List is a reaction to male pale and stale charity conference circuit

A list of speakers who are “are not white and male” has been published for charity conferences.

The Small Charities Coalition drew up the list of over 150 “brilliant speakers from the charity sector who are not white and male.”

It further promotes the list as “providing conference organisers with fabulous, female speakers from the charity sector.”

Mandy Johnson, the coalition’s chief executive, has asked for more recommendations to the growing number currently included and said: “Too many times I am told that it is hard to find good speakers in the charity sector who aren’t male and/or white. I want to rid conference organisers of that excuse.”

A free Wordpress site is currently hosting the list but Johnson has also launched a GoFundMe fundraising page she said would allow her to “add a few features to the website and use it to continue to engage people with this conversation”.

"The list is far from perfect at the moment,” she told Civil Society. “There are lots of great people missing from it and many more ways it could be developed to make it better but it is a start. I am also aware that there have been requests for changes to highlight people for different reasons, such as all of the brilliant disabled speakers who are often absent from charity conferences.”

One comment on the funding page stated: “Solidarity from Is The Third Sector Sexist - thank you for helping to build a better third sector.”

Another stated: “Great idea and an important step on the journey to a fairer sector.”