Don’t Say DEI. Embrace it in Full.
Diversity.
Equity.
Inclusion.
Don’t feed into the negative narrative by using the acronym for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. If people are going to denounce it, insist they say the words as well. Ask them to tell you why they object to equity. Ask them who they want to exclude. Ask them why they assume that every white person is qualified for a position, but black and brown people should be assumed to not be qualified.
The current efforts to remove everything “DEI” has resulted in insulting and ridiculous outcomes. And nonprofit leaders have had to struggle with whether their own commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion needs to be hidden or downplayed in order to continue to do the important work they are doing.
Many organizations that embrace Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion also include the words Justice and/or Belonging.
In the capacity building and strategic planning work that I have done, it is more likely than not that a nonprofit has a strategy, goal, or measure related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
A few examples:
A nonprofit that supports people with disabilities will often strive to include on their Board of Directors individuals who have family members with disabilities, and many also include people with disabilities themselves. By hearing first hand what is of concern to the people being supported, organizations are guided in their program selection, priorities, and guidance on what to be innovative about. This same type of emphasis is true for many types of organizations - such as those who serve people with mental illness or substance use disorders.
I have been involved with some organizations who both sought to increase their diversity (the benefits of diverse teams is well known) and also implemented employee bonus programs for recruiting friends and family into the organization. The problem is, if the organization is already lacking in diversity, will they really attract diverse candidates if they stay within the same networks? My concern isn’t that they stop the bonus program (especially in hard to recruit fields) but that they build new ways of networking, recruiting, and hiring to achieve the diversity they seek. In Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts, you will find tactics to advertise jobs in new places, attend new cultural events, and shift the hiring process to address unintended bias (diverse interview panels, common set of interview questions, and removing identifying information from the process).
I have heard Board members complain that they have had diverse Board members but they “didn’t work out.” Often, the Board member was asked to “represent” every person of their race (or whatever diversity they brought to the Board) and were often discounted on whatever professional knowledge or perspective they also brought to the Board. Board members - of any race - who feel undervalued and discounted are not likely to remain on a Board. I encourage Boards to quit pointing fingers at the people they say didn’t work out and instead examine how they are welcoming, orienting, and valuing the contributions of new Board members. Just like the staff hiring process described above, Boards recruiting from their own networks are not likely to expand their diversity.
There are many fields that struggle with recruitment because the work is either difficult or low pay (and often both). An obvious way to increase the pool of candidates is to expand who is being recruited for positions. I know organizations that have done specific outreach to refugees in their communities to fill specific roles where recruitment has lagged job openings. To be successful, the organization has recognized differences in cultural norms about work and provided the type of education needed to enable success. With the current freeze on refugees, however, this option is less helpful to organizations, and the refugee resettlement organizations who often helped this successful pairing are left without the funding to continue.
The above are only a few examples of why and how an organization may choose to address diversity, equity, and inclusion. Any initiative, including some efforts around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, can be poorly conceived and implemented. But, I reject that “DEI” is bad policy and practice for organizations. In nonprofits, especially, the closer an organization can align with the people being supported, the more diverse perspectives and talents they can bring on to the team, and the more innovative they can be about expanding their workforce, the better off we all will be.
