Archstone Foundation is looking both inward and outward as we endeavor to make our world more just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive. We are continuing to build JEDI-related principles and analysis into our grantmaking practices. And we are working to ensure California’s systems of care for older adults meet the needs of historically marginalized people, are culturally and linguistically appropriate, and serve to reduce disparities in health and well-being.
To that end, we include JEDI metrics on our Foundation dashboard, a mechanism for visualizing progress toward doing what we say we will do. And similar JEDI metrics are also part of a checklist program staff uses to shape grantmaking decisions.
For funders and grantees alike, gathering and disseminating accurate and current demographic data about our organizations is essential to improving equity in our work. Archstone Foundation has joined an ambitious new effort by Candid, the philanthropic research group created from the merger of GuideStar and Foundation Center, that will make that much easier.
The Foundation’s embrace of this principle – gathering data from the source and being transparent with the data – began late. Our Board of Directors has been diverse, especially in the past two decades, but only three years ago did we begin surveying the staff and Board to understand our true, accurate collective demographics. This information is now part of our Candid profile. It was most recently updated in February, and we are committed to updating it annually at the start of each fiscal year in July.
Last year, the staff and Board agreed it was time to learn whether the rich diversity of California’s older population was being reflected in the people who operate and govern the organizations seeking our funding. But soon after starting to ask applicants for such demographic information, I began pondering if there was a better alternative. (For starters, having recently streamlined our application, it seemed odd that we were already adding more questions.) Could we learn elsewhere about their board and staff compositions? Were they being asked similar questions by other potential funders?
Detailing Diversity in One Place, One Time
These questions soon led me back to Candid, which started collecting organizations’ demographic data on GuideStar in 2014 and has been refining its system ever since – most recently, and ambitiously, by launching the Demographics via Candid initiative this winter. A standard form has been created where both funders and grantees can detail the races and ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations and disability statuses of their staff and boards. And, by joining the campaign, philanthropies agree to adopt that form as part of their grantmaking process.
After a single call with Cesar Del Valle, Candid’s director of partnerships, and Arif Ekram, its manager of partnerships, I was ready for Archstone Foundation to sign up. We were among the first 75 nonprofits to do so nationwide. But many more will surely join soon, and for good reasons:
- Transparency and accountability are paramount to developing a strong social sector. The more information we have about the make-up of our sector, the better decisions we will make.
- Demographics via Candid empowers nonprofits to tell their own stories while gaining visibility among funders.
- The initiative gives funders quick access to more in-depth data while only asking grant applicants to share demographic information in one place and update it just once a year.
- By updating their profiles, nonprofits not only show a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, but also help strengthen the social sector by providing data-based insights.
- Joining the campaign creates access to data that can inform funders’ equity strategies, improve their transparency and accountability, and help set a benchmark to which all such organizations can compare themselves.
Self-Awareness is a Path to Improvement
As vice president for grant operations and planning, I am confident that more readily available and accurate information will lead Archstone Foundation and other participants to more just, equitable, diverse and inclusive grantmaking.
To begin, we are looking to acquire a comprehensive and accurate understanding of the organizations we already support – based on their own demographic disclosures, not assumptions.
We are off to a decent start, but we still need better data. More than half of the 33 organizations with open grants have detailed their demographics to Candid, providing the Foundation with valuable insight. The remaining grantees are encouraged to follow their peers, because a robust movement will make future grantmaking more equitable, enhance organizational governance, improve the care for older adults in community – and spur steady progress toward creating a generation of philanthropic leaders who look more like the older Californians and caregivers we’re all committed to helping.
The Foundation’s JEDI Committee of Board and staff members is developing a framework for better understanding how aging intersects with race, sexual orientation, gender, and geography. We want to be aware of all the challenges and what we can do to address them. Having the best available data is central to that -- including about the older Californians who benefit from the services we fund, so we can make sure they too reflect the rich diversity of our communities. Since that data is not yet readily available, for now the next best thing is understanding the makeup of the philanthropies and service organizations committed to serving them.
Archstone Foundation promises to annually track and publish its own progress toward a more diverse leadership. We urge all of our grantees and applicants, and our funder peers, to do the same.
Do you truly represent the community you serve? If you’re unsure, now is the time to look at yourselves. Once you collect the data, you may be surprised to learn you are not as diverse as you think you are – or as you want to be. But you will have the knowledge you need to chart your path to a better tomorrow.
