It is quite common to see nonprofit organizations making visible commitments to diversity, inclusion, and equity. Many nonprofit organizations have DEI statements; some include the words in their missions. Many have DEI as part of their strategic plan. But when it comes to the composition and...

If there is a lesson from the last several years, it is that we have to look inward before we do anything else. Between the pandemic, the “Great Resignation,” political division, and heightened awareness of the ways racism and oppression has shaped everything we do in the nonprofit sector, we have...

As nonprofit consultants, we’ve found the need for board guidance and support with regards to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) has been steadily growing over the years. When it comes to this important work, we know that just diversity, or recruiting board members from different...

“Time heals all wounds” is one of the most widely known and generally accepted expressions in our popular culture, but I’ve always felt that this statement – although not false – was incomplete, at best. I believe that time is necessary but not sufficient for healing. Time facilitates the healing...

In May, the world looked on in horror as a mass grave of 215 children’s remains was located using ground-penetrating radar at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, Canada. It was this circumstance that caused many people to learn about the institution of Indian residential...

“The recognition that organizational power and voice must be authorized by those impacted by the organization’s work.”

These words come from BoardSource’s new way of framing the role of nonprofit governing boards. And they resonate profoundly with me and my colleagues at Fund for Shared Insight, a...

Leadership within the social sector today is as challenging as ever. As a generation of long-tenured executives steadily matriculate out of institutional leadership roles, staff, boards and representatives from all facets of social sector organizations – as well as the communities we care most...

We live in an age where it can be challenging to keep up with the increasing speed of news cycles while managing our own busy day-to-day lives. There’s a vast amount of news available to us every day – but we may not have enough time to consume it, and we often have even less time to reflect on it...

For almost 30 years, I’ve been part of a sector-wide conversation about the lack of diversity on nonprofit boards and the need to do better. In retrospect, I realize that our initial arguments were grounded primarily in a belief in the importance of representation. We also frequently cited research...

I believe I’ll remember the images of last summer’s racial justice marches for the rest of my life – largely for a reason that I didn’t expect. It wasn’t just the number of protests around the country that inspired me, or even the size of the crowds (impressive as they were). It was the rich,...