One in four charities (23%) have no one from Black, Asian or other global majority communities represented across their senior executive leadership team or board.

Lack of global majority representation at senior executive leadership team level is particularly stark.

Seven in ten charities do not have any global majority senior executives, while a third do not have any global majority trustees.

Research into charities’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) progress found that many are failing to act on stated commitments to improving equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) charities.

While 99% of those surveyed for the research said they are committed to embedding EDI into their organisations, more than half said their progress in this area was only “starting out” or “developing”.

“This represents the most significant gap between importance and progress ratings across the survey and an area of significant and urgent challenge for the sector,” according to consultancy Eastside People and membership body ACEVO, which has published the research findings.

One respondent said: “The more we progress on this (EDI), the more we realise how far we still have to travel.”

Their report echoes the findings of previous research into a lack of action in the charity sector to tackle a lack of diversity.

Last October a survey carried out by Directory of Social Change found that trustees admitted that their weakest area of governance was improving EDI.

The previous year’s Warm Words Cold Comfort report by ACEVO and Voice4Change England found that senior staff are most often cited as having “a significant role in acts of racism”.

Also last year, the RACE Report campaign found that the proportion of global majority staff in environmental charities had flatlined and “difficult conversations” were needed to improve diversity.

ESG concerns

Eastside People and ACEVO’s research also found that more than one in four charities are not able to pay staff the Real Living Wage.

In addition, more than two thirds do not have an ESG strategy in place and two in five say they are merely “considering developing” one.

This indicates “they are engaged with ESG as a concept, but have not yet defined
what it means for their organisation,” found Eastside People and ACEVO.

Just 16% say they are “advanced” or “advancing” in monitoring their impact on the environment.

While half of businesses measure their carbon footprint, only one in three charities are doing this in any form.

Governance is the area “where charities are most advanced” states their research.

But less than half of large charities have carried out an independent review of their board effectiveness in the last three years, despite this being recommended practice in the Charity Governance Code.

Also, more than a third of charities have at least one trustee in post who has served more than the recommended maximum tenure of nine years.

“This issue seems to be compounded in small organisations who we surmise have access to smaller pools of candidates and therefore find it harder to recruit for diverse boards,” found the research.

“Developing understanding and taking action on ESG is an important part of chief
executives’ and senior leaders’ roles both for strategic planning and day-to-day operations, to optimise governance, enhance contribution to the goals of society and minimise environmental impact for the causes and communities their organisations serve.” said ACEVO chief executive Jane Ide.

The research is based on findings from Eastside People’s ESG survey, a tool it has developed for charities to use to assess their progress. It is based on 78 submissions with charities who have a combined income of £870m.

See Also:

Why are charities so poor at tackling racism?

The charity sector ‘has an issue with class and privilege and is inherently ableist'

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