Nonprofits
Letter to John D. Mcllguham, Publisher of The NonProfit Times and the 2008 Power & Influence Top 50
There were hardly any people of color on the "next generation leaders" list.
Heather Carpenter’s list of next generation leaders inspired me last week. But when I saw the official NonProfit Times Power & Influence Top 50, I got so riled up that I wrote a letter to the publisher. There were barely any people of color on that list, and I feel that it is really time for us to start pointing that out when we see it, instead of just saying “well, that’s the way it is.” Below is the letter I emailed to John McIlquham, the publisher of The NonProfit Times. Hopefully he will write me back.
In the meantime, please help me add to my list in the comments, so we can all learn from each other about the depth of multicultural leadership in our sector. How do we pay this forward so that we can begin to build a culture of honoring contributions from people of color in the nonprofit field?
Dear John,
Like my colleagues in the nonprofit field, I am an avid reader of The NonProfit Times, as the “premier business publication written for nonprofit executives.” As your Web site notes, The NonProfit Times reaches 38,000 executive decision makers, and we all appreciate the timely information that is presented in each issue. That is why it shocked me to see that http://fromthepipeline.blogspot.com/
rosettathurman@gmail.com
703-965-6631
- Julian Bond, NAACP Board Chair
- Emmett Carson, President, Silicon Valley Community Foundation
- Patrick Corvington, Senior Associate, Annie E. Casey Foundation
- Erica Hunt, President, 21st Century Foundation
- Diane Bell-McCoy, Associated Black Charities
- Michael Lomax, United Negro College Fund
- Marc Morial, President, National Urban League
- Ron McKinley, Fieldstone Alliance, Kellogg Action Lab
- Bao Vang, Leadership Program Coordinator, Minnesota Council of Nonprofits
- Terri Lee Freeman, President, Community Foundation for the National Capital Region
- Mai Moua, Leadership Paradigms
- Janet Murguía, President, National Council of La Raza
- Rodney M. Jackson, President, National Center for Black Philanthropy
- Diana Campoamor, President, Hispanics in Philanthropy
- Albert Ruesga, Chair, Hispanics in Philanthropy, Vice President Eugene & Agnes E. Meyer Foundation, blogger at White Courtesy Telephone
- Lisa Morton, Nonprofit HR Solutions
- Trista Harris, Executive Director, Headwaters Foundation for Justice
- Trabian Shorters, Knight Foundation
- Maxine Baker, African American Nonprofit Network
- Greg Taylor, W.K. Kellogg Foundation
- Van Jones, formerly Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
- Geoffrey Canada, Harlem Children’s Zone
- Cristina Lopez, National Hispana Leadership Institute, formerly Center for Community Change
- Deepak Bhargava, Executive Director, Center for Community Change
- Beatriz Otero, CEO, CentroNia
- Linda Nguyen, Director of Civic Engagement, Alliance for Families and Children
- Priscilla Hung, Co-Director of Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training
- Mia Herndon, Executive Director, Third Wave Foundation
- Alison Lugo Saenz, Associate Director, The Grantmaking School of Grand Valley State
- Sonya Garcia Ulibarri, Executive Director –Youth Build, Denver, Colorado
- Eddy Morales, - Center for Community Change, Generation Change Program
- Taij Moteellal – Executive Director, Resource Generation
- Phuong Quoch, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy
- Dwayne Patterson, Southern Organizer for Center for Community Change, Black America’s Organizing Project
- Tracey Greene Dorsett – Director of Evaluation, National Rural Funders Collaborative
- Glen O’Gilvie, Center for Nonprofit Advancement
- Joanna Opot, Executive Director, StartingBloc
- Jeremy Foreman, Executive Director, Hands On Ogeechee
- Elsie L. Scott, President, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc.
- Cassandra Butts, formerly Fund for American Studies, Obama Campaign
- Mando Rayo, Hands on Central Texas
- Michael Watson, Girl Scouts USA
- Benjamin Jealous, President, NAACP
- Luz Vega-Marquis, President, Marguerite Casey Foundation
- Wenda Weekes Moore, Secretary, Board of Directors, The W.K. Kellogg Foundation
- Lillian Cruz, formerly with The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven
- Antonio Romero, Executive Director, American Civil Liberties Union
- Gary Flowers, Black Leadership Forum
- H. Alexander Robinson, National Black Justice Coalition
- Dorothy Height, National Council of Negro Women
Rosetta Thurman is an emerging nonprofit leader of color working and living in the Washington, DC area. She holds a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Management and blogs about nonprofit leadership and management issues at Perspectives From the Pipeline.
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COMMENTS
BY Rosetta Thurman
ON September 18, 2008 10:22 AM
Nonprofit Times Editor Responds
I wrote a letter to the Nonprofit Times yesterday expressing my disappointment that their very prestigious Nonprofit Times Top 50 Power and Influence list for 2008 included so few nonprofit leaders of color and did not reflect the racial diversity of our nonprofit community. The NPT’s Vice President/Editorial Director Paul Clolery was kind enough to respond and briefly shed some light on the selection process the NPT employs:
“Emmett, Marc and Janet were previously honored. And, based on your statistics below, the make-up of the 50 is in line with senior management at charities. We don’t do this in the dark. A diverse group of executives makes nominations. You also have several people on your list who’s CEOs did make the list. You might want to look at the past several lists.”
This was my response to Paul. I suggested whether the NPT might consider opening up the nominations process next year so the selections committee could choose from a more diverse pool of leaders for the 2009 list. If YOU have other suggestions for helping the Nonprofit Times’ express the multiculturalism of our sector in its pages, please send an email to Paul at: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or call him at: (973) 401-0202 Ext 211
“Hello Paul,
Thank you very much for your response. I did have a chance to review the previous Nonprofit Times Top 50 Power and Influence lists prior to sending my letter to you. And what was very clear to me, and to many others in our nonprofit community, is that across the board, there have been very, very few people of color recognized by your publication in relation to the actual makeup of our sector. Just to clarify the statistics that I shared - if in fact your list were in line with the trends in senor management of color in charities, this year’s list would have included at least 7-9 people of color. But it did not.
I understand that a nomination committee helps the NPT to make these decisions. But as a widely respected authority on our sector, ultimately, we would expect to see a committment to diversity from the NPT within your pages. Because if you just look at the numbers alone, there is a real disconnect between who we see reflected on your Top 50 list and the kind of leadership we really and truly represent as a nonprofit community across the country. But more important is getting beyond the numbers, and the NPT is certainly a medium to express the values we hold in our sector of diversity and inclusion.
In light of my comments, I would like to know whether you and the NPT will consider a more open nomination process to decide next year’s Nonprofit Times Top 50 Power and Influence? By engaging an even more diverse group of executives to select who will receive this prestigious honor, I believe we could be on the right track to see more leaders of color in your publication next year.
I appreciate your taking the time to read my comments, and would like to share a positive outcome with my blog readers if you have thoughts.
In the spirit of inclusion,
Rosetta Thurman”
BY Lora
ON September 21, 2008 11:46 AM
In the spirit of inclusion, indeed. It sounds to me that Mr. Clorery and the NPT do not prioritize inclusion, and I say that because the tone of his response sounds fairly indifferent. Thank you Rosetta for leading this response to the NPT. Perhaps not all of Mr. Clorery’s response was posted here, but I was surprised to read that he appears fairly indifferent to the underlying theme of your inquiry - which was really deep and well-founded concern that the pioneering efforts and incredible leadership present in the nonprofit sector must be attributed in a transparent way to EVERYONE who works to achieve justice - not just white folks in the highest levels of senior management. The nonprofit community has often proven that the most powerful, influential, and inspiring leaders do not always come from the top. I will do my part to reply to Paul as well.
Thanks,
Lora