The document discusses the importance of workforce diversity for nonprofits, including the need to attract diverse talent as the current leadership exits and to better serve an increasingly diverse population. It provides strategies for nonprofits to prepare for and attract a diverse workforce such as ensuring board and leadership commitment to diversity, training on inclusion, and casting a wide net through diverse partnerships and publications when recruiting.

1. Recruiting and Maintaining a
Diverse Workforce
Lisa Brown Morton, President & CEO
Nonprofit HR Solutions
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Nonprofit Human Resources Symposium
Caster Family Center for Nonprofit and Philanthropic Research
University of San Diego

2. Recruiting & Maintaining a Diverse
Workforce
Learning Objectives
• What Really is Workforce Diversity?
• Why Having a Diverse Workforce Matters
• Attracting & Retaining Diverse Talent to the
Nonprofit Sector

3. Recruiting & Maintaining a Diverse
Workforce
What Really is Workforce Diversity?
What Does it Mean In Your Organization?

4. Recruiting & Maintaining a Diverse
Workforce
Workforce Diversity:
encompasses race and ethnicity, gender, socio-
economic status, sexual identification and
orientation, philosophy, geography, and
physical ability

5. Recruiting & Maintaining a Diverse
Workforce
Why Having a Diverse Workforce Matters

6. Recruiting & Maintaining a Diverse
Workforce
Why Having a Diverse Workforce Matters
• Exodus of current nonprofit leadership (3 out of 4 nonprofit executives are
expected to leave their jobs over the next 5 years)*
• 82% of executive directors are White*
• Workforce diversity is an act of “good citizenship”
• Diversity is an imperative of program effectiveness and ethical commitment
• Greater diversity leads to greater innovation and productivity
• Increased cultural competency value proposition when staff reflect the
communities that they serve
*2006 Compass Point Report on Diversity

7. Recruiting & Maintaining a
Diverse Workforce
Business Case/Imperatives for Diversity
• Demographic imperative
 Demographic changes are driving changes in the composition of the workforce (i.e.
more women, more people of color)
• Mission Imperative
 Diverse workforces will help organizations better accomplish their missions
 Organizations are serving increasingly diverse communities
• Competition/Funding Imperative
 Having a more diverse workforce better positions an organization to more
significantly impact the communities it serves and therefore attract more
funding/donor support
• Moral Imperative
 To the public, diversity is the right thing to do

8. Recruiting & Maintaining a Diverse
Workforce

9. Recruiting & Maintaining a Diverse
Workforce
Preparing For & Attracting a Diverse Workforce

10. Recruiting & Maintaining a Diverse
Workforce
Preparing to Attract & Maintain a Diverse Workforce
• Drive Board of Directors to measure diversity and monitor its successes
• What gets measured gets noticed – ensure commitment to diversity by
CEO by measuring his/her performance in this area
• Share ownership for diversity across all senior management; measure
individual leaders’ results; make diversity management a core leadership
competency
• Intentionally create an environment of inclusion through mentoring
programs, leadership development training and succession planning
• Train management and staff on diversity awareness and how to
communicate and manage constructive conflict
• Engage a diverse slate of employees to be “diversity talent identifiers”
• Demonstrate patience and willingness to invest in a long-term
recruitment diversity strategy; develop a clear, attainable plan

11. Recruiting & Maintaining a Diverse
Workforce
“If we bring diverse candidates into
organizations and do not meaningfully include
them, what have we achieved other than
representational diversity?”
Brigette Rouson
Principal, Rouson Associates

12. Recruiting & Maintaining a Diverse
Workforce
Key Steps to Recruiting A Diverse Workforce
• Cast a wide net when searching for prospective employees keeping in mind that
networking is the most effective way to recruit and hire diverse candidates
• Actively network among communities representing full spectrum of diversity
(ethnicity, sexual orientation/identification, gender, age, etc.)
• Develop partnerships with professional organizations and other sources where
diverse candidate pools exist (HBCUs, AMHI, AANN, etc.)
• Post jobs with web sites and publications targeted at underrepresented
communities (Latinos, Asians, LGBTs, men, etc.)
• Use an employee referral program focused on attracting diverse candidates
• Recruit at college campuses with large minority populations
• Use diversity search firm partners with demonstrated competence in finding
professionals from underrepresented groups
• Be strategic – integrate all tactics to leverage effectiveness and efficiency

13. Recruiting & Maintaining a Diverse
Workforce
Resources
Measuring Racial-Ethnic Diversity in California's Nonprofit Sector
http://www.urban.org/publications/411977.html
Diversity & the Nonprofit Ecosystem: Part 2 in the 3-Part Diversity Series
http://blueavocado.org/content/diversity-nonprofit-ecosystem-part-2-3-part-diversity-series
Achieving Diversity Step by Step
http://www.tsne.org/site/c.ghLUK3PCLoF/b.4245353/k.AE39/Nonprofit_Publications__Diversity
_in_the_Nonprofit_Workplace_Guide.htm
Strategic Diversity to Increase Human Capital in Public and Nonprofit Organizations
http://www.philanthropy.iupui.edu/Millennium/usefulInformation/Strategic%20Diversity%20to
%20Increase%20Human%20Capital.pdf

14. Recruiting & Maintaining a Diverse
Workforce
About Nonprofit HR Solutions
Nonprofit HR Solutions is one of the nation's only full-service human
resources consulting firms dedicated exclusively to meeting the needs of
nonprofit organizations. Collectively, our senior management team brings
over 75 years of combined, expert-level human resources experience to
nonprofit organizations of all sizes.
www.nonprofithr.com
202.785.2060 – voice / 202.785.2064 - fax