Congressman Calls for More Diversity on Foundation and Nonprofit Boards

At yesterday's luncheon plenary of the Council on Foundation's conference for community foundations, Congressman Xavier Becerra (D-CA) took his audience to task regarding the lack of diversity on foundation and nonprofit boards. He used Red Cross failures following Hurricane Katrina as an indictment of philanthropy, ""If Red Cross had more than two board members who were Latino, they maybe wouldn't have dropped the ball" by turning Latinos away from help centers who couldn't prove they were U.S. citizens. Becerra noted that he was probably the only one in the conference crowd who could prove he was a citizen because he has a card which identifies him as a congressman.

He also stated his belief that philanthropy needs to do more with the $40 billion it received last year in untaxed income. As a proxy for philanthropy's shortcomings, Becerra cited statistics showing that the number of people in his district living under the poverty level had increased in 2001 as well as the number of uninsured. Check out the plenary video webcast.)

Susan Herr