We believe organizations should aspire to remove all societal injustices from their internal workings. Here are some recommendations that we believe will help nonprofit organizations reach that ideal.
This section is not meant to be used as a checklist that will ‘solve’ all inequalities and exclusive policies and culture at your organization. Making your organization a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive place requires ongoing commitment. These principles are dynamic and ever-evolving, so workplace policies and culture should be as well.
A workplace that’s inclusive of
Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and Immigrants…
- Accepts that the responsibility for creating and maintaining an anti-racist organization falls first on the leadership.
- Avoids placing all the DEI effort and emotional labor on BIPOC staff only, and fairly compensates those who are doing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) work.
- Institutes a hiring policy that requires outreach until there’s a racially diverse pool, AKA ‘affirmative action’.
- Has hiring managers and supervisors who are trained to be aware of implicit racial biases
- Treats bilingual language skills and bicultural knowledge as valuable job skills, and compensates accordingly.
- Supports immigrant staff in seeking statuses they want, such as sponsoring someone for a green card.
- Doesn’t reject job applicants due to criminal records for crimes irrelevant to the job responsibilities.
- Learn more about addressing racism in the workplace and making the organizational culture more inclusive for all.
“Historically when people of color have been in leadership positions [in our organization], they usually quit within 6 months.”
A workplace that’s inclusive of
Women…
- Considers staff’s family responsibilities when setting policy on healthcare and benefits including childcare, and when making decisions on remote work and flexible hours;
- Includes family planning and reproductive care in health coverage.
- Creates a family-friendly workplace, welcoming children if possible and providing childcare during off-hour events.
- Has a strong policy against sexual harassment, with a fair process for hearing from accuser and accused and explicit consequences for violations.
- Intentionally supports the professional development of women, especially those with interest in traditionally male roles.
- Has a culture that discourages mansplaining and men interrupting women and taking credit for their ideas.
- Consistently evaluates pay scales to ensure gender equity in comparable jobs.
- Learns more about addressing sexism in the workplace
Even though the nonprofit sector is predominantly led by cis-gendered women, don’t presume that therefore they face no sexism.
A workplace that’s inclusive of
LGBTQ+ and non-binary people…
- Sets policies inclusive of many types of families regarding healthcare, family leave and flex-time.
- Includes gender-affirming care in health coverage.
- Invites (but don’t require) pronoun and gender identity disclosure during meeting introductions.
- Provides adequate gender-neutral bathroom facilities.
A workplace that’s inclusive of
Working-class and persistent-poverty-class people…
- Focuses on skill and experience qualifications in job notices, not unnecessary formal educational requirements; disregards the relative prestige of job applicants’ colleges.
- Briefs hiring managers to avoid classist biases (e.g., against local working-class accents; against smokers).
- Doesn’t make assumptions about employees’ access to transportation, money, professional clothes or technology or internet access at home, but enables access for all staff.
- Regards roots in the base community and sharing their class, culture and/or speech style as a positive job qualification.
- Avoids or defines jargon terms and acronyms typically learned in college or in professional workplaces.
- Creates supportive spaces (such as classism workshops by Class Action) for staff and board to voluntarily share their class backgrounds and current class and to discuss class-DEI implications for the organization’s work.
- Ensures that all DEI trainers and facilitators include classism in their intersectional analysis and in their curricula.
A workplace that’s inclusive of
People with disabilities…
- Makes the process for requesting disability accommodations clear and accessible for new and current employees.
- Provides an ADA-compliant accessible workspace, including bathroom facilities and any needed adaptive equipment.
- Considers disabilities when making decisions about benefits and medical leave.
- Treats mental illness and neuro-atypical conditions as respectfully as physical disabilities in hiring and in making accommodations.
- Makes sure that all DEI trainers and facilitators include ableism in their intersectional analysis and their curricula.
- Follows guidelines from disability advocacy organizations.
“Working a lot more hours than 40 in a week while dealing with a disability that requires doctors visits caused some burnout last year.”
A workplace that’s inclusive of
Muslims, Jews and other stigmatized religious minorities…
- Has a flexible holiday policy to allow staff to take off religious holidays, as well as other times needed for religious observance or indigenous traditional practices; puts all holidays on the organizational calendar.
- Is inclusive of all faiths when planning invocations or choosing music for special events.
- Puts a religious tolerance policy in writing, and models respect for all religious and non-religious people.
- Makes sure that all DEI trainers and facilitators include religion-based oppressions in their intersectional analysis and their curricula.