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Data Equity Initiative

Using Demographic Data as a Tool for Equity

A recent philanthropic report from the Nonprofit Finance Fund pointed to the “deep disparities… in the level of giving and other forms of support for white-led nonprofits versus those led by Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color.” Additionally, research from Echoing Green and Bridgespan found that “revenues of the Black-led organizations are 45 percent smaller than those of the white-led organizations, and the unrestricted net assets of the Black-led organizations are 91 percent smaller than the white-led organizations—despite focusing on the same work.” At the same time, leaders are seeing that “philanthropy is overlooking leaders of color who have the most lived experience with and understanding of the problems [the sector is] trying to solve.”

In talking with our members over the last years, we consistently heard two themes related to these inequities: First, our nonprofit members are largely white-led and white-founded organizations. This meant that organizations led by people identifying as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color across the state were lacking access to the funding resources, opportunities, and connections Maine Philanthropy Center provides. Second, our funder members spoke about their desire to find and fund organizations led by people who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, but that they knowingly have limited networks and relationships with the communities leading these organizations. Our members also helped us recognize that there are currently no tools available in Maine that collect or distribute the full spectrum of demographic data for nonprofit and funding organizations.

Taking into consideration all of this data, MPC welcomes self-identified Black-, Indigenous-, and People of Color-led organizations to take advantage of our reduced cost or no cost memberships if needed. We have also introduced a system to gather demographic data for all of our members as a tool to drive equity in our sector.

All membership forms include optional questions about demographic data of the  leadership and founder(s) of the organization, as well as the communities that are primarily served through the organization. When selected, these fields will be available as filter options in our public Member Directory. Anyone using the Member Directory will also be able to filter by these fields to find organizations that identify this way. Primary and administrative contacts can also update these fields at any time by going to My Account then My Organizations and clicking Edit.

We hope the filter tool can help us use an intersectional approach to understanding Maine organizations. The selection options are in line with Candid's Populations. Please note that MPC is not placing an inherent judgment or value on organizations based on their answers in these fields.

With all new offerings, we at MPC know that we are learning and may make mistakes. Your input is crucial to our work and we welcome feedback as an opportunity to continually improve our offerings to the community. Please send us feedback about this initiative at mpc@mainephilanthropy.org.

Existing organizations and resources supporting BIPOC communities

We encourage you to explore organizations that are doing work to support Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and immigrant and refugee communities by utilizing great publicly available tools:

Reduced cost MPC memberships available

In an effort to challenge the deep disparities between white-led and BIPOC-led nonprofits (Nonprofit Finance Fund) and as part of our commitment to equity, we encourage organizations who identify as Black-, Indigenous-, and People of Color-led to take advantage of our reduced cost memberships if needed. Any organization that self-reports the need for supplemental support to get an MPC membership can use a 50% discount or 100% discount on their applicable membership tier. Simply use the code MEMBER50 or MEMBER100 in your membership form to automatically apply the discount. To learn more about reduced cost memberships, visit the FAQ.

Guidelines

The leadership team can be defined as those serving in decision-making roles. Some examples of leadership and/or governing body might include: Board of Directors, Advisory Board, senior staff, executive directors, etc.

In the context of our demographic collection, we ask that organizations select options that describe the identities that the majority, or over 50%, of the leadership team hold.

We recognize that not all organizations are hierarchical in nature, so who is making decisions might look different from one organization to the next. Organizations themselves should determine who are their core decision makers.

We would like users of our Member Directory to be able to search by as many relevant and useful categories as possible. We believe that understanding who founded an organization (even as it perhaps overlaps with leadership and communities served) is an important part of an organization’s story.

In the context of our demographic collection, we ask that organizations select options that describe the identities of one or more of its founding members.

In the context of our demographic collection, we ask that organizations select options that fulfill one or more of these areas:

  • The organization’s mission explicitly names this community as a target population for their work
  • The majority of the organization’s work serves this community
  • The organization has created program(s) specifically for this community

While organizations can serve a wide array of communities through its services, we feel it is important to use this initiative to identify organizations who are specifically serving historically marginalized communities. Our hope is to make it easier for funders, nonprofits, and others in our network to find organizations who are impacting the communities that they are interested in supporting.

No. The intention of this initiative is not to provide value judgement on organizations’ commitment to or progress towards diversity, equity, or inclusion. Instead, it is an opportunity to learn and engage more with organizations who are directly associated with historically marginalized communities.