Just one in 25 charity leaders describe their organisation's leadership pipeline as “very diverse”, survey results published in the Autumn edition of Charity Times have revealed.

Over half warn their succession planning is either “not very or not at all diverse”, with Charity Times’ report warning that “diversity remains a significant leadership challenge”.

In addition, more than three in ten warn that their current senior leadership and wider workforce are “not very diverse”. Only one in 100 consider their team to be “very diverse”.

Ethnicity was cited as the clearest areas for improvement, among charity leaders surveyed.

This is followed by disability, age, socio-economic background, and gender, among leaders’ list of further priority areas to improve diversity.

“Some identify multiple areas, suggesting interconnected challenges requiring broader attention to representation across recruitment future leadership,” said Charity Times’ report.

It added: “With ethnicity and disability among the areas most frequently identified as needing improvement, strengthening the leadership pipeline cannot simply mean producing more future leaders.

“It also means considering who has access to progression and whether the next generation of senior leaders brings a broader range of perspectives.”

Lack of progress

These latest findings follow a raft of evidence in recent years showing a lack of progress by the sector to improve diversity among charity leaders.

Just under a quarter of charities involved in a snapshot survey into charities’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) have no one from Black, Asian or other global majority communities on their senior executive leadership team or board, a report published by charity leaders’ body Acevo and consultancy Eastside People last year found.

A study by Charity Times three years ago found that among chief executives of well-known UK charities only eight had been people of colour over the previous 50 years. This found that charity CEOs were twice as likely to be called David than be non-white.

You can find the full report and survey findings in the Autumn issue of Charity Times.

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