DEI, Representation & Power

In 2025, more respondents reported working in BIPOC-led organizations than in earlier survey waves, but representation of people of color remained lower in top leadership and on boards than among staff and communities served.
The share of respondents in the survey describing their organizations as BIPOC-led increased from approximately one-quarter in 2019 to more than two in five in 2025. Over the same period, the share describing their organizations as White-led fell substantially. Race to Lead cannot determine how much of this change reflects shifts within nonprofit organizations and how much reflects differences in survey outreach and participation across waves.

Within the 2025 sample, midpoint-based estimates placed people of color at approximately 60% of constituents and communities served, 50% of staff, and 45% of both top leadership and boards. This represents a gap of approximately 15 percentage points between communities served and the positions with the greatest formal authority.

The distribution of respondents’ estimates shows the same pattern. In 2025, 36% reported that people of color held fewer than one-quarter of top-leadership positions, and 33% reported the same for their boards. By comparison, 13% placed the communities their organizations served in the lowest representation range.

These findings surface an ongoing tension between who nonprofit organizations serve and who holds formal power. Reported representation in top leadership has increased, but people of color remain less represented in leadership and governance than among staff and communities served. Closing that gap requires attention not only to hiring but also to advancement, executive selection, board recruitment, and the distribution of decision-making authority.

In 2025, the communities organizations were reported to center varied by leadership composition, with the clearest differences appearing in work focused on racially identified communities.
Across all 2025 respondents, low-income communities and Black or African American communities were the two most frequently selected areas of organizational focus, each reported by 41%. One-third identified people-of-color or multiracial organizations, followed by organizations centering youth, Latine or Hispanic communities, and LGBTQ+ communities. Because respondents could select more than one community or identity, these categories overlap.

Organizational focus also differed by the racial composition of top leadership. Respondents in BIPOC-led organizations were more likely than those in White-led organizations to report centering Black or African American communities, people-of-color or multiracial organizations, Latine or Hispanic communities, and immigrant communities. The pattern was not uniform, however: respondents in White-led organizations more often reported centering low-income communities and youth.

These findings do not establish that leadership composition causes organizations to adopt particular priorities. They do show that who holds leadership power is associated with which communities organizations identify as central to their work—raising important questions about how representation may shape organization focus, relationships, and resource decisions.

Reported organizational DEI activity and the range of strategies pursued were substantially lower in 2025 than in 2022.
The share of respondents reporting that their organization engages in DEI activity declined from 83% in 2022 to 60% in 2025, falling below the 2019 share of 74%. Among respondents whose organizations engage in DEI work, the average number of seven strategies measured consistently across all three survey waves declined from 3.9 in 2022 to 2.2 in 2025. Together, these findings indicate a contraction in both the prevalence of reported organizational DEI activity and the range of strategies being pursued.

Within the broader set of strategies measured in 2025, respondents reported that their organizations pursued only about one-quarter to one-third of the available strategies in each focus area. Governance and leadership had the highest average proportion at 32%, while strategy, measurement, and accountability had the lowest at 23%. This suggests that the decline is not limited to visible activities such as training or recruitment; foundational practices related to accountability and assessing progress also remain limited.

The number of strategies reported in 2025 also varied by organizational budget and leadership composition. Differences were relatively small among organizations with budgets of $500,000 or less. At higher budget levels, respondents in BIPOC-led and mixed-leadership organizations generally reported more strategies than those in White-led organizations. Among very large organizations, for example, respondents reported averages of 6.4 strategies in BIPOC-led organizations and 7.1 in mixed-leadership organizations, compared with 4.7 in White-led organizations.

These patterns do not establish that organizational resources or leadership composition cause organizations to pursue more DEI strategies. They do suggest that resources alone do not fully account for differences in the range of strategies reported. Taken together, the findings point to a broader retrenchment in reported organizational DEI activity since 2022, alongside substantial variation in the range of strategies pursued by organizations that remain engaged in DEI.

Respondents perceive DEI efforts as more effective when organizations are BIPOC-led and when those efforts extend across a wider range of strategies.
Average perceived effectiveness ratings are highest among respondents in BIPOC-led organizations, at 3.6 on a five-point scale, compared with 3.3 in organizations with mixed leadership and 3.0 in White-led organizations. Ratings also rise steadily with the number of strategies pursued, from 3.0 among respondents reporting zero to three strategies to 3.7 among those reporting 12 or more. These relationships do not establish that leadership composition or additional strategies cause greater effectiveness, but they show that respondents assess DEI efforts more favorably in BIPOC-led organizations and when organizations report pursuing a wider range of strategies.

Most respondents also report visible signs of organizational commitment to DEI. In 2025, 69% agree that their organization has policies and procedures supporting an equitable, inclusive, and diverse workplace, and 72% agree that top leaders consistently demonstrate commitment to DEI. Still, 16% and 18%, respectively, disagree with these statements, indicating that these signs of organizational commitment are not experienced consistently across workplaces.

Most transitioning top executives report incorporating race equity into their transition planning. More than seven in ten transitioning top executives reported at least one race-equity practice in every survey wave shown, including 71% in 2025. The share increased from 76% in 2019 to 80% in 2022 before declining to 71% in 2025. Even with this recent decline, race-equity considerations remain common in reported executive-transition planning.

Taken together, these findings show multiple dimensions of how DEI is experienced and enacted within nonprofit organizations—from the range of perceived effectiveness of strategies to organizational commitment and race-equity considerations in leadership transitions. They also point to an important distinction: while many respondents continue to report signs of organizational commitment to DEI, perceptions of effectiveness vary meaningfully by leadership racial composition and the range of strategies organizations pursue.