We recently shared our new strategic plan that will guide our course for the next three years, focused on the adoption of equity-centered philanthropic practices and supporting equitable distribution of resources to organizations serving underinvested communities.
While philanthropy has made progress in adopting more equitable philanthropic practices, the data tells us that our sector has underinvested nationally in many of the communities with the greatest needs present in our region.
The critical role of robust data in informing our decisions and guiding our future actions remains undeniable. That is why we are thrilled to be partnering with Candid to promote their Demographics via Candid initiative, a sector-wide effort deeply aligned to our mission and rooted in our vision of equity and racial justice for all. This data is essential for holding ourselves mutually accountable to our collective commitment to move more resources to communities often overlooked by our sector.
Demographics via Candid at a Glance
Demographics via Candid is an initiative to make data more accessible and enhance our collective understanding of the philanthropic sector. With more funders requesting demographic data, we've gained clearer insights into which communities are receiving support and which remain overlooked, helping us identify and address potential biases and disparities in funding. This initiative is also responsive to the significant challenge nonprofits face in data collection, often burdened with presenting their information in various formats to meet different funder requirements.
We're bullish on practices that lighten both the proposal development and the reporting workload for grant seekers while enabling the sector to capture the essential data needed to inform more equitable grantmaking. Nonprofits can now share their demographic information just once on their Candid profile, making this data easily accessible to funders across our sector.
In addition, more than 150 funders, philanthropy-serving organizations, grants management software vendors and professional associations have contributed their own demographic data to demonstrate their accountability to have their leadership and teams reflect the communities they are seeking to serve.
Using Data to Champion Equitable Practices
At Philanthropy Northwest, we are championing equitable philanthropic practices to ensure that resources reach those organizations working with and serving underinvested communities.
By leveraging data insights, we, as a collective sector, are better equipped to fully live into our strategic priorities and cultivate our network’s capacity in meaningful ways:
- Redistributing resources to ensure they are invested more equitably. This partnership enhances the ability to identify and support organizations that are deeply rooted in their communities and best positioned to self-determine the work needed to ensure just outcomes.
- Shifting power structures within the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors to distribute more equitable funding. Our partnership with Demographics via Candid plays a pivotal role by helping us support organizations led by diverse teams that reflect the communities they serve. Candid recently released insights on the state of diversity in the nonprofit sector and found that women of color lead 28% of nonprofits with revenues of less than $50,000 while 40% of nonprofit organizations with revenues more than $25M are led by white men. These insights enable funders to identify areas for greater investment and capacity-building.
- Measuring progress using comprehensive and reliable data. Our collaboration with Candid provides us with the tools to accurately assess our efforts and ensure we are continuously moving towards more equitable distribution of funding with greater transparency and accountability.
- Fostering continuous learning is central to our mission. Peer learning and shared knowledge are powerful tools for achieving systemic change, particularly in the realm of equity in philanthropy. By integrating insights from demographic data, we enhance our learning spaces with deeper conversations about funding disparities and equitable practices.
Modeling Transparency
We believe in leading by example and we're calling on you, our dynamic network, to join us in this initiative by not only encouraging your grantees to share their demographic data on Candid, but to also embrace transparency by sharing your own demographic data. As a Candid partner, Philanthropy Northwest is also updating our profile to ensure its accuracy and hold ourselves accountable to diversity at all levels of our organization.
Our initial baseline demographic survey of our region revealed a gap in data sharing – only 37% of foundations in our network have participated in updating their Candid profiles – highlighting an opportunity for all of us to model for the nonprofit organizations we support our commitment to make our own demographic data available more broadly.
I encourage you to reflect the transparency we expect from nonprofit partners by completing the demographics section of your Candid profile. This is more than a procedural step; it's a demonstration of our collective commitment to openness and accountability.
Join Us
This initiative is a shared endeavor, and I invite you to join us as a Demographics via Candid partner. Please join me on June 7th to learn more about how together, we can shift practices to make philanthropy more efficient and equitable for all.
