As we have reported before - here, here and here for simplicity - we are relishing the journey to positive and systematic action on diversity, equity and inclusion through our work. In the words of colleagues leading on this, it has been both humbling and inspiring.
I'd like to share an update on both of what has and what hasn’t worked so far.
The back story is that we started work last summer. As a charity working to tackle disadvantage, we recognised that a fundamental truth had been neglected in our work and across the charity sector. It is only possible to tackle disadvantage if there is a recognition and commitment to overturn the intersectional dimensions of powerlessness and discrimination in the lived experience of those who are minoritised and underrepresented in society.
Drawing on expertise from inside our network and beyond, we developed a three-year action plan and set about making it work.
Our four objectives were:
- Equip the Pilotlight Staff Team with the skills and commitment to advance diversity, equity and inclusion, through a structured programme of learning and engagement
- Embed and ensure a diversity, equity and inclusion perspective within all our practices and procedures
- Understand and meet the needs of voluntary organisations led ‘by, for and with’ Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic communities, informing our delivery, collaboration and partnerships
- Champion diverse leadership through Pilotlight opportunities.
We met recently to review our progress, with helpful input from our evaluation partner Anna Grey. The positives were that we:
- recruited three new trustees with support from BAME Recruitment
- signed up as a member of Inclusive Employers and used their guidance, for example, in an overhaul of our recruitment processes
- went through a comprehensive programme of training over the year from The Other Box
- developed our voice in support of others, such as around the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia
- commissioned and shared research by Fancy Sinantha on the organisational needs of diverse-led voluntary organisations
- worked with our corporate partners to explore putting DEI at the heart of our organisational support, including working with thoughtful people at Morgan Stanley and Urban Synergy and more recently, with Barclays in the context of their Race at Work Action Plan.
One central initiative has been the Ignite Initiative, a leadership development programme giving free access to our community of Pilotlighters, which we launched early in 2021. We were able to recruit 21 people from minoritised and underrepresented contexts to join as Pilotlighters. One is Dr J Harrison, who argues in a compelling blog for us ‘Why every organisation needs an inclusive Board’.
The Ignite Initiative is great for the charities that these new Pilotlighters can engage with through our teams of business experts. It is great for learning and their own leadership development. That is the hope – and like all we do here, we will evaluate how far we get!
As before, we want to recognise the many people from minoritised communities who give their time and share their experiences to help all of us in the charity sector learn to do better.
So, what hasn’t gone well?
These are some of the challenges we saw in the work we have done to date:
- there is a risk that we are taking action but not adequately highlighting consideration of the causes of structural racism and the role of charities in addressing them
- our approach has mirrored that of many other funders and capacity builders, but there is a shared risk, which is to appear to position racial inequalities as an issue to be solved by leaders of colour and the charities they run, rather than as an issue that all charities need to consider
- we have focused more on issues of race discrimination, but there is also a need to widen out so that we are not seen to side line the needs of others, such as disabled people’s user-led organisations and a recognition of intersectionality
- having a separate DEI Action Plan has been helpful as a start, but to be fully effective, we now need DEI principles to be integrated across all of our work and planning
Therefore, the next steps for us on our ‘DEI journey’ are to widen the work we have started.
We will do so by:
- building our understanding and collaboration around wider inequalities, such as with the disability movement
- deepening our internal capacity, with training and reporting, such as ethnicity data
- integrating DEI actions throughout our Operating Plan for future years.
As part of this look, we will run with two assurance schemes, disability confidence and inclusive employers, in 2022.
We see that we need to explain, too, why diversity, equity and inclusion matters to us – that this is not some short-term or time-limited commitment. We believe that creating a diverse and inclusive Pilotlight and supporting charities to be more diverse and inclusive is imperative to our ultimate goal of helping charities help people most effectively.
As someone with intersectional privileges, I have learned so much and it has been humbling to understand better how to create space rather than crowd it.
I want to thank colleagues and partners who have supported us on this journey – including Sathya Bala, Pilotlighter and source of inspiration and encouragement throughout, who has now launched her own agency True Change; our DEI champions across the trustees and the staff, including a big shout out to Breanne O’Brien among others; our Ignite Pilotlighters and our partner charities who are learning and sharing their own insights as we go.
