Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity

President’s Message on Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity

Since our founding in 1948, The Pew Charitable Trusts has sought to improve civic life, strengthen democracy, and make governments more effective and responsive. Over the years, we have contributed to numerous initiatives designed to improve education, job creation, and opportunity in Philadelphia and throughout the United States. In the 1950s, we began supporting historically black colleges and universities in an effort that became one of our longest-lasting grant programs. We started working on environmental issues with a diverse range of stakeholders in the 1970s; and in 1991, we began partnering with Indigenous people on land and ocean conservation. Since 2005, we have sought ways to directly address some of the challenges that disproportionately affect those who are disadvantaged by systemic inequities, including incarceration, juvenile justice, debt, and access to credit.

We know that in America and around the globe, people of color, LGBTQ individuals, women, people of faith, and others have been discriminated against and disadvantaged. The multitude of perspectives offered by our staff and our partners has always been integral to our work. But it is only recently that we have been intentional in our efforts to focus on inclusion, diversity, and equity as a shared responsibility, initiating a dialogue with staff about how we can do better.

Since the formation of a Steering Committee in 2018, we have:

• Created the staff-led Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity Council at the Trusts as a complement to the Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity Council at our subsidiary, the Pew Research Center.
• Broadened and deepened the Center’s research agenda focused on race and ethnicity to explain differences in the full spectrum of the American experience, including economics, family, work, politics, technology, identity, and faith.
• Begun exploring how to use the lens of inclusion, diversity, and equity in the Trusts’ research and policy projects.
• Provided unconscious bias training for all staff members.
• Committed to a senior leadership position to direct our inclusion, diversity, and equity efforts.
• Worked harder to ensure that our hiring and management practices expand diversity and eliminate bias.

Together, we are working to promote inclusion, diversity, and equity, identify and address existing and emerging issues that can affect our workplace, and share best practices throughout the organization.

As part of that commitment, we are sharing information about the diversity of our team. The demographic information below reflects the gender, race and ethnicity, and age of our staff as of June 30, 2020. We know that when we include a diverse range of perspectives and backgrounds, we can get better at asking the right questions and crafting innovative solutions. Although there is more work ahead, we are proud of our team and look forward to taking the next steps together. We will continue to listen, learn, document disparities, and work toward much-needed change.

Susan K. Urahn

Workforce Demographics

Data as of June 30, 2020

Our workforce demographics data is also provided on the GuideStar by Candid website. Due to reporting limitations on that site, the information provided there reflects our U.S. staff members only. To view information about staff demographics for our subsidiary, the Pew Research Center, please visit pewresearch.org