The following Chronicle Of Philanthropy article affirms one major reality: gaining representative diversity on nonprofit boards is woefully failing. This latest study indicates that Latinos, a proportionately large population in many cities throughout the US, are VERY under-represented on nonprofit boards. While the article does not offer specific explanations nor strategies for recruiting and re-populating boards to match who are their audiences, the article is clear that such representation is just not happening.
Several years ago Compass Point offered what I believe to be one very valid explanation: when seated board members go out to recruit new board members they look among their networks which by-and-large look like them not those who their nonprofit serves. This reality should move board recruiters to then look elsewhere and there are indeed plenty of opportunities for recruiting outside of seated member's networks (e.g. membership organizations that are not in their networks).
Anyway there remains much to be done - it's just lighting the fire I believe that is necessary and the best source of the matchstick: grantmakers.
Latinos Aren’t Appointed to Nonprofit Boards in Big Cities in Big Numbers
Latinos do not have a major presence on nonprofit boards even in cities where they make up a significant proportion of the population, according to data collected by Latinos LEAD, a nonprofit that works to place Hispanic people in leadership positions.
The effort, which used publicly available documents and information found online, looked at the board composition of more than 1,500 nonprofits. In total, about 11 percent of the board members at those organizations are Latino. About one third of the boards, representing 509 nonprofits, did not have a single Latino board member.
The figures do not constitute a representative sample of Latino leadership of nonprofits, stressed Patrick Salazar, founder of Latinos LEAD. Rather, they are a snapshot of Latino board participation at nonprofits in the arts, environment, health, and human services. Major educational and hospital systems were not included, Salazar said, to include organizations that were more likely to directly work with Latinos.
Latinos LEAD collected data from nonprofits in 19 metropolitan regions that have both a population greater than 500,000 and Latino populations of greater than 20 percent.
In California, nearly a third of nonprofit revenue comes from federal, state, and local government agencies, meaning that in areas with a high concentration of Latinos, their tax dollars are essential for the support of nonprofits, said Salazar. If tax dollars are crucial to the support of a city’s nonprofits, he argues, then the decisions made by those organizations should have greater input from Latino board members.
Salazar argues that there has never been an accurate tally of the racial and ethnic composition of nonprofit boards. Previous attempts suggest the proportion of Latinos is far less than their 20 percent share of the U.S. population.
About 5 percent of nonprofit board members are Latino, and 22 percent are people of color, according to a 2021 survey of 820 organizations conducted by BoardSource, a nonprofit membership organization. Salazar said surveys like the one conducted by BoardSource can’t be relied on to accurately portray Latino representation because the sample is not large enough and nonprofit leaders often opt to participate only if they feel strongly about their board composition.
For Latinos LEAD’s project, Salazar decided a head count in the cities with high numbers of Latinos was necessary because many nonprofits, especially large national federations with local affiliates, intensified their pledges to diversify the makeup of their boards after the calls for racial justice surged in 2020. But there didn’t seem to be any real movement beyond the talk, Salazar said.
In Houston, where about 30 percent of the population is Latino, Goodwill Industries of Houston has a 21-person board, only one of whom is Latino. The United Way of Greater Houston also only has one Latino member on its 35-person board. Salazar stressed that some of the data published by Latinos LEAD may need to be updated and said the goal of the count was to invite nonprofits to edit their figures with the most current information.
“Their statements of intent to diversify their boards were so lovely,” he said. “And all we’re saying is, ‘OK, now we know what your boards look like.’”
Goodwill did not return calls. The United Way of Greater Houston said that its board is actually 8 percent Latino, but it hoped to do more to add people of color.
“While we have made progress on board diversity, we recognize that there is more work to be done and support our board’s continued focus on this effort.” said Amanda McMillian, CEO of United Way of Greater Houston in a statement.
Tough Action May Be Needed
Latinos LEAD and other groups, including the Center for Nonprofit Management and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, are using a $30,000 grant from the Hewlett Foundation to hold public meetings in California cities to present the data.