Executive Summary

Esmée commissioned this review to learn more about the different approaches, impact on the organisation, and what funders could do to better support organisations to make progress towards diversity, equity and inclusion.

The review is based on interviews and impact reports from the organisations and explores what led organisations to choosing the approach and their experiences of the support. It explored what the enablers were for facilitating the project's implementation and impact as well as barriers to progress. The review also looked at what the outcomes were for the projects - for staff, the organisation, and their work; including some of the challenges they experienced in embedding the support.

It shares recommendations for:

• Organisations looking to start a project to help them improve on DEI.
• Funders on what they can do to help shift DEI progress within the charity sector.

Key themes

Project outcomes across five levels

Several interviewees referenced that their own or other staff members’ personal learning was a key outcome of the project.

• Frameworks and models were often described as effective (e.g. social model of disability, 5 ‘I’s of oppression - also commonly known as the 4 'I's).
• Without changing mental models it is difficult, if not impossible, to embed structural change.

• For some organisations, having clear action plans and more structure to the DEI approach moved DEI away from something that was just one person’s passion and into something the organisation reviewed strategically. It was subsequently built into areas such as job roles, objectives and organisational strategies.
• Some organisations struggled to develop and implement actions. Examples ranged from limited follow-up due to dependency on the CEO driving implementation amid organisational workload pressures, and misaligned pacing among staff. The latter raised an interesting reflection on the tension between reflecting on personal transformation and deep change amidst the need to shift to action - and when to do it.

• Very few organisations have seen demographic shifts at this stage, although there have been some changes in the experiences of racially minoritised staff. Examples include a woman of colour joining a senior leadership team, and more Black men joining an organisation.
• One organisation which focused its DEI provision strongly on accommodating staff with particular needs was able to embed this provision into management practice across the organisation.
• In one example, we heard about how a combination of sector-wide training initiative and updated recruitment strategies was a way forward. However, due to low turnover, this has not yet been translated into more organisational diversity.
• There have been some shifts in the experience of minoritised staff:
  • In some organisations, staff from all backgrounds have felt more confident and able to have conversations about race and racism.
  • In one example, staff from minoritised backgrounds (and in roles where they were more likely to experience direct racism from visitors) felt more heard and valued by the organisation.
  • In another example, staff have begun disclosing access needs and seeing them being met.

Several organisations had linked their DEI work to project delivery - and even where they had not, it often had an impact on project design and delivery, especially if the organisation worked with minoritised communities.

• Several organisations found that the DEI work - whether training or strategic consultancy - had an impact on the design and delivery of projects. This included:
  • Building anti-racism directly into the design of a new project for which the organisation is seeking funding.
  • Creating a manual for practitioners working with young people from minoritised groups.
  • Having more direct and focused external communications about race and racism (for example in the light of the riots).
  • Co-designing and co-producing new work with the affected communities, or building in community engagement into new or existing pieces of work.

It was difficult for DEI support to result in overall organisational transformation: progress was often patchy.

• Even in smaller organisations, it was difficult to translate impacts in individual teams or projects to the organisational or strategic level, and this was even more strongly visible in larger organisations in our interview sample, where there was little strategic change. Progress was often patchy and limited to those teams or individuals who had had more direct contact with the providers.
• Demographic changes at senior level have been slow, and some interviewees suggested that this was a barrier to the transformative and structural changes that they had hoped for.
• A small number of organisations found that their trustee boards had been able to provide more helpful and constructive challenge. In one case, this was partly because the makeup of the board had been refreshed.
• Several organisations mentioned that Funding Plus support resulted in more structured, systematic or strategic approaches to DEI and were beginning to see the signs of this becoming more embedded: being translated into HR policy reviews, updated recruitment strategies or manuals for delivering more inclusive project work.

Recommendations for organisations seeking DEI support

Recommendations for funders supporting organisational DEI journeys

Questions for further exploration by organisations, providers, and funders

Across the research, these questions were raised either directly in interviews or indirectly through the analysis:

• What is the right balance of theoretical knowledge, personal transformation and organisational action needed to embed meaningful DEI in organisations?
• How can charities and funders prioritise longer-term strategic approaches to DEI and broader organisational development so that charities can carry out their missions more effectively?
• How can organisational readiness for different types of DEI support be best assessed and organisations signposted to the right kind of support?