2020 Shortlist | Public Interest Research Centre
Public Interest Research Centre
Winner – Board Diversity and Inclusivity
Who they are
Based in Wales, the Public Interest Research Centre (PIRC) believes our society is built on stories. These stories – of our past, present and future – provide the scaffolding for our political systems, our social structures, and our own thinking. PIRC’s vision is of a connected, democratic and liberatory civil society equipped with the tools to tell world-changing stories. PIRC’s aim is to strengthen the capacity of our movements to map, reframe and create narratives that will change society and, particularly, to provide support to lower-income and grassroots groups with limited financial resources, who often find themselves excluded from this kind of framing work. The charity facilitates workshops and provides training, conducts participatory research, and produces resources and materials that make the framing process accessible, easy to understand and enjoyable.
What they’ve achieved
PIRC actively tackled the underrepresentation of marginalised people on its boards, seeing diversity as an important goal to achieve but also as a way of continuously organising and working. Therefore adverts for new trustees on the website include a statement encouraging applicants from backgrounds underrepresented on boards to apply; positions are advertised through non-traditional media and networks; and the organisation also utilises a recruitment agency specialising in diversity that keeps PIRC accountable by providing data on who the advertisements reach and how. Consideration is given to the interview panel for new board members, to ensure that potential trustees meet people who share experiences or backgrounds similar to their own.
All board members work and volunteer in the movements the organisation supports, thereby bringing expertise from dynamic sectors: trustees are anti-trafficking and environmental activists, trade unionists, LGBTI+ campaigners and psychologists; and are valued on the board for the the experience they bring outside their 9-5s as comedians, dancers, first-generation students, second-generation immigrants and artists.
PIRC seeks to realise its values through its own practices, which required the organisation to dismantle the current interlinking systems of oppression (such as the patriarchy, heteronormativity, ableism, imperialism and white supremacy), both in the world ‘out there’ and within its own groups and organisations. In order to better align its anti-oppressive external practices to its own hiring practices and ways of working at both the board and staff levels, the charity consciously chose to move to a more liberatory, democratic and participatory structure. Board members are asked to volunteer as facilitators for different areas of discussion during meetings, and various discussion formats are utilised to provide opportunities for all trustees to have their say or direct their areas of expertise most efficiently. Addtionally, the organisation as a whole moved to a ‘flat’ management structure and pay scale: every team member has equal input and decision-making power in the direction and running of the organisation, and shares many of the tasks related to general organisational management.
Why they won
PIRC built a board of younger and more ethnically diverse trustees. There was evidence of a strong, cohesive approach towards inclusivity embedded in the charity’s culture, mission, purpose and management structure. The organisation is very clear about valuing diversity and putting their values into practice, ensuring that those they most want to support are those bringing their expertise, insight, and experience to the board.
