A free guide published today has called on charities to move beyond equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) practices to tackle racism in the sector.
ACEVO and Voice4Change England’s An Anti-Racism Companion Journal warns that increasing a charity’s employee ethnic diversity may change who does its work without changing what the work is.
The guide warns that this can leave in place “civil society’s failures to support Black and minoritised ethnic populations at large”.
Meanwhile, a recent report argued that Black-led charities and social enterprises must be empowered to exert direct influence on funding and policy in order to effect systemic change.
Facing up to racism
ACEVO and Voice4Change England’s guide, which forms part of the Home Truths 2 programme and its Race Equity Series, says that more ethnically diverse organisations are considered by some to be more in tune with wider society and more effective compared to less diverse counterparts.
But it says that EDI practices largely focus on increasing Black and minoritised ethnic representation rather than ending racism, and that “racist harms persist even with an emphasis on diversity and EDI”.
“To solve racism, we need to face up to it,” the guide says.
“But racism can get talked around in favour of more palatable ideas, such as an emphasis on increasing ethnic diversity in workplaces.”
The guide says that addressing the underlying issues of racism requires a different approach – including anti-racism and race equity.
As part of this, it encourages charities to consider changing their organisational values, structures and behaviours.
It also says that civil society has been slow to publish annual ethnic pay gap data, with only 11% of the largest charities doing so.
Black-led charities denied resources
Meanwhile, the London-focused Beyond the Cliff Edge report, by social entrepreneur support organisation Do it Now Now, found Black-led organisations face pressure to deliver structural change – while being denied resources and executive power by the same structures.
“The research highlights a persistent pattern of underfunding, exclusion from leadership spaces, and structural limitations that prevent these organisations from achieving long-term stability,” it reads.
Access to “unrestricted, long-term funding and participatory decision-making that redistributes power within the funding ecosystem” is crucial to change the picture, found the study.
“Without these shifts, Black-led organisations will continue to carry the burden of systemic failures while lacking the resources to create sustainable solutions,” it says.
Besides opening up access to capacity and decision-making, the report found Black-led organisations’ ability to grow and sustain influence was held back by a lack of opportunities to undertake training in financial literacy and impact measurement.
Such organisations are often “hubs for leadership and innovation”, the report argues.
But they would benefit from “peer-led development programmes, leadership certification, and stronger engagement with local councils” to give Black leaders the tools to shape policy and funding mechanisms affecting their communities, it says.
To achieve genuine equity, funders, policymakers, and sector leaders must commit to structural changes that prioritise long-term, unrestricted investment in Black-led organisations, it concludes.
They must also create leadership pipelines and decision-making roles for Black leaders, it adds, and adopt participatory funding models that shift power into the hands of communities.
“Black-led organisations are expected to change the very systems that continue to exclude them while simultaneously delivering critical services,” the report says.
