Building in Diversity

The opportunity to build a new organization around diversity and related core values is one of the most appealing aspects of the start-up process:

“When you know, for example, that having a diverse board or staff is an expectation, it makes you think differently and take steps that you [otherwise] might not take because they’re hard and you can rationalize them away. That’s an important role for philanthropy: to help people aspire to things that are not necessarily what they think about in their day-to-day lives.”

“When it comes to diversity, we try to get beyond the numbers issue. It’s not just about counting heads: It’s about understanding why diversity is important. We’ve
begun to ask our grantees, What does diversity contribute to your work? How is diversity among your staff or on your board going to make you more effective?”