Racial Equity CEO Survey Summary Report

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Members of The Presidents’ Forum and other foundation presidents were invited to participate in a 10-minute, confidential, online survey to provide their honest feedback about their organizations and their efforts to address racial equity. Those who received the survey have had some exposure to The Presidents’ Forum, either through attending a virtual or in-person convening or by receiving Presidents’ Forum communications via website, email, journal articles, and/or social media. The survey was launched via email on October 12, 2020, and remained open through October 30, 2020, and two reminder emails were sent (on October 16 and October 23). A total of 51 surveys were completed (a 19% response rate).

This report provides a summary of the results from the 51 completed surveys, including three sets of Likert-scaled items that gauge commitment level, knowledge of several key metrics, and level of implementation in several racial equity activities (see Appendix A for full survey). In addition, two open-ended questions were included to collect information on lessons learned and additional needs to continue participants’ work toward racial equity within philanthropy.

The results of the foundation CEO survey indicate that grantmaking organizations have expressed a strong commitment to racial equity but vary in the degree to which they have implemented strategies that would lead to increased racial equity within their organizations or through their grantmaking practices. While the vast majority of the participants’ organizations have leadership who believe in the importance of racial equity and who have made public statements to this effect, fewer of these organizations have disaggregated their outcome data to examine racial inequities in their work. The lack of or limited data presents a challenge in operationalizing those commitments and impedes a comprehensive understanding of the communities and organizations they serve.