially diverse, but the leadership ranks are not. For example, 47% of all staff identify as white, compared with 70% of CEOs and 66% of board members.
- White male CEO representation increases with organization size, while BIPOC female CEO representation decreases.
- Smaller organizations tend to have smaller, more diverse boards.
- Majority BIPOC-led organizations have fewer financial resources. Median revenue for majority white-led organizations is 54% higher than it is for majority BIPOC-led ones.
“This report is the culmination of years of data collection and represents a new baseline for the social sector to better understand demographic patterns in nonprofits of all scopes and sizes,” said Cathleen Clerkin, Ph.D., associate vice president of research at Candid. “At the same time, I hope this report is just the beginning. The true power of this data is to provide evidence that facilitates action. I hope that this report sparks new ideas for future policies and practices around equity and representation, as well as future research.”
Starting in July 2019, Candid has invited nonprofits to voluntarily share demographic information about their organizations on their Candid profiles. The current study includes data collected from public charities through January 2024 and was made possible with the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The report is part of a broader effort to increase transparency and data access in the social sector. In February 2023, Candid launched Demographics via Candid, an initiative that empowers nonprofits to share their data one time through their Candid profiles, where it can be freely accessed and reused by all, including funders and researchers.
The preceding press release was provided by a company unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of NonProfit PRO.
