Transforming Philanthropy: Navigating the Equity Journey
Tuesday, September 26, 2023
Maya Sakkal
Communications Manager
Béati Foundation
Tom Vargas
Research Lead
New Power Labs
Maya Sakkal from Fondation Béati joined Tom Vargas from New Power Labs in a New Power Talks discussion on what intentional equity, diversity, and inclusion work looks like for Béati as they flow philanthropic capital, covering the challenges and lessons learned in their journey.
Imagine Canada reports that most nonprofit organizations pay only lip service to equity, diversity and inclusion – with few pursuing it intentionally.
According to a recent Imagine Canada report, nonprofit leaders widely support the principles of equity, diversity and inclusion, see their value, and believe they are acting by them. Yet, only 10% of nonprofits surveyed by Imagine Canada gather data on gender for the people they serve and benefit. How do we move beyond surface commitments to more substantial equity-enhancing practices?
Maya Sakkal shares Fondation Béati's journey, highlighting four big ideas.
1. Institutionalizing equity practices is crucial in moving beyond surface commitments.
With organizational changes or staff turnover normal at every organization, it can be helpful to institutionalize equity practices through policies and processes to maintain progress. By formalizing and embedding equity principles into the organization, foundations ensure structures built to maintain current commitments to equity are available for future staff. This work pushes the team to extend opportunities to those outside the team's bubble and helps integrate more diverse voices and expertise into every aspect of their work.
Maya noted that this process could start as simple as a checklist but needs to evolve as the organization moves forward in the equity journey.
Starting this process might initially meet with some resistance, even within teams aligned on equity, diversity, and inclusion values. However, such doubts and hesitation about the complexity of a formal process are healthy pushback that encourages transparent and open conversations. This is necessary, as the team needs to be aligned to centralize equity efforts.
2. Staying connected to their grassroots helps foundations reposition the framing of equity and inclusion and deliver the best impact.
The Fondation Béati team believes that maintaining a close relationship with the communities they serve is the key to advancing equity and inclusion work. Béati recently learned from a feedback survey that beneficiaries see their relationship with the foundation as a partnership — where both parties are there to listen and help elevate each other. Béati nurtures these relationships by staying open and consistently holding space for feedback.
Closely connecting with communities allows foundations to better understand needs and goals. This understanding, in turn, enables more impactful programs and initiatives, helping foundations accomplish their mission by serving communities better – instead of a performative stamp.
3. Collaboration between foundations and other actors can help amplify impact.
In talking with their beneficiaries, Fondation Béati learned that there are opportunities for more communication between foundations. Community members often suggest that the onus is on them to communicate the same things to different foundations. Collaboration and knowledge-sharing among foundations can contribute to a more enjoyable experience for beneficiaries while amplifying their collective impact.
Maya acknowledged that foundations are cogs in a big machine – with certain resources and capacities. Foundations can elevate their role in solving societal issues when they work with other actors with complementary expertise. Maya referenced the partnership between New Power Labs and Fondation Béati, which you can learn more about here.
4. Data can help us understand where we are and how we can reach our goals.
Fondation Béati has met barriers in working to better track progress on its equity, diversity, and inclusion commitments. There are several challenges: a lack of measurement framework, limited expertise in data collection, and limited capacity. By working with New Power Labs on the People and Capital Data Partnership, Fondation Béati started a journey of gaining a deeper view of their current progress and a greater understanding of what they can do to advance their mission.
Fondation Béati is one of New Power Lab's first five prototype members, helping test and refine this data collection tool before it launches publicly. Maya shared that the foundation sees this as a perfect opportunity, providing them with insights and allowing them to contribute to developing a tool that can impact the philanthropic sector and other capital deployers. This resonates with Fondation Béati's view on equity, diversity, and inclusion as a journey instead of a destination, which requires them to live their values every step.
New Power Labs' People and Capital Data Partnership seeks to collect self-reported diversity data on capital deployers' organizations and their portfolios to help capital deployers assess the diversity of their teams and understand to whom they give money. Learn more about the People and Capital Data Partnership here.
