Barnardo’s has taken several actions after an investigation found there was a failure in the fundraising department's leadership to adequately address a racist and discriminatory culture, the children’s charity has said.
In 2021, an independent investigation found racist and discriminatory behaviour in the charity's fundraising department.
At the time, the charity said three staff in the fundraising department were under formal independent investigation and it was reviewing all race-related grievances in the fundraising department over a two-year period.
Now speaking to Fundraising Magazine, Christopher Alexander, relationship manager at Barnardo's, said: “The charity has gone to great lengths to implement the recommendations made as part of the investigation through a new people and culture strategy.
“We have a full and thorough EDI action plan which takes stock of the internal and external factors which affect this work. We have invested in our EDI team; we published the charity’s first ethnicity pay gap report; and we run anti-racism training with an external partner, which is part of our induction programme for recruiting managers,” he said.
Alexander added: “This is alongside ongoing learning and development opportunities for all staff and volunteers to keep maintaining an inclusive environment at the forefront of everyone’s minds.”
The relationship manager is a founding and current member of Barnardo's fundraising and marketing anti-racism working group, which was formed to ensure that there was an action-focused and team-led approach to ensuring the organisation is anti-racist.
This group helped to set up an action plan to implement the recommendations which came out of the investigation and review, rate and critique the progress against these actions on a quarterly basis.
Barnardo’s also produced an information pack for all new fundraising and marketing starters at the charity “to make them aware of our anti-racism journey to date and what we plan to do next”.
Asked for further information, Lynn Perry, chief executive of Barnardo’s told Civil Society News: “We followed our processes and procedures carefully, as we always do, and whilst we won’t comment on individuals, importantly, right across the charity we have taken steps to ensure Barnardo’s is more inclusive, with a stronger focus on equality, diversity and inclusion being at the very heart of our culture and our plans and priorities.”
Alexander's full interview will be published in Fundraising Magazine tomorrow.
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