A tool has been launched to help charities tackle racism that is blighting the sector.

The Companion Journal has been launched by ACEVO and Voices 4 Change England as part of their Home Truths research project into racism in the charity sector.

V4CE has described the online guidance report as “a personal tool for change” in tackling racism, adding that it offers “space for reflection and action on anti-racism and race equity”.

The guide describes the current challenges the sector faces in terms of racism, and poses questions for them to address.

For example, the guide asks charities to honestly describe their progress in tackling racism, set goals in this area and how they are going to achieve them.

It also asks charities to ask where they are seeing “power maintaining inequity” in society and what specifically they will do to tackle this.

Charities are also asked “how can race equity be deeply embedded in your work”.

Pay disparity is also addressed in the guide, which cites research from 2022 which found that only one in four charities publish annual ethnic pay gap data.

Ways charities can help staff and stakeholders report racism is another issue covered in the tool.

It warns that: “In too many cases the institution finds it hard to hear the uncomfortable truth. It can shake the belief in civil society that it is home to those who ‘do good’. It can make senior leaders realise that they have not been anti-racist but have contributed to racism.”

Two years ago, ACEVO and VFCE’s Warm Words Cold Comfort report revealed that charity leaders, including directors and managers, are the group of workers in the sector most often cited as playing “a significant role in acts of racism”.

More than three in four out of 130 global majority charity workers have experienced or witnessed racism in the charity sector in the last five years.

“The origin of the racist disrespect, exclusion and scrutiny was always senior management peers or chief executive level,” said one respondent.

This month’s Beyond the Cliff Edge report by leadership organisation Do It Now Now found that Black-led charities face systemic barriers including underfunding and being excluded from leadership decisions.

“While Black-led organisations are expected to deliver vital services, they are also placed under disproportionate pressure to lead systemic change efforts without the necessary resources or decision-making power,” stated the report.

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