How is your charity doing on EDI?

Getting EDI right is about making sure your organisation truly reflects and serves the communities it exists to support. So how are you doing?

Weak EDI practice can mean services that miss the mark, recruitment that draws from too narrow a pool, and a culture where some people don’t feel safe or welcome. Strong EDI practice builds trust, improves outcomes, and makes your organisation more resilient.

A quick self-assessment

Equality and Diversity UK have produced a practical checklist, ‘Anchoring EDI in Voluntary and Community Organisations‘, designed specifically for trustees and staff in the charity sector. It covers everything from recruitment and service delivery to decision-making and data collection, and includes a simple scoring tool to help you identify where you’re doing well and where there’s room to grow. It’s worth working through as a trustee board or senior team to understand where you currently stand.

EDI is also a key part of good governance and features in the Charity Governance Code and in the governance self-assessment tracker we’ve highlighted in the article below. These are both useful resources to help you think about your next steps.

Next steps

If you’re not sure where to start, here are a few suggestions that can make a real difference:

Appoint an EDI champion within your organisation – someone with the responsibility and the backing to keep this on the agenda.
Review your recruitment practices (for both paid and voluntary roles) to make sure you’re reaching a wide and diverse range of people.
Audit the accessibility of your services. This can cover everything from location to the language and formats you use to communicate, to your policies and culture.
Commit to collecting and actually using equality data to inform your decisions.

EDI isn’t a one-off project, and it is not one person’s responsibility. It is a commitment that needs to be revisited regularly, with honest reflection and a willingness to improve.