“When the concepts of diversity and inclusion are added to basic due diligence, the result can create a philanthropy that is both responsive and efficient.” – Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisers

What are diversity and inclusion? 

According to the National Center for Family Philanthropy, “Diversity is the practice of including a full range of perspectives, ideas and experience in philanthropic decision-making. Inclusion seeks the participation of individuals from diverse backgrounds in the process.”

Solving current troubling ills in society such as the clean water crisis, systemic poverty and hunger will take a group with diverse ways of thinking. Groups of like-minded individuals produce similar thinking that leads to stagnant results. However, diversity and inclusion lead to broad-reaching solutions to challenging problems.

Reorganizing and celebrating our differences leads to developing comprehensive insights to solutions for global challenges. The inclusion of those with different backgrounds leads to the application of their experiences, thus providing a unique perspective into solutions for such issues.

According to research from Prof. Scott Page at the University of Michigan, and Lu Hong, an economist at Chicago’s Loyola University, more diverse groups of people proved to be better at problem solving than more homogenous groups of more knowledgeable people. 

Why? The diverse groups did not get stuck as often as the talented individuals who thought alike. Page uses New York City as an example of diversity, adding that it’s no coincidence that NYC is one of the most innovative and vibrant cities in the United States and also the most culturally diverse.

Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors provides findings via the U.S. Census Bureau that indicate that by 2042, “minority” groups will take over and become the “majority” in the United States. Therefore, as the world changes, so must philanthropy to meet the peoples’ needs.

Already several community foundations have implemented diversity and inclusion in the areas of: 

1. Including diverse staff members
2. Evaluating grant opportunities through a diverse lens
3. Including overlooked groups in funding opportunities

From a corporate view, the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation uniquely combined employee engagement, giving and diversity. In 1991, the foundation’s trustees elected to let employees review grants requests, thereby entrusting funding decisions to community members themselves. 

According to Kelly Luciano Perry, senior digital marketing manager of global management at fundraising software company StratusLIVE, there are four steps to incorporating diversity and inclusion into programs:

1. Incorporate diversity in your staff and grant program. The diverse backgrounds will drive forward innovative discussions and decisions.
2. Consult with stakeholders. To best serve the community, one must communicate with community members to ascertain their needs as opposed to providing them with what you think they need. 
3. Devise a plan. Develop a plan that incorporates diversity and inclusion in your program and evaluate the plan with top advisers before implementing it. 
4. Run a trial program. For a designated period, test the program and allow the stakeholders to evaluate the program for effectiveness.

Dispelling myths

Before moving forward, we must dispel the myths around diversity and inclusion. Diversity is not about minority quotas. In fact, the minority/majority duality is rapidly becoming a relic of 20^th-century thinking. The goal is to strive to be inclusive. This might mean attempting to reflect the real diversity in our own country to tap into new energies and ideas.

Here are some areas where misconceptions can mislead donors.

Myth: Inclusion is just for big foundations with many staff members and large boards.

Reality: A small family foundation may want to consider cost-effective ways of making more inclusive decisions. One approach can be as simple as seeking out thought leaders engaged with target populations and asking them what they think of a philanthropic strategy. Another might be to create voluntary grant-making advisory committees. This kind of due diligence can reveal faulty assumptions as well as encourage new thinking, thus saving money and invigorating strategy.

Myth: Diversity is prescriptive.

Reality: Just the opposite. The new idea is not to set a limited definition of who qualifies as diverse but to instead look first to see who is actually out there in the community and to reflect that reality. In fact, diversity is not even limited to race, gender, sexual orientation and ethnicity. 

Myth: Being inclusive means sacrificing your independence as a donor.

Reality: Inclusion is not cause-specific. It works on both the supply and the demand sides of philanthropy. Rather than limiting donors to a particular path, it opens up possibilities by improving the amount and quality of information available. It helps philanthropists build their own relationships with important partners, which opens new learning opportunities. 

Seeking out and including diverse views does require time and effort from the donor, but it can pay off in more precisely targeted, better evaluated giving.

In conclusion

Embracing diversity and inclusion in your organization’s funding provides for a more comprehensive approach to tackling social injustice. Just as investors must diversify to avoid risk in stock, so must philanthropists. Information, as well as insight from many diverse sources, will lead to more qualified decisions and greater impact