Nonprofit Execs, Are You Constantly Losing Staff of Color? Here are 4 Ways to Stop the Churn.
Many nonprofits start their racial equity journey from a diversity perspective by hiring Black staff without doing the necessary systems work to retain hired talent. This article has been updated from the original published in 2018.
Has your nonprofit experienced a churning of Black staff?
By churn, I mean you hired smart, capable staff. Enthusiastically, they onboard, stay for a while, but usually leave within two years. Then, your hiring process starts over again and ends the same way.
Am I describing your last few hires? If so, it may be time to pause hiring. Instead, look hard at your systems, organizational culture, and how you work.
[Black women] are often more likely to feel uncomfortable bringing their whole selves to work.
42% feel uncomfortable sharing their thoughts about racial inequity, and
22% feel like they can’t talk about the impact current events are having on them or people in their community.
Naming Without Action
If anything, the intense focus on racism from 2020 enabled more nonprofits to name racism and bias fluently, but many have not taken the additional steps to internalize changed behaviors through better practices. For example, moving beyond naming means showing up differently at work and in the world. If your organization has declared itself to be anti-racist, it should look, feel, and, most importantly, function differently because of shifts in culture, behavior, and practices. There's a difference between intellectualizing racial equity and doing the work of behavior change.
Sustainability Through a Systems Approach
I am a big fan of the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. Seriously. That book changed my life in so many ways. Two of my favorite lines in his book are:
You do not rise to the level of your goals; you fall to the level of your systems.
Your behaviors are a reflection of your identity.
So clear, right? (Pun intended. 😊) These two sentences indicate the need for systems to support desired outcomes. Let’s use my favorite lines to dig into the reasons for churn among Black nonprofit staff.
Nonprofit execs, my starting questions are:
How are Black staff faring within your organization?
And, how does that “faring” reflect your organizational identity?
In my experience, root causes for churn include:
A lack of inclusion
A lack of access to power;
No upward trajectory for promotion;
An oppressive, toxic work environment;
Continually naming racism without policy or practice change;
Feeling invisible or feeling hyper-visible (ignored or tokenized), especially when White-led nonprofits take on diversity, equity, and inclusion and attempt to lead;
A disconnect between the organization’s public identity and internal practice.
To give you a visual, click here to see critical work on the churn cycle of women of color in nonprofits (pdf) from the Building a Multi-Ethnic, Inclusive and Anti-Racist Organization: Tools for Liberation Packet (pdf).
Might some of these dynamics be at play within your organization?
Make it stand out
This graphic has been circulating for a long time, yet it is an accurate illustration of the experience of many Black women in nonprofits.
Check out this podcast to dig a little deeper.
Here are concrete steps nonprofits can take to retain Black staff and staff of color:
Acknowledge that your workplace environment could be toxic for Black people. Often in the racial equity spaces, we split structures from people. Yet, people create systems and implement policies and practices. If not disrupted, white supremacy lives in the structures of your organization. That means to disrupt it, you must first acknowledge it. However, acknowledging alone is not sufficient. It is critical for nonprofit leaders to understand that someone on staff benefits from the toxicity, and that benefit can accumulate across racial lines. Serious conversations about organizational identity that name and disrupt racism can create fear for those who benefit from it. These feelings are real and stem from the threat of losing privilege and power.
Accept that your staff have different experiences by position and racial identity. Understanding is not enough; notice, I said, “accept.” Absolutely critical, in my opinion. In my experience, this reality can be hard for nonprofit executives to accept. Yet, it is true. So many organizational processes are wrapped in an equality framework, i.e., everyone is treated the same; therefore, their experience is the same. Once you accept this belief is untrue, shifting practices becomes easier. My firm, Stamey Street, can help you figure this out, but I caution you:
Do not go down this path unless you are prepared to hear hard truths (possibly about your own leadership style) and unless you plan to make a change.
3. Accept that some managers will never be okay with equity-centered processes. If that’s the case, that’s probably a major reason Black staff leave your organization. Such attitudes signal an inclusion problem at the heart of the churn. Shifting toward equity will require a mix of shifting staff competencies and maybe some staffing changes.
Again, this particular shift connects back to your organizational identity—are you who you stay you are?
4. Be accountable. Decide that creating trauma and harm is unacceptable. Shift toward equity by adjusting your policies, practices, and protocols to protect Black staff and staff of color across identities. With time and intentionality, you can change who you are as an organization. Do this important work before starting your next recruiting process.
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