In the minority

Voluntary Sector

November 2007

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The relationship between UK charities and ethnic minorities is angst-ridden, says Joe Saxton.

There is no doubt that the charity sector in the UK manages to feel a high degree of angst about its relationship with ethnic minority communities. Many charities are largely run by white, middle-class people but nonetheless devote a large amount of energy to equal opportunities policies. Charities run a variety of services targeted at ethnic minorities, or run services in geographic areas with a high proportion of people from ethnic minorities.

If angst alone were enough to create diversity there is no doubt that the voluntary and community sector would be fantastically diverse and representative of the breadth of the population as a whole. But angst does not lead to action. The sector has a tiny portion of chief executives from ethnic minorities and, in many charities, the situation for senior staff as a whole is little better. The sad reality is the sector has been good at process but terrible at results. Equal opportunities has produced a strait-jacketed and homogenised approach to staff recruitment but done little for diversity.

Worse still, while the sector has been coming to terms with its lack of progress on ethnic minorities the ground has been shifting under its feet. The influx of people from eastern and western Europe has meant that, in many parts of the country, it is no longer people from Bangladesh or Pakistan who are the ethnic minorities, but immigrants from Poland, Lithuania, or Hungary. In London, French people are now, allegedly, the largest ethnic minority.

In the US, it is routine to survey African-American men or Hispanic women to understand their perceptions and view-points. Only recently have these kinds of services been available in the UK, and this is one of the reasons that nfpSynergy is launching a new service to help charities monitor the attitudes and understanding of ethnic minorities to charities, giving and volunteering.

But in the end what matters is not how good the processes are, or the market research or the intentions for recruitment of staff, but the engagement of ethnic minority communities on every level. It is charities that are missing out – not just the groups of people we perceive to be unable to access our service/information – since it is exactly these people who will know what they need, what they can give, and how best to talk to them.

On every level, more effective and more sustained engagement with ethnic minorities is a top priority for the sector’s growth and development.

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