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The Detroit Nonprofit Leadership Census was a landmark survey effort spearheaded by Michigan Nonprofit Association, Data Driven Detroit, Grand Valley State University Johnson Center for Philanthropy, and the Knight Foundation. The goal: to gather Detroit-specific data about the demographics of nonprofit leadership and staff and about how things like an organization’s revenue and assets vary by race.
The data gathered from over 200 survey respondents provides further evidence of what many of us already sensed: there are notable racial disparities among nonprofits in Detroit.
The data suggests that BIPOC-led nonprofits generally have fewer human and capital resources, in terms of numbers of average members, average staff members, owned assets, and earned revenues.
Michigan Community Resources and Co.act Detroit were asked to leverage our strengths as conveners to engage survey respondents and other key stakeholders in this landmark census effort to gather Detroit-specific data about the demographics of nonprofit leadership and staff.
In November 2021, we convened two focus groups and hosted a Call to Action Launch Event in January 2022. These events engaged 17 survey respondents and 24 respondents.