Perspectives on Diversity

Russam and Trustees Unlimited have funded an initiative with New Philanthropy Capital to provide a suite of resources and perspectives on the critical issue of diversity.

The collection includes contributions from the private and public sectors in the UK as well as from within the social sector.   The essays and podcasts cover a wide range of issues. Some are tightly focused on the practical and give a good idea of, for example, the scale of ‘diversity and inclusion’ efforts at major corporates. Others are more philosophical, exploring why the social sector has lagged on most metrics of diversity.

Below is quick summary of some of the key themes:

  • The value of lived experience. This experience has monetary value as well as potential impact for social organisations. There is a widespread view that charities should be paying people for the benefit of their experience.
  • The need to share/give away power. Meaningful change will require meaningful sacrifice from those who currently hold the reins.
  • The fact that everyone within an organisation is responsible for creating an inclusive culture (though inevitably the more powerful people have greater ability to do so).
  • A boredom within ‘diverse’ communities with diversity initiatives. A strong sense that nothing was changing, and these programmes were just lip service.
  • The importance of intersectionality, but the general bafflement of the sector when it came to implementing it.  

What has come through this work is that, in a wide variety of ways, people feel they are not listened to, they are excluded, not valued and tokenised. We wanted to share these perspectives as well as the practical advice because understanding both equally is important for change.

New Philanthropy Capital has launched its ‘Walking the Talk’ results, which are available here: www.thinknpc.org/resource-hub/walking-the-talk-putting-workplace-equality-diversity-and-inclusion-into-practice.

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