State of Diversity in Environmental Organizations How ZSR stacks up

The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation believes that the performance of any organization is greatly enhanced when people with different backgrounds and perspectives are engaged in its activities and decision-making processes. To that end, the Foundation asks all of its grant applicants to provide the racial demographics of the geographic area they serve. The Foundation also expects that all of its grantees will make reasonable efforts to recruit and cultivate a governing board of directors (and a staff) that reflects the racial diversity of that area. Over the years, this expectation has proved challenging to achieve for many of the organizations in the Foundation’s environmental portfolio.

A new report from Dr. Dorceta Taylor of the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment reveals that this same challenge is faced by environmental organizations across the United States. The State of Diversity in Environmental Organizations, released in July 2014, surveyed 191 environmental organizations and 45 foundations that fund environmental activities. The report finds a “troubling” lack of racial diversity in environmental organizations. Inspired by this report, ZSR staff decided to take a look at how our own Foundation and grantees stack up against our colleagues across the nation. Our initial findings are included in the chart below, followed by societal demographics for reference purposes.

ZSR staff is now working with our own data from the past ten years to determine trends that will allow us to track progress in this arena. This data comes from the Foundation’s active engagement in encouraging our grantees to enhance the racial makeup of their organizations. It is certainly worth noting that ZSR’s environmental grantees have more than three times the percentage of “non-white” representation on their boards of directors than their national colleagues (15.9 percent versus 4.6 percent). Yet, even 15.9 percent falls far short of our state’s non-white population of 35.4 percent. While inconsistencies in our database are going to require us to dig a little deeper to discern the demographic breakdown of staff members within our grantee community, our initial findings suggest that our grantees’ staff composition is far less racially diverse. Furthermore, ethnic minorities that are working in the environmental sector tend to be concentrated at the staff level versus in executive level positions.

Inspired by this report, ZSR plans to work with our grantees and funding partners to shine a spotlight on the issue of racial inclusiveness within North Carolina’s environmental nonprofit community over the coming year. As Dr. Taylor points out in her report, any institution that wants to maintain a competitive edge and attract the best workers in today’s economy must be attentive to the changing demographics of the country. Furthermore, if NC’s environmental organizations are to be successful in the 21^st century, their leadership must act upon the recognition that ethnic minorities have agency and are becoming more and more powerful every year. To ignore these growing constituencies in the development of our institutions (and their programs and priorities) is strategically shortsighted.