Be proactive through targeted recruitment and cultivation
Leadership positions – both staff and volunteer – are in high demand at Ontario’s largest grantmaking foundation. The Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) enjoys a high profile in the province thanks in large part to its vast network of frontline local volunteers, the more than 4000 community nonprofits it supports every year with grants and its de-centralized staffing structure with offices in 16 catchment areas across the province. This wide-spread presence draws a continual flow of leaders eager to play a part in building healthy and vibrant communities.
Ensuring that diverse leaders are part of this pool of applicants is intrinsic to how the foundation functions. “It does not help to turn one’s attention to the issue of diversity only when vacancies arise,” says L. Robin Cardozo, the foundation’s president & CEO.
For starters, the door is clearly wide open to diverse leaders with Cardozo, a visible minority himself, at the helm. It is also explicitly stated as a core value and an operating principle to which staff and volunteers sign on and that can be seen by all online and in public documents.
But efforts do not stop here. OTF has built in an ongoing process to outreach and screen diverse candidates. Even though board appointments are not its responsibility – Cabinet has this role – OTF actively recruits qualified candidates from a variety of backgrounds and guides them through the government appointments process. Senior staff and volunteers approach community leaders directly, post positions to the web and in targeted local media. On a bi-monthly basis they track applicants’ progress.
Today there are six visible minorities on the OTF board and 17 on the three GTA-based grant review teams. For Cardozo these results are not about the numbers. “Having a more diverse leadership has allowed us to better appreciate the different communities and to better respond to their needs in culturally appropriate ways.”
The Ontario Trillium Foundation received a Maytree Diversity in Governance Award in 2007. OTF is also a partner in DiverseCity: The Greater Toronto Leadership Project.
