Diverse Managers: Philanthropy's Next Hurdle

This white paper outlines best practices with proven results that foundations can use to find and create a diverse and inclusive staff and investment advisory team. Readers will learn how to make the business case for more diverse and equitable strategies and link success in this area with investment results. Readers will also learn about the Association of Black Foundation Executives’ Investment Manager Diversity Pledge that foundations and endowments can undertake to ensure that their organizations adopt inclusive practices encouraging managers of diverse ethnicity and gender to compete for positions in endowment management. In recent years, philanthropic organizations have made concerted efforts to diversify their leadership, culture, and staff, seeking to become more inclusive and representative. Diversity initiatives have flourished in philanthropic institutions as a result. Today the public is no longer surprised when our nation’s largest grantmaking foundations and corporations appoint African American, Latino, and women leaders as chief executive officers, chief investment officers, and chief operating officers.