Because too often, we are not offered clear pathways to leadership in nonprofit organizations.

The solution: Village prepares diverse nonprofit professionals with support, tools, and winning strategies, all while deepening their own commitment to creating a wider table with more voices.

Because too many organizations lack representation and key perspectives.

The solution: Village helps organizations create welcoming environments where leaders from all backgrounds can thrive.

Because, even if hired, too often we lack a seat at the table.

The solution: Village supports emerging and experienced leaders as they navigate the nonprofit field, connecting them with peers and mentors and helping them make a difference in their communities.

Because we can, in fact, build our own table.

Village celebrates, reflects, and learns from the contributions of people of color doing important work in the social impact space and in their communities. Here, we share content that speaks to our rich history leading social justice work, providing inspiration and a reminder of our impact and power.

The Research

Research tells us there are formal leadership spaces where diverse perspective and voices are absent:

• Strategic decision making, planning, and budgeting

• Hiring processes and decisions

• Managing donor relationships

• Board leadership

We lack access to formal leadership opportunities.

According to the Building Movement Project’s “Race to Lead Report” less than 20% of nonprofit Chief Executive Officers and Executive Directors are people of color. This statistic has remained true for the past 15 years despite growing diversity among the United States’ population. And this lack of opportunity is not due to lack of aspiration or professional experience. The same research showed that nonprofit professionals of color wish to lead, but are not recruited as frequently by boards of directors and talent managers to the highest formal levels of nonprofit leadership.

Still, we continue to lead movements - because we always have.

History is clear: we have led the charge to solve challenges in our community through fundraising, organizing, and getting the work done for many years. From Toussaint L’Overture in Haiti to Harriet Tubman in the United States, the earliest freedom movements were organized and led by people of color. In more recent times, the protests and boycotts of the 1960’s and more-recent movements like Black Lives Matters demonstrate the power and impact of these efforts to shift national consciousness and conversation, and to make real and lasting change.

We give regularly and generously.

We’re not just leading the work, we’re funding it as well. Research tells us that African-Americans give as much as 25% more of their wealth than their white peers, depending on the social issue. Black, Latinx and Asian-American families are also more likely to have family traditions involving giving, making philanthropy a multi-generational effort in communities of color. (Cultures of Giving, 2012).

 We are doing the work.

In short, we are doing the work in our communities and we always have.

Village Nonprofit Solutions provides tools that will build on the strength of your unique cultural context – social impact traditions in communities of color, information from current research on barriers for fundraisers of color, and strategies that center leaders of color.