108: The Rewards & Challenges of Nonprofit Board Diversity - Part 1

In Part 1 Dabash Negash from NYC Service shared the findings from their survey and report on Board diversity in New York City. In Part 2 she shares ideas for starting a conversation and setting some goals and practices to help your organization understand and achieve better Board diversity, equity and inclusion.

In 2018 NYC Service partnered with the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee to conduct a survey on nonprofit board diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) gaps, strategies, recommendations and resources. The full report on their findings entitled What Lies Beneath: The State of NYC Nonprofit Board Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion can be found HERE.  In this episode, Dabash Nagash joins us to talk about the survey, the report, and what they learned.

Guest Bio:

Dabash Negash
Chief of Staff
NYC Service, Office of the Mayor

Dabash Negash is the Chief of Staff at NYC Service, a division of the Office of the Mayor that builds partnerships to deepen and expand civic engagement through volunteer and service programs, creating sustainable change for our city’s greatest needs. Dabash oversees all of capacity building initiatives at NYC Service and recently published a report on Nonprofit Board Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in NYC last Fall, in partnership with Nonprofit New York. Prior to joining the Office of the Mayor, Dabash served as Deputy Director of the Fund for Public Advocacy, supported several political campaigns, and worked in the Obama Administration supporting operations.

Show Notes:

In 2018 NYC Service partnered with the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee to conduct a survey on nonprofit board diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) gaps, strategies, recommendations and resources. The full report on their findings entitled What Lies Beneath: The State of NYC Nonprofit Board Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion can be found here.

In this episode Dabash Nagash joins us to talk about the survey, the report, and what they learned. She’ll discuss ways to put the results into action in Episode 109.

NYC Service really sees Board members and Board service as a key way that volunteers can share their time and talent and they convened the NYC Nonprofit Board Development Coalition. One of the priorities they identified was diversity, equity and inclusion.  

There are 5 big take-aways from the report: 

NYC Boards are not adequately diverse, over 50% of respondents reported that Board members do not reflect the community being served. 

Diversity, equity, and inclusion is agreed to be important, but it’s not being addressed effectively and organizations are not satisfied with their work in this direction.

Representation in leadership matters. More diverse Boards and executive leadership have more diversity, equity, and inclusion training.

Fear of change is pervasive on Boards, and complacency prevents Boards from taking action around diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Boards may be perpetuating harmful biases. While focusing on socio-economic policies like give/get may not prevent diversity on Boards on its own, it can be a factor.

In Part 2 Dabash discussed steps organizations can take to address some of these take-aways.

You can find Dabash on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dabash-negash-51a04882/