The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is committed to building a Culture of Health that provides everyone in America a fair and just opportunity for health and well-being. Achieving this goal requires valuing and focusing on equity, diversity, and inclusion.

To that end, as described in our Guiding Principles and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Commitment, we are committed to fostering diverse perspectives and inclusive environments. We recognize that individuals’ perspectives are shaped by a host of factors, including their demographic identities and other personal and professional experiences. As an organization, we believe it is crucial that our discussions and actions are evidence-based and reflect an understanding of those individual factors that shape diverse perspectives. This desire was a driving force behind our efforts to develop and launch a comprehensive survey effort to collect demographic data from ourselves and those with whom we work.

Earlier this year, we launched this pilot survey internally with RWJF employees and Board of Trustee members and externally with the leadership of newly awarded grants and program contracts. We worked closely with the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) to design and administer the survey.

While various organizations have historically collected demographic data, a scan of the field suggests that there is no one-size-fits-all approach across the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors. We are sharing our approach here with the hope of sparking additional conversations among our collaborators and peers, and of encouraging more transparency from other funders in our sector.

We benefited tremendously from peers and other nonprofit organizations who shared with us their approaches, considerations, and lessons learned from their own experiences. Their insights helped us develop five principles that informed our approach.

Principle 1: Survey respondents, whether internal or external to our organization, must be asked to report on the same set of demographic measures.

Principle 2: Survey respondents must only be asked to report demographic data for themselves.

Principle 3: Inclusivity of all identities is key across all demographic measures.

Principle 4: Transparency is important, but sharing demographic data should be an anonymous, confidential, and voluntary process.

Principle 5: The storage and use of collected demographic data and any related dissemination efforts must be disclosed prior to surveying respondents.

Read the full article about collecting and understanding demographic data by Brian C. Quinn and Priya Gandhi at The Center for Effective Philanthropy.