In the nonprofit world, leadership often doesn’t mirror the makeup of the people these organizations seek to help. One recent study found that less than 20% of nonprofit director roles were filled by minorities — a shamefully low number that most would agree should be corrected.

However, agreeing with something and actually making it happen are two very different things. Many organizations simply don’t know how to encourage diversity. Cultural differences and unconscious biases lead to hiring practices that value certain backgrounds and schools over others, causing recruiters to miss out on wide swaths of qualified candidates without realizing it.

Even more concerning, a lack of diverse leadership usually makes it more difficult to diversify the rest of your company — creating a self-defeating cycle that’s hard to break. For a nonprofit to appeal to and engage diverse parties, its leadership needs to look the part.

It seems almost too simple, but making your nonprofit leadership more diverse is a straightforward way to help the rest of your company become more diverse. Yet, too few organizations are taking this step — probably because they aren’t sure where to start. Here are three steps you can take to diversify your leadership and boost your nonprofit’s health in the process.

  1. Develop a mentor program. 
  2. Recruit beyond your borders. 
  3. Court outside perspectives. 

Read the full article about diverse nonprofit leadership by Kevin Xu at Forbes.