The Delaware Alliance for Nonprofit Advancement conducted a study examining the current makeup of Delaware nonprofit boards.
The study focused specifically on how nonprofits fared with diversity on their senior teams - including executive director - as part of DANA’s 2022 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Report.
DANA collected information on nonprofits’ executive directors and senior teams via survey.
“The survey was deployed via email through not only DANA’s membership- we have over 500 organizations in our membership- but also through some of our community partners, who distributed to their lists,” said DANA President and CEO Sheila Bravo
Bravo adds that over 100 participants completed the comprehensive survey, but some characteristics, including sexual orientation and disability status, were unknown to most respondents, revealing they may not be measured by those organizations.
The study found that 2022 Delaware nonprofit boards are more racially diverse than in 2014, but still underrepresent community racial diversity.
And there’s no improvement in representation of people of Hispanic or Latin American descent, remaining considerably lower than the state’s adult population percentage for that group.
People of Hispanic or Latin American descent make up 11% of Delaware’s adult population, but only 4% of the executive leadership and 1% of the senior leadership in Delaware nonprofits. This group is also only represented in 2% of nonprofit boards of directors. This is lower than the representation reported in national studies.
But another change was found between 2022 and 2014. DANA president and CEO Sheila Bravo notes the report found women were over-represented in boards and board leadership.
“Back in 2014, boards were still primarily dominated by men. And we are definitely seeing a change, not only in the boards, but the board leadership,” Bravo explained. “And within the executive suite, we’re definitely seeing a lot more women present than men.”
Comparisons made in the report use the 2014 DANA and Trustees of Color joint study.
The full version of the 2022 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Report can be found online at delawarenonprofit.org.
