Diversity on college campuses continues to rise and will soon permeate our alumni population as well. This important progress has enriched our institutions and has been shown to help increase team collaboration and ultimately financial success. But all too often teams of advancement professionals have a difficult time realizing the tangible benefits of diversity and multiculturalism because of structural barriers.
EAB has adopted a multicultural organization development checklist to meet the needs of today’s advancement shops. Ultimately, the checklist can help teams foster an inclusive, multicultural, and diverse organization that better reflects the students and alumni they are serving. The checklist is divided into five distinct areas where advancement leaders can focus to realize the full benefits of diversity:
- Leadership and Advocacy
- Recruitment and Retention
- Expectations of Multicultural Competency
- Multicultural Competency Training
- Assessment
The checklist should be reviewed and completed with departmental leaders to audit advancements’ existing work and to identify service gaps. After service gaps are identified, determine individuals or divisions that will be responsible for making appropriate changes and agree on a timeline as necessary. Advancement leaders may need to work with central human resource partners to better understand what central services are already provided as to not duplicate efforts.
After completing the checklist, continue to update the list on a quarterly basis so that advancement leaders can track progress towards these important goals and celebrate contributors who successfully implemented the specific programs.
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