What I've noticed as a Black, male, non-profit leader in the democracy space
By Rashawn Davis
Editor’s note: Rashawn Davis recently left the Andrew Goodman Foundation as Executive Director. And he has some thoughts to share!
This piece is excerpted from Rashawn’s great new Substack, Pulse Check.
P.S. We did something new with this piece! We asked Rashawn to tell us a bit about why he wrote it. Here’s what he said:
Now, on to his piece!
I’ve spent the last few years as a Black, male, non-profit leader in the democracy space. As I traveled around to “all the things,” I was consistently floored by how insular our field has become.
There is a lack of representation in the rooms of dialogue, power, and decision-making, not simply along the lines of race but also along the lines of class, age, location, and perspective.
I’m amazed at how many ideas and leaders go unheard and under-resourced because of the high barriers to entry into the field and the misplaced partiality we give to longevity (and familiarity) over innovation.
Certainly, there are spaces in our field where there is diversity (yes, I said that word) of thought, where there are new leaders and fresh ideas, but we should all agree that there is not enough.
The consequence is that our efficacy suffers. Our ability to create dynamic and responsive programming and funding models is blunted. We create dangerous echo chambers. We unknowingly contract our field while trying to solve issues that grow more expansive daily.
If we are to meet this moment as a field, we need brave new ideas, voices, and lived experiences.
Despite the rhetoric, there is indeed great value in diversity, and we should not shy away from it.
Our orientation as a field must be unapologetically about growing and opening ourselves as a means of growing our very democracy and, in turn, saving it.
Thanks to the advocacy efforts of many, the philanthropic democracy sector is as large as it’s ever been and will hopefully soon be as resourced as it ever has been. Now is the time to be bold and courageous about our deficiencies as a field and what we plan to do to overcome them.
How can we create room for others? Lots of them.
Vast segments of our country still need to be brought into our democracy. A new generation needs our support in understanding the intrinsic value of democracy and civic participation. The voices of far too many people are missing from the conversations at the local, state, and federal levels of our country.
This is the work we are uniquely suited to do.
But we have to start from a place of humility and curiosity, knowing that what we are trying to save and defend has not been and is not enough.
Our country has changed, and we must as well with a great sense of urgency. Our best and most effective days are still ahead of us.
Rashawn Davis is the former Executive Director of the Andrew Goodman Foundation.
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Having applied for jobs in the democracy space last year after being laid off, I noticed just how undemocratic the democracy space is. First of all, not many remote jobs, ruling out a lot of disabled people, as well as anyone who can't afford to live in New York or DC. Second, so many of the "about us" pages were teeming with bios of elite university grads. Third, what few "new career" roles existed were either implicitly or explicitly age-limited, so if someone had a late start or a career shift, they weren't given the opportunity.
This isn't about sour grapes at not having been hired in this industry. I'm thinking much bigger than myself. Democracy is supposed to be about all the people, right? How can we make that case and gain the best insights if we're loading teams up with people from the same fancy institutions, wearing the same nice suits, living in the same expensive cities, and following essentially the same career trajectory? It seems so patently absurd that it shouldn't have to be mentioned, but only a few groups seem to understand that the democracy sector should be more representative of the democracy we're trying to strengthen.
I'm grateful to Rashawn for putting this out there. Diversity of all kinds absolutely makes every organization, and our democracy, stronger, and I hope more groups will do more than pay lip service to that idea.
1000000% agree... More can be done to foster innovation in the democracy space. Spread out the funding and allow the space for more than 1 or 2 ideas to thrive.