I felt a range of emotions reading this article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy dated December 5, 2018 (yes, 2018!), that starts with “The problem starts but is not limited to boards, which aren’t nearly as diverse as the grant makers and communities that they serve.” That statement resonated with me and is exactly the challenge that I clearly saw and sought to address fifteen years when I launched The 360 Group. I reflected on a quote that I had given that is posted on our website:
“Through my work in nonprofit and private sector consulting, and then running a nonprofit myself, I began to realize that leadership is the problem AND the solution in the social sector. Effective leadership is a lever that makes the social sector more powerful. At the same time, social sector leadership needs more diversity in thought, professional backgrounds and life experiences in order to deal with the increasingly complex problems that it faces today. My own experiences and observations inspired my vision for creating and launching The 360 Group in 2004: an executive search firm dedicated to creating (meaningful) social impact by placing exceptional leaders into extraordinary (nonprofit) organizations.”
I felt shocked and frustrated that so little had changed over the last 15 years. Though we have placed hundreds of exceptional AND diverse leaders into nonprofits and foundations that have gone on to impact thousands of lives, the need for more diversity in nonprofit leadership is still tremendous. That includes women, people who identify as LGBT, people with disabilities, Native Americans and the list goes on. Our firm is founded on the premise that EVERYONE belongs and brings an important voice to important conversations that our nation and world face.
I felt anger when I read the case of the small nonprofit that recognized the need to hire a new Executive Director that could relate to and better reflect the communities that they serve but after doing the research could not find a search firm that any history or specialty in recruiting African-American, Latino or Asian leaders. They were left to make the impossible (unfortunate, and not actually real) choice between hiring a less qualified person that offered diversity vs a white person with the expertise that they needed. I wish they had called me. That should NEVER be the case and we would never ask a client to make that choice. Our goal is to offer every client a rich candidate pool comprised of very talented and diverse candidates with the experience and expertise that they are seeking. My advice to any organization out there that is contemplating an executive search is don’t set yourself up to have to make impossible choices and don’t settle, regardless of what a search firm is telling you. Keep looking. Our credo is: It is possible, and we have proven that over and again in the last fifteen years.
Finally, I felt hope. We’ve seen glimmers. We’ve seen some organizations like Meyer Memorial Trust make huge strides in diversity and inclusion, others that have taken baby steps and some are beginning to stick their toe in the water. We’ve seen diverse leaders like Nicole Taylor — whom we placed at The East Bay Community Foundation, and is now the newly appointed CEO of Silicon Valley Community Foundation — work tirelessly to create impact and improve the lives of the underserved. Leaders like Nicole inspire us to double down in our work and our mission. In fact, the article ends with some great suggestions for incorporating diversity into organizations. The initiative needs to start at the top (leadership and board) and be infused into the entire organization. It takes time, patience, reflection, awareness, resilience and is really difficult at times. But the end result is rewarding, and the organization emerges as one that is stronger, more creative and culturally competent, and better prepared for the future in order to best understand the needs of and serve diverse communities.
Angie Chen Angie joined The Libra Foundation, as Senior Program Officer. She is an entrepreneurial and strategic leader in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors with broad experience designing and managing grantmaking initiatives to leverage philanthropic resources for social impact, facilitating cross-sector multi-stakeholder collaborations to set shared vision and achieve goals, building effective relationships across nonprofit, foundation and government leaders and managing all programmic objectives of an organization. Educated at Harvard University and University of California, Berkeley, Angie’s deep experience includes roles at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation and Stephen Bechtel Fund, Pisces Foundation and most recently as Director at the Blue Sky Funders Forum.
Ashley joined The Libra Foundation as Knowledge and Grants Manager. Ashley has a mix of nonprofit and corporate experience and brings a core set of skills in knowledge management and grant making from her roles at KIVA.org and Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund where she was most recently, the Director of Grantee Impact and Strategic Initiatives. Ashley also brings operational, marketing and general management experience from her roles at companies like Minted.com and Sun Products. Educated at Spellman College and Harvard Business School, she brings an analytical mindset and strategic thinking to this role. Ashley enjoys being part of a small dynamic team and wearing many hats.
It is with great pleasure that we announce that Katie Tamony has joined the leadership team of Social Interest Solutions as Chief Communications Officer. Social Interest Solutions combines thoughtful social policy with elegant technology solutions with the ultimate goal of ensuring economic, social and physical well-being for all people through simple, easy-to-use, innovative social tech solutions. This purpose-driven, non-profit organization puts the needs of its clients and the populations it serves at the center of its solutions, merging the practices of human-centered design and social policy development and advocacy.
We are excited to announcement that Mike Rosen will serve in the newly created position of Chief Revenue and Business Development Officer for the Fairfield County Community Foundation. Mike brings a broad range of professional experiences to this key role. He spent the majority of his career to date building two integrated marketing agencies and representing some of America’s best-known consumer brands. For the last three years, he helped revitalize one of the nation’s iconic community improvement nonprofits as Senior Vice President, Marketing & Communications with Keep America Beautiful, Inc., based in Stamford, CT. At Keep America Beautiful, Mike led the development of a comprehensive digital infrastructure and marketing platform as the foundation of a multi-year plan aimed at revitalizing the brand, driving revenue growth, improving donor and volunteer engagement, and expanding organizational impact. He also played a lead strategy and stewardship role with Keep America Beautiful’s largest corporate funders.