October 2024
Samantha Ostenso, Program Assistant, Grantmakers in Health
Eileen Salinsky, Program Advisor, Grantmakers in Health
Diversity in foundation staff and board composition encourages innovative, responsive, and impactful grantmaking and improves strategic vision. At Grantmakers In Health (GIH), we believe diversity is essential to philanthropic effectiveness and necessary to ensure everyone has a fair and just opportunity to achieve their highest level of health. GIH recognizes multiple dimensions of diversity including, but not limited to, race, ethnicity, gender, age, geography, and disability status.
In order to assess diversity within the field of health philanthropy, GIH conducted a survey of our Funding Partners to document the demographic composition of health funders’ leadership, staff, and boards and to explore perceptions of, and challenges associated with, efforts to increase diversity.
The survey was conducted in two parts: Part I was completed by health funder Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) or Executive Directors (EDs) and Part II was completed by representatives of organizations responding to Part I that collect demographic data for their staff and/or board and agreed to share these data with GIH.
This report summarizes findings from GIH’s survey on leadership, staff, and board diversity. The report is organized in five parts:
- Key Findings,
- Section I: Demographics of GIH Funding Partners’ Chief Executive Officers and Executive Directors,
- Section II: Demographics of GIH Funding Partners’ Staff, • Section III: Demographics of GIH Funding Partners’ Boards, and
- Section IV: Methodology.
In analyzing survey results, GIH compared responses from health funders to benchmark data to assess diversity within the field of health philanthropy. Benchmarks used to assess diversity levels for health funders’ leadership and staff include demographic data on (1) the broader philanthropic field from the Council on Foundations and (2) the U.S. adult population from the U.S. Census Bureau. Benchmarks used to assess diversity levels for health funders’ boards include demographic data on (1) board membership for the broader nonprofit sector from BoardSource and (2) the U.S. adult population from the U.S. Census Bureau. Current data on the demographic composition of philanthropic boards are not available.
Focus Areas: