California’s Race to Lead: The Nonprofit Racial Leadership Gap in the Golden State

California’s Race to Lead: The Nonprofit Racial Leadership Gap in the Golden State can be found at www.racetolead.org/ca!

The nonprofit sector is experiencing a racial leadership gap. Studies show the percentage of people of color in the executive director/CEO role has remained under 20% for the last 15 years even as the country becomes more diverse. To find out more about this gap, the Building Movement Project surveyed people from all 50 states who work in the nonprofit sector. The survey’s findings are being released via a series of Race to Lead reports. California’s Race to Lead is the third report in that series, comparing responses from nonprofit staff members in California with those from nonprofit staffers in all other states. Among the findings, the report found a “Golden State Difference” in which people of color respondents in California were more positive about their nonprofit work than people of color in other states, and that nonprofit leaders of color in the Golden State reported fewer barriers to advancement than people of color in other states. But the report also showed inequities remain as white respondents in California reported earning higher salaries than California people of color. This report includes five recommendations to increase and sustain diverse leadership of California’s nonprofits. 

Learn more about the survey’s findings and our recommendations by downloading and sharing the full report and executive summary.