By Maureen Procopio

I want to be intentional

Am I doing enough? For me, I must be intentional in striving toward equity. How will I participate? How will I contribute? Am I a part of the solution, or the problem? My intention is to be a “good ally”, I need to listen more than I speak. Do my research. Yes, I can do that! Here are a few tools I’ve collected along the way to be intentional.

Understand and take action

Outlined below are two studies that provide actionable analysis and recommendations. Use these to bolster your advancement organization’s: strategic diversity action plans, talent management budget requests, and increasing resources for professional training and development.

• Cause Effective’s study, “Money, Power, and Race: The Lived Experience of Fundraisers of Color,” provides insights into the bias experienced by fundraisers of color and provides recommendations to improve equity at nonprofits. The report contains an eye-opening “In their own words” segment including topics such as experiences with implicit bias and racism, experiences with tokenism and microaggressions, and on having to work harder to prove themselves. The actionable section of this report is “What we can do” with recommendations and strategies to implement in our organizations based on the roles we have. Because, as is so aptly stated by this report’s authors: “Each of us has a role to play in disrupting the tightly-woven nexus of money, power, and race upon which the status quo rests.”
• ALG and AHP published this 2018 study on Diversity and Inclusion in Healthcare Advancement: Changing Behaviors and Outcomes. This data and experiential informed study reveal how “diversity and inclusion lead to better business outcomes, ways to have brave conversations about diversity with your teams, and tools to ensure you’re creating sustainable change in your organization.” Although the focus of this study was the healthcare field, the recommendations and observations are applicable across nonprofits. For example, pointing out the false assumption related to the pipeline of talent and its impact on the outcome of the diversity in teams. “Just as with myths about diversity among donors, myths about diverse talent in the advancement profession are destructively self-perpetuating.” The study points out two barriers for organizations to self-examine:
  1) Implicit Bias
  2) Threshold requirements that unnecessarily restrict hiring.
  The actionable heart of the ALG/AHP study challenges leaders to have brave conversations with their teams about diversity, and the authors permit us to feel uncomfortable.

Who’s doing good work?

The Equity Index as a starting point

The Black Students at Public Colleges report and analysis by the USC Race and Equity Center is a 50-State report card examining equity at public higher education institutions in the U.S. The researchers used four indicators to create the index:

1. Representation Equity
2. Gender Equity
3. Completion Equity
4. Black Students-to-Black Faculty Ratio

This study is important for your advancement organization’s equity assessment because you should be able to recognize what good equity work looks like in your region, peer cohort, or among your aspirational peers.

For example, Portland State University showed up as #11 in the list of institutions with the highest equity index scores. PSU is just up the road from the UO, so I did some digging and learned about their equity lens. Not only do they have a high equity index score, but they also tout a diverse student body. Sure some of it is geography, but much of it is intentional work.

The University of Utah was #7 on the list, so I went searching again. Their EDI landing page is a call to action: to engage, to support, to commit to antiracism. This presents as a university that is a safe place for students of color. Again, more intentionality.

PSU and Utah are a couple of institutions that are serving equity, not just inviting it. The researchers and authors of this report give important recommendations for institutions to achieve equity across the four indicators, suggesting that leaders identify those who excel in the various areas and speak to them. As is underscored in the aforementioned reports and studies, equity work is all of our responsibility, not just the chief diversity officer.

CASE

A few years ago, CASE updated their study on increasing diversity in advancement, including observations, metrics, and initial recommendations. I recently reviewed this for an upcoming DVIII equity-focused panel discussion and noticed that the recommendations include some introductory best practice concepts. However, for advancement organizations that are at the earlier stages of expanding equity and diversity at their organization, jump to the “Recommended Practices for Increasing Diversity” section.

I wrap up with this…

I’m still learning and growing. I continuously seek and collect resources, aiming to build my equity toolbox. I’ll make mistakes but know that I’ll learn immensely from my mistakes. Equity work is for all of us to do. One person cannot do it all. Making it intentional has helped me grow and contribute to my organization and the advancement field. This is all of our responsibility.

What am I missing? What can you share? Post your ideas and tools in the comments.

By Maureen Procopio
Senior Director, Campaign Strategy and Institutional Benchmarking
University of Oregon Advancement
541-346-2061