Racism is an unresolved issue in the charity sector

Racism is a significant and unresolved issue in the charity sector according to ACEVO and Voice4Change England, who have released a new report 'Home Truths: Undoing racism and delivering real diversity in the charity sector'. The report is the culmination of work on the year-long 'Making Diversity Count' project. It has long been known that there is an under-representation of BAME people working in the charity sector, and that under-representation is worse in senior leadership roles.

The report centres on the experiences and expertise of over 500 BAME people who either responded to an online survey or took part in in-depth interviews. The findings highlight uncomfortable "home truths" for many white leaders who do not understand how racism manifests in their own organisations and actions, or how policies and procedures seen as the ‘norm’ within the sector marginalise BAME people.

Positively, there appears to be an appetite for progress and this report is intended to provide a supportive framework for those who want real change. The report lays out steps both to further open-up the charity sector to BAME people and to re-orientate charity work towards building a racially just society.

"We hope this project, the result of a partnership between a mainstream charity and a BAME-led charity, will bring a point of difference to discussions about diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)," stated ACEVO, "colleagues at Voice4Change England have contributed their expertise and ACEVO offers its direct links to CEOs in order to amplify the voices and experiences shared in the report."

Short Term Actions

Writing to members: ACEVO will write to all its members to ask them to publish their ethnicity pay gap data as recommended in the report. We will also ask them to commit to the Racial Diversity Principles, which includes providing a statement about the actions they plan to take.

Publishing data: ACEVO will publish its own pay gap data by the end of July.

Writing to funders: ACEVO and Voice4Change England will write to the largest 20 grantmakers and ask them to publish data on how much of their grants are awarded to BAME-led organisations.

Facilitating training and discussion: ACEVO will add regular equity and inclusion training to its events calendar and encourage discussion within our network to enable peers to support each other in their progress.

Long Term Actions

Work with other charities to develop independent or third-party mechanisms for reporting and addressing racism in the charity sector.

Campaign for annual funding to be given to a BAME-led civil society group (or coalition) to carry out an annual ‘BAME Barometer’ survey to capture BAME experiences in charities.

ACEVO also called for greater funding for large-scale action, especially to support the involvement of Voice4Change England and other BAME-led charities which are under-funded compared to ‘mainstream’ charities.

Home Truths Podcast

Kristiana Wrixon – head of policy at ACEVO – talks to Dr. Sanjiv Lingayah, lead author and Voice4Change England associate, and Sufina Ahmad, director at John Ellerman Foundation and a member of the ACEVO race advisory group, about the making of the report as well as their personal impressions about the findings and recommendations.

Click to download a copy of the ACEVO Voice4Change Home Truths Report Executive Summary.

Click to download a copy of the ACEVO Voice4Change Home Truths Report.

About ACEVO

ACEVO is the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations. Together with its network it inspires and supports civil society leaders by providing connections, advocacy and skills. ACEVO members include the leaders of small, community based groups, ambitious
medium-sized organisations, and well known, well-loved national and international not-for-profits.

For further information visit https://www.acevo.org.uk/