Charity leaders must be “open-minded, not defensive” when tackling issues relating to inclusion and diversity, a senior leader at the homelessness charity Crisis has urged. 

Louise Harris, the charity’s chief operating officer, said leaders with privilege must not “crumble under the guilt” and should instead turn it into tangible action.

At an event hosted by the Centre for Charity Effectiveness at Bayes Business School in London and convened by Paul Streets, an honorary visiting professor at Bayes and the former chief executive of the Lloyds Bank Foundation, sector leaders discussed how charities could work towards a more inclusive and diverse work culture.

Talking about the role of white leaders with privilege, Harris said: “Don’t lean into the guilt. You don’t need to take responsibility for your race, but you need to stay curious and understand what’s going on. Don’t make it about you.”

She said she had seen leaders “crumble under the guilt” and urged leaders to instead turn that into action.

“Be open-minded, not defensive. Acknowledge what’s not working and do something about it, and do that authentically,” she said.

Ruth Ibegbuna, founder and chief executive of Rekindle School, said that in order to create the space for people from marginalised communities, “we need people to leave the space with grace and dignity, and help those people come in”.

She added: “That’s a really difficult conversation, because everyone wants to talk about a more diverse room, and then wants to leave that room. 

“So let’s have those conversations about what it is to kind of leave space elegantly and be that next generation steering people on.”

Ibegbuna said the charity sector likes to think it is hugely diverse but there is “so much tokenism around”, adding that leaders must ensure they are “really valuing people’s difference of opinion and difference of life experience”.

She said: “We’ve got to move into action now. This is our moment to galvanise and do the work we all know we need to.”

Harris added that charities need to view diversity and inclusion as a “strategic issue”, rather than a people issue.

“It’s an organisational piece. Find out what’s happening in the organisation. See the patterns. Don’t buy into the organisational narratives about difficult people or challenging areas,” she said.

She also urged leaders to use data when doing this work, saying: “Get the data and cut through it to really understand what’s happening in the organisation.”