Since 2021, Charity Times reporter, Joe Lepper, has written 36 news stories on a lack of diversity in the sector. But why is nothing changing?
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Since February 2021, I’ve written 36 news articles for Charity Times around a lack of diversity in the charity sector, from sector wide concerns to reports of racism happening within specific charities of all sizes.

That’s around once a month, and they only involve stories that become known through reports and whistleblowers. There are countless other unreported cases of global majority charity workers being subjected to racism at work each day.

Why does such racism exist in UK charities? Just look at the history of this country, having been moulded by slavery and colonialism, for the answer. Charities are no different to other businesses, sports clubs, and public bodies when it comes to institutional racism.

But why is the charity sector so poor at addressing racism is perhaps more pertinent?

Poor leadership is a factor.

ACEVO and Voice4Change England’s December 2023 report Warm Words Cold Comfort found senior staff are most often cited as having “a significant role in acts of racism”.

It’s no wonder global majority workers are being passed over for promotion with such managers at the helm. As a result of this biased management, tackling racism is simply not a priority for many charities.

A fifth of charities claimed in 2021’s Covid-19 Voluntary Sector Impact Barometer they were unable to improve equality, diversity, and inclusion due to cost pressures. A measly excuse.

Many charity leaders will be reading this and thinking they are tackling racism effectively. Some indeed are. Take the radical action announced in July last year by funder Lankelly Chase Foundation. It believes its philanthropy is “so entangled with colonial capitalism” that it is to close with its funding handed over experts in tackling social justice. But not all are so bold.

Last September, campaign group #CharitySoWhite said most charity efforts were nothing more than “pathetic attempts at anti-racist work”.

Will we see a reduction in racism and lack of diversity stories this year?

Current evidence suggests this is unlikely. It is just a few weeks into 2024 and we have already reported evidence from the RACE Report campaign to improve equity amongst environmental charities.

This found that, despite greater reporting of diversity figures and recruitment of inclusion leads, the proportion of global majority employees in green charities has flatlined over the last two years at around half the proportion in the wider UK workforce.

As the RACE Report’s Manu Maunganidze says, “difficult conversations” will be needed to ensure there is meaningful progress to improve diversity.

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