In a Letter to the Editor of the Chicago Sun-Times entitled “Illinois Diversity Reporting Mandate is Burdensome on Nonprofits,” Philanthropy Roundtable’s Senior Director of Government Affairs Megan Schmidt responds to the recent passage of Illinois bill SB 2930. Schmidt says the bill requires nonprofits to disclose the demographics of their board of directors and explains there are better ways to encourage diversity than government mandates.
Read excerpts from the Letter to the Editor, published in the Chicago Sun-Times, below:
“Over the summer, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed SB 2930 into law. This new law requires nonprofits granting over $1 million to another nonprofit organization to annually disclose the demographic make-up of their board of directors.”
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“This new law is a bold move by the Illinois government. It marks the first time a state has successfully mandated nonprofit organizations to report their board demographics.”
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“While nonprofits nationwide have been spared from being swept up in government-forced diversity mandates, Illinois nonprofits will now be forced to comply with this new law. The author of SB 2930 has been vocal about her desire to force bigger nonprofits to diversify. However, this is not the way to do it. Many nonprofits already encourage an inclusive environment without having a government mandate. Nonprofits should be allowed to choose the most qualified person to join their boards and shouldn’t be forced to select a person because they check a box. As Patrice Onwuka has shown, “Advocates of greater board diversity commonly argue it improves a firm’s financial performance. The data are less certain.”
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“The Illinois legislature should have left well enough alone and not pursued legislation that will force some nonprofits to go against their deeply held beliefs. These organizations have better things to focus on, like helping their communities, than complying with some arbitrary mandate.”
Please continue reading “Illinois Diversity Reporting Mandate is Burdensome on Nonprofits,” at Chicago Sun-Times.
