Check Who’s Included

Do you make project decisions equitably?

Create a “power map” of your organization's governance and decision-making process to reveal who is overrepresented and who is missing.

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Download a PDF for the Check Who’s Included instructions and tips.

Tool 8: Check Who’s Included

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Description

Equity-based work is all about power—who has it, who doesn’t, why, and to what effect? In developing a racial and social equity approach to development, you will need to interrogate how power imbalances within your organizational structure may be inhibiting your work. This will involve several actions, including analyzing your board structure to ensure it is representative of, and shares meaningful power with, the communities your equity work seeks to serve. This worksheet is designed to map the power of your staff, board, and committees and will help you understand your organization’s governance structure and decision-making process.

Developed by Harvard Graduate School of Design

Follow-Up Questions

Once you have a power map, ask:

Are our staff, Board, and committees racially diverse, gender balanced, varied in age, representative of the communities and populations that our project is meant to serve?
Does our Board represent a range of occupations and industries?
Who holds power within our organization? Who makes decisions? How are those decisions made?
Where do project or program ideas typically come from (the executive director, staff, Board members, outside the organization)?
Who is left out of decision-making? How should they be included?