An interview with CEO, Terry Mezany, discussing what The Trust has done to become a more inclusive workplace.

As the "public face of philanthropy," Terry Mazany has long believed that community foundations should reflect the diversity of the communities they serve. For the CEO of The Chicago Community Trust, that responsibility extends from the Trust's board and staff to those organizations being awarded grants and to vendors. "Our mandate is to serve the community, and we must lead by example," he says.

The Trust first began by looking inward, building on the diversity within the board (which is equally represented by men and women board members and diverse in terms of race, ethnicity and disability). In 2006, the board formed an ad hoc diversity committee with two key goals: establish a diversity policy statement for the Trust and create a framework for taking the policy to all of its constituencies. The board was enthusiastic. "There was no having to sell anybody. You have to start with sensitivity to the issues and the will to take action - these are values that resonate with the board."

An equal imperative is building diversity among staff and management. At the highest ranks of the Trust, in the five-person senior management team, there is one African-American woman, one African-American man, one Asian woman, one white woman and one white man. Diversity is a continuous goal for the rest of the Trust staffing. If the candidate pool does not include diversity, Mazany says that a search is "scrubbed, and we'll start over."

The challenge of increasing diversity is not limited to the Trust, but prevalent in the nonprofit sector. To develop a greater pipeline of diverse candidates, the Trust recently launched a new fellowship program in arts and culture management designed to attract mid-level staff, with the goal of moving them into the "corner office."

The Trust also is examining the diversity of its grant recipients. It requires them to provide information on board and senior staff diversity and expects the organization to reflect the diversity of the community it serves. "We tell grantees (who are deficient) they need to improve or face losing funding," Mazany says. The Trust is ready to help organizations build diversity. Persistence and commitment are key to Mazany - internally and externally. "I have no patience for leaders who say, 'We looked but couldn't find somebody.' We look until we find somebody."