Cleveland Responds to Lack of Diversity on Nonprofit Boards

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Compiled by Noelle Barton, Caroline Bermudez, Maria Di Mento, Candie Jones, Heather Joslyn, and Cassie Moore.

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June 27, 2008

Cleveland Responds to Lack of Diversity on Nonprofit Boards

A recent study citing the dearth of minorities on nonprofit boards has spurred charities and civic leaders in Cleveland to create an antidote, reports The Plain Dealer, in Cleveland.

The Urban Institute released a report last year that surveyed more than 5,000 public charities around the nation and found that 86 percent of nonprofit board members were white, followed by 7 percent black, and 3.5 percent Hispanic.

To combat this, several black professionals in Cleveland started the Minority Board Member Pipeline Initiative, a service to match professionals of color to nonprofit boards.

Randell McShepard, one of the group’s founders, said, “I was appalled when I saw the Urban Institute research. Who the boards are serving, in the majority of cases, are people of color.”

Another group in Cleveland, Business Volunteers Unlimited, also steers minority professionals to nonprofit boards.

Comments

Why don’t they state how many were male and how many were female? I’m sure there would be a large discrepancy there as well.

— Anonymous Jun 27, 01:14 PM #
Does Mr. McShepard really think that boards should be composed of people of the same race that the agencies serve? That has very definite racist connotations.

— Thomas E. Brandlin, MNA Jun 27, 01:34 PM #
I think it is presumptive of a group of people to believe that they can effectively work to “solve” a problem within a particular community without the direct, consistent input of people from that community. Boards should reflect the diversity of the people they serve. No one can really understand an issue until people who are immersed within it are given place to speak and lead.

— Felicia Jun 27, 02:04 PM #
Should the boards reflect people the organization serves, or should the board demographic reflect the community as a whole? Isn’t it true that often people closely associated with the service being provided fail to provide objectivity?

We boast that America is the “melting pot” of the world. However, some of the comments above do not exemplify that. The unspoken truth is that service on many boards affords opportunity for networking that would not normally occur. Could this be a form of privilege that many do not wish to share with others?

I agree with the comment regarding gender as well.

— John Mark Eberhardt Jun 30, 10:08 AM #

Commenting is closed for this article.

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