The number of UK charitable foundations reporting diversity data has increased but diversity is still the “weakest domain by far” among such organisations, a new report says.
The Foundation Practice Report Rating is a yearly report conducted by Giving Evidence, a consultancy that specialises in the production and use of evidence in charitable giving, and published by the Friends Provident Foundation.
It analyses and grades a random sample of 100 UK foundations in areas of diversity, accountability and transparency.
The foundations are graded A to D, with 11 foundations in the new report given an overall rating of A, up from seven and three in previous years.
Last year, only nine foundations disclosed data on the diversity of their staff or trustees. This figure doubled to 18 this year.
Foundations posted a score of 0.2 for diversity last year, which rose to 0.27 in the latest report – a 35 per cent increase.
“We have used the same dimensions of diversity in 2023/24 as we did in 2022/23: gender, race, sexual orientation and disability,” the report says.
“The Foundation Practice Report has no opinion on whether any foundation’s diversity is ‘enough’ or what it should be.
“We simply note what it reports.”
For the first time, a foundation achieved an A for diversity in 2023/24 and there are more Bs and fewer Ds.
But the report says diversity is the weakest domain by far, as it was in the previous two reports.
“Although one foundation scored A on diversity, many achieved that on the other two domains,” the report reads.
“Nearly a third scored D on diversity, and 11 scored nothing on diversity.”
The report accounts for foundations that included diversity data for 2023/24 but not 2022/23.
“We need to be mindful that there are two groups of those,” the report reads.
“First, foundations which were included in 2022/23 but didn’t report about diversity, then did by 2023/24. Also foundations which weren’t included in 2022/23, let’s call the two groups ‘newly-reporting foundations’.”
For trustees, no newly-reporting foundation reported greater diversity this year than the foundation that reported the greatest diversity last year.
On ethnicity, the foundation that in 2022/23 reported the greatest proportion of trustees who declared themselves something other than white was the Blagrave Trust, at 63 per cent.
The trust’s figure for this was unchanged in 2023/24.
All of this year’s figures for the newly-reporting foundations on ethnicity were lower than that for the Blagrave Trust.
For staff, some newly-reporting foundations in the latest year reported greater diversity of staff ethnicity and gender.
Last year, the foundation that reported the greatest proportion of staff who declared themselves something other than white was the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, at 23 per cent.
The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation’s number was unchanged but the Friends Provident Foundation started reporting this year and recorded 38 per cent.
On gender, the foundation with the greatest proportion of staff who declared themselves something other than male last year was the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, at 71 per cent. Its figure was unchanged in this year.
But this year, the Indigo Trust started reporting on this and reported 100 per cent.
Three other newly-reporting foundations also reported figures higher than 71 per cent.
According to the UK Census, 17 per cent of the population identify as disabled and only four foundations reported more than that proportion of their staff identified as disabled; eight reported fewer.
For trustees, six foundations reported a proportion lower than 17 per cent, whereas four reported having more.
Foundations also posted low scores on diversity criteria including having a plan to improve the diversity of trustees or board members, with numerical targets at 3 per cent, and having a plan to improve the diversity of staff, with numerical targets at 4 per cent.