Race to Lead: Confronting the Nonprofit Racial Leadership Gap Executive Summary

Race to Lead: Confronting the Nonprofit Racial Leadership Gap Executive Summary, the first in the Race to Lead series, is based on BMP’s 2016 survey of over 4,000 nonprofit professionals. The report explores why people of color are still under-represented in nonprofit CEO/Executive Director positions.

Here’s a quick look at our findings:

• It’s NOT about Differences in Background or Qualifications: People of color and white respondents have similar backgrounds in education, position, salary, and years working in the nonprofit sector.
• It’s NOT about a Lack of Aspirations: People of color aspire to be leaders more than white respondents.
• It IS the System: Respondents across race squarely identify the lack of people of color in top leadership roles as a structural problem for the nonprofit sector.

This Executive Summary gives a sampling of the data we collected, major findings, and our resulting recommendations. For a deeper analysis, visit www.racetolead.org or download the full report.