The fallout of #CharitySoWhite six months later

The shape of things

Since its inception, #CharitySoWhite has unearthed sobering truths about the sector but also moved forward to question and reshape the current landscape.

The huge response to #CharitySoWhite attested the many racist incidents across the sector. The vast range of personal accounts of racism came from interns, managers all the way up to board members. With over 3000 tweets on the first day, #CharitySoWhite has mobilised to expose and combat racism. The team is working to amplify the voices of BAME people in the sector and engage with senior figures to have an honest dialogue about how to progress inclusion.

We’ve come a long way together

In six months, #CharitySoWhite have done great things. Here are six of their breakthroughs:

1. The significance of acknowledging racism in the sector and working with prominent organisations, they had their first public acknowledgement of institutional racism from the Institute of Fundraising.
2. The hashtag has become a unit of 11 people working in or closely with the sector daily and intend to expand.
3. Influential voices have united under #CharitySoWhite and have publicly criticised a problematic article following the Citizens Advice scandal.
4. The #CharitySoWhite Twitter account has 2100 followers.
5. #CharitySoWhite have discussed their work at nine events including NPC Ignites, Civil Society Race to the Top and IFC 2019.
6. They invited Citizens Advice to join their organisation and explore the significance of recognition.

The #CharitySoWhite movement set out to make the sector better by embracing the passion of BAME employees for the sector to drive social justice. They believe that the charity sector can combat and tackle embedded power structures to lead social progress.

Embracing change

In October 2019, the #CharitySoWhite team met with NCVO. The staff at NCVO detailed the internal response to the movement. Conversations throughout the organisation propelled them to develop initial actions to address these issues in the sector.

Here at Charity Digital, we discussed the climate surrounding #CharitySoWhite. In our very first Charity Digital Podcast, our guest host and former CharityComms editor Susheila Juggapah was joined by Brand By Me Founder Collette Philip Keen and Charity Digital’s own Raabia Fazil for a discussion about their experiences as women of colour working for charities.

To shake up the status quo, we launched a campaign to find the top charity digital BAME leaders. We asked our readers to nominate the inspiring BAME individuals that they worked with and were delighted by the huge and positive response.

From a trickle to a flood, the personal testimonies shared by BAME employees in the sector and the commitment of #CharitySoWhite have done great things. The initial conversation about representation and recognition in the sector indicates the shape of things to come. The great strides made so far demonstrate that charities can certainly come together to leap over these hurdles in the drive to progress.