GuideStar Will Collect Diversity Data “At Scale” with Nonprofit Sector

GuideStar has announced a new initiative to monitor the diversity of the nonprofit sector. It plans to work with the D5 Coalition and a range of other partners to collect diversity data about staff, board, and volunteer demographics in nonprofits and philanthropy. Saying that past sporadic attempts to collect such information were inadequate, Kelly Brown, Director of the D5 coalition, said that the end game of the project is diversity in the sector that is reflective of current demographics, but also inclusion and equity.

Jacob Harold, the president and CEO of GuideStar, said that the effort will use the GuideStar Exchange to collect voluntary information and that he hopes they will be able to attract 200,000 organizational participants over the next two years. New questions will be added to those listed currently. Harold said in a press call yesterday that the effort is critical in that, considering the demographics of the United States, the question of who is leading and participating in nonprofits and philanthropy is equally as important as what their budgets tell us about them. This is not just a moral challenge,” he said, “it’s a strategic opportunity…the goal is not data but diversity.”

Lending additional credence to the effort is the partnership with Green 2.0, which earlier this year issued the groundbreaking “Diversity In Environmental Institutions.” NPQwrote here about this report when it was released.