Improving DEI Practices within Organizations

These resources can help NNIP Partners reshape their internal practices, including hiring, retention, and board recruitment, to be more equitable and inclusive.

• Diversifying Your Organization for Better Services (ET Consulting, 2018)
  • This presentation was part of the Advancing Racial Diversity in Your Organization for Better Services session at the October 2018 NNIP Partners’ Meeting. Ellie Tumbuan, from ET Consulting and  The Justice Collective, led the session, explained key concepts, provided information on reimagining hiring and outreach efforts. She also suggested ways staff can advocate for change at their organizations.
• The Race to Lead Series (Building Movement Project, 2016)
  • The Race to Lead Series administers a national survey of people working in the nonprofit sector about their experience, training, support, interest in a leadership position, and views on race in the sector. The goal was to figure out why there are so few people of color leading nonprofits and identify solutions to narrow the gap and to This work illuminates the systemic challenges facing diverse staff looking to advance in the nonprofit sector. The series reports the results for the US, for specific states (California and Massachusetts) and for specific groups: LGBTQ, Women of Color, and CEOs. The second survey was conducted in 2019, with results forthcoming.
• Boardsource’s curated resources on Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity (various dates)
  • BoardSource is a nonprofit that provides nonprofit board leaders with an extensive range of tools, resources, and research data to increase board effectiveness and strengthen organizational impact. The organization provides a curated list of resources, articles, and research on DEI best thinking and advice on nonprofit boards.
• Best Practices for Fostering a Diverse and Inclusive Workplace in Congress  (National Association of Latino Elected Officials and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, 2018)
  • Staff Up Congress is an initiative to increase the number of qualified staffers of color in Congressional offices. While Staff Up’s materials are designed for Congressional offices, the same principles can be applied to public sector and community-based organizations. This handout about fostering diverse and inclusive workplaces cover topics ranging from recruitment to retention.

• The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex by INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence
  • This publication gathers essays by radical activists, educators, and non-profit staff from around the globe who critically rethink the long-term consequences of what they call the "non-profit industrial complex." Drawing on their own experiences, the contributors track the history of non-profits and provide strategies to transform and work outside them.

• Targeted Universalism: Policy & Practice, a Primer by john a. powell, Stephen Menendian, and Wendy Ake
  • This publication provides a roadmap to design policy that can serve groups otherwise excluded, while also promising to improve outcomes for people situated in relatively privileged positions. This is accomplished by re-imagining the range of implementation strategies needed to accomplish the universal goal.

• A Theory of Racialized Organizations by Victor Ray
  • Organizational theory scholars typically see organizations as race-neutral bureaucratic structures, while race and ethnicity scholars have largely neglected the role of organizations in the social construction of race. The theory developed in this article bridges these subfields, arguing that organizations are racial structures—cognitive schemas connecting organizational rules to social and material resources.