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The purpose of the Equity Hiring in Advancement initiative is to provide an equity hiring framework for the advancement industry.

 

As institutional advancement professionals, we help our institutions advance societies through discovery and research. Our institutions serve a diverse population of students from all across the world. It is imperative to ensure that the diversity of our student bodies is reflected in each institution’s leadership, staff, and faculty ranks.

 

To ensure equity hiring in institutional advancement, we are committed to adopting the following measures. Our Institutional Advancement office shall commit to:

 

1. Developing and implementing bias-free recruitment processes

2. Hiring processes that focus on candidates’ professional competencies, mission alignment, and cultural contributions and prevent any hiring decision based on “fit”

3. Assembling search committees and hiring panels that reflect diversity by including two or more members of historically underrepresented minority groups

4. Proactively engage with a broad range of nontraditional recruitment venues (i.e., in particular, those geared towards historically underrepresented minorities) to attract diverse candidates from minoritized groups

5. Include at least two or more members of a historically underrepresented minority group in the pool of candidates for senior director, executive director, assistant vice president/chancellor, associate vice president/chancellor, senior associate vice president/chancellor, vice president/chancellor, and president/chancellor vacancies

6. Having each pool of finalists for such leadership roles include at least one member of an underrepresented minority group (in case of four finalists, the number will increase to two) or at least 50% of the finalist pool of any search

7. Ensure that historically underrepresented minorities are compensated fairly in comparison to non-minoritized professionals

8. Invest in retention efforts by conducting annual audits on retention of historically underrepresented minorities and addressing issues that are identified as leading to poor retention

9. Invest in building and fostering inclusive cultures by investing in annual diversity, equity, and inclusion audits and assessments and develop measurable goals for tracking purposes

10. Retaining search firms that have demonstrated a commitment to recruiting and advancing historically underrepresented minorities with their clients, and within their own firms

11. Mandate unconscious bias/anti-racism training for all university advancement staff, in particular, hiring managers, supervisors, and leadership teams

 

The Black Leaders in Philanthropy – Executive Committee

• Jacquie Patterson, Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Community Relations, Salus University

• Angelique Grant, Ph.D. Senior Consultant + Principal, The Inclusion Firm

• Lishelle Blakemore, Associate Vice Chancellor, Development, UC Berkeley

• Gregory S. Perrin, AVP for Development and Alumni Relations, St. Edward’s University

• DeShanna K. Brown, Ed.D., DKB Consulting

• Floyd Akins, Vice President for University Advancement, The University of Toledo

• Dexter Bailey, Vice President for Advancement and Alumni Relations, Caltech

• Timothy Minor, Chief Development Officer & Executive Vice President of the V Foundation for Cancer Research

• Kim Nyoni, Assistant Vice President for Development at The University of Florida (Equity Pledge Chair)