We carry out an annual survey of Trustees and staff to help us track progress on diversity, equity and inclusion within Esmée. Here are the findings from our 2025 survey.
We first surveyed Trustees and staff in 2020 and have since repeated the survey every year. The survey is anonymous and the questions focus on a number of characteristics including ethnicity, gender, disability, age, and sexual orientation, reflecting the categories in the DEI Data Standard. Since 2023, we have asked questions around socioeconomic background.
Pay gap
We also ask about salary to help us understand our pay gap and will be sharing a separate analysis about this early in the New Year.
The data
All 58 members of staff and Trustees (at the time of the survey) took part in the 2025 survey (compared to 55 people in 2024). For all questions, respondents were able to choose 'prefer not to say'.
Ethnicity
In 2025, 64% of Esmée staff and Trustees identified as White British and/or other white ethnic background, 34% identified as a category that wasn't White, and 2% chose 'prefer not to say'. For comparison, the UK as a whole is 82% White (see Ethnicity Facts and Figures).
Our Senior Management Team (SMT) and Funding team are the least diverse. The grouping for all other staff is the most diverse with 47% identifying as White British and/or other white ethnic background and the remainder identifying as another category.
The following chart and table shows the ethnicity breakdown of our Trustees, SMT, Funding Team and all our other staff in 2025.
| Ethnicity distribution (2024 figures in brackets) | |
|---|---|
| Trustees |
White British/other White ethnic background: 58% (75%) Asian/Asian British: 17% (17%) Jewish: 8% (0%) Mixed – Multiple ethnic background 8% (8%) Prefer not to say: 0% (8%) |
| Senior Management Team |
White British/other White ethnic background: 86% (86%) Black/African/Caribbean/Black British - 14% (14%) |
| Manages funding (grants or social investments) |
White British/other White ethnic background: 75% (75%) Asian/Asian British: 5% (0%) Black/African/Caribbean/Black British/other Black ethnic background: 10% (10%) Mixed – Multiple ethnic background: 10% (15%) |
| All other staff |
White British/other White ethnic background: 47% (50%) Asian/Asian British: 26% (12%) Black/African/Caribbean/Black British/other Black ethnic background: 11% (19%) Mixed - Multiple ethnic background: 16% (19%) |
Gender
As with previous years, we have more people identifying as female (71%) than male (26%); 3% chose 'prefer not to say'. The biggest difference is in our funding team, where 90% identified as female.
The following chart and table shows the gender breakdown of our Trustees, Senior Management Team (SMT), Funding Team and all our other staff in 2025.
| Gender distribution (2024 figures in brackets) | |
|---|---|
| Trustees | Female: 50% (58%), Male: 42% (44%), Preferred not to say: 8% (0%) |
|
Senior Management Team |
Female: 57% (57%), Male: 43% (43%) |
|
Manages funding (grants or social investments) |
Female: 90% (75%), Male: 10% (25%) |
| All other staff | Female: 68% (75%), Male: 26% (25%), Preferred not to say: 5% |
Disability
In total, 28% of our people answered 'yes' to a question about whether the are disabled or have a long-term health condition, 71% said they are not disabled or have a long-term health condition, and 2% chose 'prefer not to say'
Age, Sexual Orientation, and Socioeconomic background
- Age:
Amongst our Trustees, half said they were 55-64 years old, with others saying they were 45-54 years old (17%), 65 or over (25%), or 35-44 years old (8%). The majority of our staff is aged 45-54 years old (33%), followed by those who said they were 25-34 years old (24%) or 35-44 years old (24%).
- Sexual orientation
Overall, 9% identified as LGBTQ+ and 86% identified as heterosexual.
- Socioeconomic background
We asked two questions designed to measure socioeconomic background suggested by the Social Mobility Commission. These related to the type of school they attended and the profession of people's parents.
- 33% of Trustees and 9% of staff indicated that they attended a fee paying school without a bursary. By comparison, 6.4% of individuals in the wider population attended a fee paying school without a bursary.
- 76% of Trustees and 63% of staff indicated that their parents held either modern or traditional professional jobs.
