Diversifying Public Boards
Public Domain
Toronto’s Maytree Foundation facilitates change through leadership. Nice words but what do they mean? In the case of Maytree’s DiverseCity: The Greater Toronto Leadership Project, specifically its DiverseCity onBoard initiative, those words mean changing the world by:
- Identifying potential leaders among immigrants and minorities who have been underrepresented in the power structure.
- Matching these leaders with positions in government and public agencies, boards and commissions.
- Enabling governing bodies to more closely resemble—and therefore more effectively serve—those who are governed.
SITUATION
According to research by the Maytree Foundation and the Diversity Institute, Canada is one of the most diverse countries in the world. Approximately 20 percent of its population was born outside of the country and 16 percent are visible minorities. (The Canadian Employment Equity Act defines visible minorities as “persons, other than Aboriginal Peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour.”) Examples include Chinese, South Asian, Black, Filipino, Latin American, Southeast Asian, Arab, West Asian, Korean, and Japanese individuals.
In Vancouver and Toronto, minorities make up 42 percent and 43 percent of the population, respectively.
Canada’s population is diverse but does its leadership reflect that diversity? The Maytree Foundation set out to get an answer.
Working with the foundation, researchers Wendy Cukier and Margaret Yap at the Diversity Institute at Ryerson University noted the following: “In a selected region of the Greater Toronto Area where 49.5 percent of the population is visible minority, only 13 percent of 3,257 leaders from this same area are visible minorities.”
Ratna Omidvar, the president of the Maytree Foundation, explains what that finding means to her, “I’ve always felt that public institutions and government have a higher bar to measure up to because of their public service mission, which must reflect in many ways a changing public. The effectiveness of public boards depends on the people who serve on them, and that’s why we decided to get involved.”
ACTION
Four years ago, Omidvar and her staff began to address this leadership gap in diversity by creating the DiverseCity onBoard initiative, which is coordinated by a manager and two staff members at the foundation and is a shining example of an effective private-public partnership.
“The premise is simple: There are qualified and diverse people who live in the Greater Toronto Area and who would like to contribute to the greater good. Unfortunately, they don’t have the networks or they aren’t aware of the opportunities to serve on boards of agencies, taskforces, or commissions in the city,” Omidvar said.
Foundation staff spread the word about the initiative to various groups in the Greater Toronto Area, asking qualified people to apply and serve on public boards. Simultaneously, foundation staff worked with the local government to understand how the board-appointment process worked and which offices and organizations were interested in placing individuals of diverse backgrounds.
According to Ontario Public Appointments Secretariat Debra Roberts, Ontario’s Premier made it clear that he wanted public agencies to look like the face of Ontario, which included more ethnic diversity, more women, and greater regional representation. Roberts and her staff, along with staff at many other government agencies, work closely with the Maytree Foundation to identify and help place individuals with diverse backgrounds on public boards.
“Maytree plays the role of facilitator. We identify qualified individuals and place them in our database—so they can get the attention of the decisionmaker, which in this case is the government,” Omidvar said.
The foundation staff reviews all applications and interviews every candidate. For individuals who are interested in serving on boards but who aren’t “board ready,” the foundation offers leadership and governance training.
“There are layers of sophistication that are required when you are looking at a public appointment to a board or a commission that is charged with protecting the public good and public funds,” Omidvar noted.
Once individuals are selected, their names and profiles (including information such as their competencies, skills, interests, and passions) are kept in the foundation’s database, which government partners can access. The password-protected system helps the foundation manage the process effectively and efficiently.
RESULT
Omidvar is ambitious. Her goal is to place 500 candidates on public and nonprofit boards by sometime in 2010. To date, the foundation has placed more than 300 appointments.
Her lessons learned to grantmakers who are interested in forming a partnership with government are simple:
- Bring to your meetings (especially the initial one) a well-articulated fact base and business case explaining why, where, and how government has a role.
- Represent a specific demographic (in Omidvar’s case, visible minorities) and ensure that you make the link with the broader public good to elevate your cause above that of the usual special interest group.
- Have a concrete “ask.”
Successful Board Placement: The Ontario Science Center
The Ontario Science Centre was one of the first local institutions the Maytree Foundation helped by increasing board diversity. The centre’s exhibits, educational offerings, and special events attract both residents and visitors to Toronto. It receives half of its $36 million budget from the government of Ontario and raises the remaining half from ticket sales, sponsorships, and other lines of business.
The centre is located in an ethnically mixed neighborhood, and the centre’s board realized that visitors—increasingly South Asian, Black, and Latino children—differed significantly from the individuals who worked there and governed the institution. Representatives from the centre worked with Maytree Foundation staff to identify potential board candidates, ultimately selecting an individual of Palestinian decent to serve on the centre’s board.
According to Ratna Omidvar, president of the Maytree Foundation, the addition of a diverse perspective on the board has helped the Ontario Science Centre better develop exhibits with its neighbors in mind. For example, the centre created its successful “Sultans of Science” exhibit, which showcased scientific innovations and accomplishments from Turkey and the Middle East. The new board member supported the exhibit and encouraged the centre to reach out to untapped communities, including one of the largest Muslim communities in Canada.
To learn more about the Ontario Science Centre’s board diversity strategy, read the Maytree Foundation publication, Diversity Matters.
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