Third Sector: A third of the largest charities 'Have all-white senior leadership Teams and Boards

Green Park has released new research reviewing the diversity in Major UK Charities which has found that more than a third (34) of the largest 100 UK charities by turnover have no ethno-cultural diversity in their senior leadership team.

The Green Park ‘Third Sector Leadership 2,000’ examines the backgrounds of 1,866 individuals in total. The aggregate analysis of the cohort by gender and ethno-cultural background is derived from a sophisticated software, using a database of 1.2 billion individual records globally.

The analysis highlights that the largest charitable institutions have incredibly limited ethno-cultural representation at the highest levels of management, with 92% of the senior leadership team being white.  Only 8.1% of senior positions in the largest 100 UK charities are held by ethnic minority leaders and at the most senior level of Chair, CEO and CFO this drops to 6.2%.

Women hold only 41% of senior leadership positions in leading UK charities, despite representing 51% of the UK population. At the Top 3 level, this is even less at just 27.5%, demonstrating that there may still be a glass ceiling holding women back from the most senior decision-making roles. With 77% of Chair positions currently being held by men; the role of Chair is the most male-dominated of the Top 3 roles.

This article was published in Third Sector on the 6th of June 2018. To view this article, please click here.