This image has the Design for Social Impact on the left. The letters are in capitals. The D is purple, F green, S orange and I mustard yellow. The image also has an illustration of five Black and brown people who are wearing brightly coloured clothes.

Welcome to the first in a series of articles by Design for Social Impact exploring social impact.

The state of affairs..

The statistics are staggering — 5.6% of the United States Gross Domestic Product (GDP) comes from the non-profit sector, which made up a $1.4 trillion contribution in 2022. In the UK, the non-profit/voluntary sector contributed about £20bn to the UK’s GDP in the same year, employing over 950,000 workers. In these two contexts, wanting a purpose-driven career has never been so popular.

However, when we scratch beneath the surface, the seemingly altruistic realm of non-profits reveals a stark reality — a reality marred by massive inequities that challenge the core of their mission.

Take the voluntary sector (as it is known) in the UK, for example. For a sector that is bent on doing good, it is disheartening to uncover significant disparities within its structure. The gender pay gap remains prevalent, with women often earning less than their male counterparts in leadership positions. There is a dearth of data capturing the experiences of nonbinary and transgender people. As Ruby Wong aptly points out, the sector seems to silently ignore people's struggles.

Add ethnic diversity to the mix and the numbers are shocking- 27 charities that reported data had an ethnicity pay gap with a combined average of 21.9% in favour of white staff. This compares to a UK national average ethnicity pay gap of 2.3%. And its not just small, obscure charities doing this- the third highest ethnicity pay gap was at international aid charity Unicef UK, which reported an 18.5% gap for 2022.

Although there is a little ray of light in terms of the representation of people living with disabilities working in the sector, with just over 1 in 5 (23%) people identifying as disabled, we shouldn’t be too optimistic about the overall progress towards inclusivity and equity more broadly. Yes, advancements appear to have been made, but it is crucial to recognize that this positive trend does not necessarily translate into equal treatment across all dimensions of identity. Even as the workforce becomes more diverse in terms of disability inclusion, the persistent underpayment and underrepresentation of women, trans people and ethnic minorities within this group underscore the urgent need for intersectional approaches to address the multifaceted challenges faced by marginalised individuals within the non-profit sector.

When we introduce the element of social class into the equation, we also have another problem. A report by RECLAIM found that 94% of people surveyed believed there is a complete lack of class diversity in think tanks and anti-poverty organisations in the UK. From a global perspective, there is little information about this area.

This indicates that although we hear a lot about the importance of lived experience, time and time again, people with the greatest proximity to an issue are rarely in leadership positions or have opportunities to influence strategic and operational decisions. These figures matter because the non-profit sector's lack of representation and lived experience significantly affects the services provided. Without diverse voices shaping the narrative, stereotypes and biases are perpetuated. This shows up as a limited and deficit-focused understanding around the nuanced issues people face, and a focus on outsider expertise (yes, international development/humanitarian aid in particular- we are talking to you, but that’s a whole other blog) and pre-ascribed resource allocation instead of seeing strengths, supporting mutual aid, participatory grantmaking (PGM) and other community-led solutions.

One of the biggest criticisms of the non-profit sector in INCITE! The Revolution Will Not be Funded centres around its tendency to frequently downplay and divert attention from the overarching structural and political transformations essential to tackle the root causes of social issues. This can result in a strategic framing of issues that places undue emphasis on individual responsibility, overshadowing the imperative for systemic change.

Nowhere is this more evident than in international development/humanitarian aid, which makes up a big part of the UK’s non-profit sector. Although this article mainly focuses on UK domestic programming, we cannot ignore the country's huge role in the global development non-profit space. This subsector has seen a +59% — increase in international development income in 10 years compared to a 10% increase in overall UK charity sector income.

The systemic inequities in the UK non-profit space are also prevalent in organisations' overseas operations. Over the past couple of years, growing critique has been mounting around how humanitarian interventions often fall short in confronting the root cause of the need for aid in the first place. Case in point: Gaza. As Themrise Khan points out, western non-profit organisations are pursuing and relying on funds (the UK has committed £87 million in aid to the Occupied Palestinian Territories (around US$109 million) from the very governments selling arms and conducting strikes in Yemen,

Welcome to the harsh reality behind the philanthropic façade. It’s not a matter of dismissing the importance of an active civil society; in fact, considering the current state of affairs, one could argue that we need it now more than ever. However, we find ourselves in a paradoxical situation where those most profoundly impacted by structural inequities are alarmingly distant from the creation and implementation of services meant to address their needs.

So far, this has not been a very cheerful article. But, while the feasibility of reforming the non-profit sector remains uncertain, it is crucial to recognise that there are so many civil society organisations seeking to doing things differently. We find hope and potential avenues for positive transformation in this collective effort and commitment to change. Design for Social Impact Lab (DFSI)* came about because we didn’t want to observe these inequities; we wanted to challenge them.

As a social enterprise, we have four main approaches that we see as part of a wider movement, made up of many contributors, actively seeking to transform the social impact space.

1. Using the DFSI framework, we provide strategic guidance, design consultations, and conduct equity audits for organisations and institutions seeking to set up or improve their social impact projects, policies and research. This is a crucial step towards enhancing their services' relevance, effectiveness, and impact.
2. We offer practical, quality and inclusive online courses on social impact design education, specialising in program design and research, to non-profit organisations, practitioners and people who traditionally have been excluded from accessing social design education and training.
3. We knowledge-share and capacity-mobilise with people from historically underserved backgrounds to reposition people with lived expertise as experts, ‘providers of aid’, and facilitators on our social impact design courses. We do this as a commitment to the importance of lived experience, pay parity and inclusion in social impact design. By the end of 2024, most of our facilitators will have first-hand experience of receiving social aid at one point in their lives.
4. With the revenue generated from our online courses, we want to redistribute a minimum of 10 per cent to youth-led and community-led groups each year. We are not experts in this area and will seek to work with others either devising or contributing towards an existing PGM fund.

We see these four actions as contributions towards systemic change. We’ve identified these actions as important to confront some (not all by any means !)of the root causes of inequity in the non-profit sector. We hope our offerings will contribute towards transforming structures, customs, power dynamics and policies, strengthening collective power through the active collaboration of diverse people and organisations.

We recognise a whole ecosystem of people, organisations, networks and alliances on this journey, and we are very open and keen to collaborate. If what we do sounds interesting- get in touch! If you feel that your social impact initiative is already addressing some of these systemic inequities and want to tell the world… sign up for our podcast series that we’ll launch in 2024.

On that optimist note, we’ll finish our first blog of 2024. Watch out for our next article coming next week, where we’ll be diving into our framework, spotlighting some incredible organisations and thinkers that show that systemic change can happen on a micro, macro and individual level, as well as highlighting different ways that organisations can partner with us on our mission for systemic change.

*The development of our website is ongoing to be geared towards creating a more accessible online platform. Recognizing the importance of inclusivity, we are working to revise features and design elements to ensure that our website accommodates a diverse range of users, including those with varying abilities and accessibility need. Don't hesitate to contact programs@designforsocialimpact.io if anything isn’t clear and you would like more info.