Equality to be at the heart of the fundraising community
A series of recruitment guides to support the fundraising profession to become a more equal, diverse and inclusive has been published by the Chartered Institute of Fundraising.
The Change Collective guides have been produced for the fundraising community to help it consider the actions and decision they can take to achieve a more diverse fundraising workforce.
The guides include an additional element to reflect on recruiting during the coronavirus crisis.
Each guide has been developed with expert advice from recruitment agencies and EDI consultants, and lived experience from fundraisers.
Peter Lewis, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising, said: “The well-established lack of diversity in our profession, with too few BAME and disabled fundraisers, is a systemic weakness which the profession needs to address.
“We need leadership from trustees, chief executives, directors of fundraising and human resource professionals who not only embrace the importance of EDI for themselves and for their fundraising teams, but accept that it is critical to delivering their organisational objectives.”
In a blogreleased alongside the guides, Elizabeth Balgobin, interim head of equality, diversity, and inclusion at the Chartered Institute of Fundraising, said: “It’s a formidable suite of resources – those blogs and resources released during lockdown are good, and useful, but the guides give you all that and more.
“I strongly encourage you to share the guides with your colleagues, share with those outside of fundraising, share with people looking for work or a change of career. Together we can make fundraising a more diverse and inclusive profession – we owe it to our causes.”
Sharing her lived experience in the guide, Martha Awojobi said: “I have always loved being a fundraiser, we inspire people to invest in social change and be part of a collective solutions to some of the most complex social issues of our time.
"We shouldn’t be afraid to speak about our past failures when it comes to equality, diversity and inclusion. In fact, we should be the ones showing other sectors truly inclusivity looks like. All it takes is honesty, humility and hope.”
