Why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Matter: A Blog Post by Monisha Kapila
As we mentioned in our announcement this week about Independent Sector’s new Focus Area on diversity, equity, and inclusion and ProInspire’s role as curation partner and issue expert for it, Monisha Kapila (ProInspire CEO) co-authored an introductory blog post to help frame the Focus Area’s perspective on DEI. Written with ProInspire partner and Principal of Every Level Leadership Ericka Hines, Why Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Matter highlights four key arguments to make the case for DEI: the moral case, the economic case, the market case, and the results case.
You can read an excerpt below, or click here to read the full blog post and check out the other resources on the focus area. We encourage you to share this valuable new resource with your networks.
Why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Matter
By Monisha Kapila and Ericka Hines
Diversity, equity, inclusion. Nonprofit organizations use these words as they strive to become more diverse, yet many leaders are uncertain about the steps needed to turn dialogue – and intention – into action. ProInspire’s work to develop leaders at all levels for the social sector has shown us that for many organizations, the desire to increase diversity isn’t translating into the reality of an environment that enables people of different backgrounds to succeed, and diverse, mission-advancing perspectives to be heard.
There has never been a more relevant time to help organizations succeed in their efforts to strengthen diversity, equity, and inclusion. The Independent Sector Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion focus area highlights information and tools to help leaders make the changes that will lead to more diverse, inclusive, and equitable organizations. In this post, we offer a foundational understanding of the issues: baseline definitions, the case for why diversity matters, and an introduction to the resources that you’ll find in the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion focus area.
Definitions
We define diversity, equity, and inclusion based on language from the D5 Coalition, Racial Equity Tools Glossary, and UC Berkeley:
Diversity includes all the ways in which people differ, encompassing the different characteristics that make one individual or group different from another…
Click here to read the blog post in its entirety.