# Just 13% of charity boards have gender parity

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2023/03/21/just-13-of-charity-boards-have-gender-parity/
- Published: 2023-03-21T09:35:00+00:00
- Author: Melanie May

**Despite women making up 68% of civil society workers, only 13% of boards have 
gender parity, an Inclusive Boards report has found.**

The [Inclusive Governance 2022 report](https://www.inclusiveboards.co.uk/resource/charities-inclusive-governance-report-2022/)
looks at the top 500 UK charities by income and shows the progress that has been
made in the sector since Inclusive Boards’ last report in 2018, as well as where
improvements still need to be made.

It finds that while this group of charities has progressed in many areas, gender
parity at board level has still not been reached and ethnic diversity still lags
behind the FTSE 100. In addition, senior leadership teams remain behind boards in
terms of gender, racial and ethnic diversity.

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Key findings include:

 * 29% of charities have all white boards compared to 4% of FTSE 100 boards
 * 51% of charities do not have a minority ethnic woman on their board
 * 84% of trustees are white and 16% are from minority ethnic backgrounds. This 
   however represents a 9.4 percentage points increase from the 2018 findings
 * Women represent 40% of trustees & 7% of trustees in the UK’s top 500 charities
   are minority ethnic women
 * Inclusive Boards identified 15 boards with more than ten female trustees and 
   just one all-female board (UK Online Giving Foundation)
 * 65 charities out of 500 (13%) have an equal number of male and female executives,
   an increase of 17 since 2018
 * 9% of senior leadership team members are from a minority ethnic background
 * Over 1 in 10 charities have an all-male senior leadership team

#### Report recommendations

The report includes a set of recommendations to help accelerate progress towards
a more equal, diverse and inclusive civil society sector. These include steps for
the Charity Commission to take such as introducing a requirement for charities with
250 or more employees to annually publish diversity data of their boards and senior
leadership teams, and an updating of its current and future Business Plans to include
a specific focus on equality, diversity, and inclusion priorities.

For charities, its recommendations include that all should aim for gender parity
across their board and senior leadership composition; that they should aim for levels
of representation for individuals from minority ethnic backgrounds with senior leadership
using place-based (local) as opposed to national benchmarks; and promote relevant
schemes, internally and externally, to ensure a continuous pipeline of diverse candidates
for senior leadership and board positions.

The report can be [found here](https://www.inclusiveboards.co.uk/resource/charities-inclusive-governance-report-2022/).

 * **[New funding body to support women’s issues](https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/06/10/new-funding-body-support-women039s-issues/)**(
   10 June 2008)
 * **[Women still favour animal welfare and religious causes investment over women's social justice issues](https://fundraising.co.uk/2011/06/20/women-still-favour-animal-welfare-and-religious-causes-investment-over-women039s-social-justice-issu/)**(
   20 June 2011)
 * **[Today’s fundraisers, tomorrow’s leaders](https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/03/08/todays-fundraisers-tomorrows-leaders/)**(
   8 March 2016)