Explore Our New EDI Benchmarking Tool
The Cultural Governance Alliance (CGA) is committed to helping organisations embed equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) into their governance practices. In line with this commitment, we’re excited to introduce our new EDI Benchmarking Tool, developed in collaboration with Clore Leadership Governance Associate, Keith Arrowsmith.
This EDI benchmarking tool aims to help the boards of organisations to review their performance relating to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) policies and processes. Good governance supports transparency and consistency whilst recognising that a one-size-fits-all approach will not be appropriate for EDI. This EDI benchmark tool will support the recruitment and retention of a diverse board for your creative sector organisation.
FREE Introductory Webinar, 24 April, 12.15-13.00
Register for a free lunchtime webinar with creator Keith Arrowsmith for a live demo, Q&A and introduction to the tool. >>
As we aim to continue to grow and update the EDI Benchmark Tool, we would appreciate any feedback on your user journey that you may like to share. You will be invited to send feedback at the end of the process. Thank you.
Why Benchmark Your Board?
Benchmarks are invaluable governance tools that provide quantitative measures to track progress, identify opportunities, and set strategic direction. This particular tool is designed to help your board review its performance relating to EDI policies and processes.
While a one-size-fits-all approach isn’t suitable for EDI, good governance supports transparency and consistency. Our EDI Benchmarking Tool will help you assess whether your governance arrangements actively encourage a diverse board, rather than directly measuring your organisation’s current diversity.
By using this benchmark, your organisation can:
- Identify Gaps: Review current practices to see where governance changes could support a more diverse board.
- Set Goals: Establish clear, achievable targets for evolving your governance arrangements based on identified needs.
- Measure Progress: Track your efforts and demonstrate accountability through regular assessments.
When governance arrangements are robust, an organisation is better positioned to recruit and retain a diverse board. Organisations with diverse boards can:
- Enhance Decision-Making: Benefit from a broader range of experiences and perspectives.
- Build Trust: Strengthen stakeholder relationships by reflecting the communities they serve.
- Attract and Retain Talent: Improve reputation and become a more appealing environment for potential board members and staff.
- Provide EDI Leadership: Set a positive example for all staff and volunteers.
We are grateful the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and Esmée Fairbairn Foundation for their support of the toolkit.
How to use the EDI Benchmark
Frequently Asked Questions
Why use the EDI Benchmark?
By establishing clear and measurable standards for the governance of board diversity, organisations can:
- Identify gaps: Review current practice and consider whether any aspects of governance could be changed to support a more diverse board
- Set goals: Organisations can set specific, achievable targets for changing their governance arrangements based on the identified gaps
- Measure progress: Regular assessment against benchmarks allows organisations to track their efforts and demonstrate accountability to their communities
What does EDI mean?
The EDI Benchmark uses EDI to stand for Equality (or Equity), Diversity and Inclusion. Some people prefer Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), but in either case:
- Equality: every person has the same opportunities.
- Diversity: differences are recognised and respected.
- Inclusion: every person is welcomed, respected and able to participate.
Which organisations should use the Benchmark?
We use organisation to mean any group, society, association, company, charity or other body with an identified number of people tasked with strategic decision making. The EDI Benchmark has been specifically designed for cultural organisations in the voluntary sector, but it may also be helpful for other bodies such as collaborations and informal partnerships.
What is meant by the ‘board’
We use ‘board’ to describe those people who are tasked with the strategic decision making for their organisation. It may be a formal board of directors or trustees, a committee or steering group.
How does the EDI Benchmark relate to the Charity Governance Code?
The current (2024) version of the Charity Governance Code includes Principle 6:
“The board has a clear, agreed and effective approach to supporting equality, diversity and inclusion throughout the organisation and in its own practice. This approach supports good governance and the delivery of the organisation’s … purposes”
The EDI Benchmark is designed to be a tool to help the board’s approach to EDI.
Will the EDI Benchmark measure the level of the board’s diversity?
Not directly. Arts Council England and other bodies already collate diversity data, and the EDI Benchmark is designed not to duplicate what is already happening. Instead, it measures 10 Core Principles to see if an organisation’s policies and procedures support a diverse board. In time, we hope to show the correlation between a high score using the EDI Benchmark, the Arts Council England diversity data, and successful organisations.
How does the EDI Benchmark work?
The EDI Benchmark consists of 10 Core Principles for the governance of board diversity. Each organisation is invited to reflect on the extent to which each Core Principle is part of its current governance arrangements. Each Core Principle can be allocated a score:
- Not applicable, don’t know, no opinion
- The board is aware of key issues to be addressed but currently has no or very few plans to address them
- The board acknowledges the key issues and is developing approaches or plans to address them, but there needs to be more implementation.
- The board has well-developed plans to address key issues with significant examples of implementation.
- The board can show clear evidence of good practice and is reviewing its approach to ensure long term improvement.
Each Core Principle has:
- A description to explain why the principle is important
- Suggested Track 1 indicators of good governance for all organisations
- Suggested Track 2 indicators of good governance for medium-sized organisations, or with additional resources to support a more sophisticated approach
- Suggested Track 3 indicators of good governance for larger organisations or those that require the most sophisticated approaches.
- Sources of further information and guidance
Once completed, the Benchmark score will help each organisation:
- Identify strengths and weaknesses relative to the benchmark.
- Analyse performance gaps to understand areas for improvement.
- Rank the ten core principles based on their impact on overall performance.
- Focus efforts on the areas with the most significant potential for improvement.
- Establish specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for each prioritised core principle.
- Align governance and diversity goals with their overall strategy.
- Develop and implement action plans to address identified gaps.
- Monitor progress towards goals.
- Make necessary adjustments to plans as needed.
- Assess the effectiveness of improvement initiatives.
- Determine if the EDI Benchmark remains relevant and accurate.
- Share EDI Benchmark results and improvement efforts with stakeholders.
- Build consensus and support for change.
- Celebrate successes and learn from challenges.
- Foster a culture of continuous improvement.
- Share best practices and lessons learned with others in the sector.
How long will it take to complete the EDI Benchmark?
Each track has 10 Core Principles. If you know the answers to all 10 questions, you will be able to complete the EDI Benchmark in about 15 minutes. We hope that some questions will prompt discussion and reflection, and that the resources made available will be useful training material. We also hope you’ll have the time to provide us with some feedback too.
What happens to the information we provide?
The information you provide will be stored by Clore Leadership so that anyone with your log in details and password can access and update it. We will use the data to create the benchmarks, and publish data for the sector. We will not publish your organisation’s score nor any information that could lead to any individual or organisation being identified without your express consent. We will share your information with our EDI Benchmark team to support the online tool and the further development of the EDI Benchmark. Further details are in our Privacy Notice.
You are welcome to share your EDI Benchmark score with your supporters.
Will the EDI Benchmark be updated?
This is a pilot phase for the EDI Benchmark. We look forward to your feedback to help us further develop the tool. We acknowledge that EDI language and best practice changes over time, and hope to have sufficient funding to continue to adapt the tool in the future.
Will we be able to compare our current score with other organisations
Yes, we aim to publish a sector benchmark each year so that you can compare your score with the industry average. We hope to make further information available to Cultural Governance Alliance members at their annual conference.
Will we be able to track our progress?
Yes, when you create your EDI Benchmark profile, your information will be stored so you can revisit and update your profile as often as you like.
Who created the EDI Benchmark?
The EDI Benchmark was created for the Cultural Governance Alliance by Keith Arrowsmith, a creative industries solicitor and governance lead for Clore Leadership. Supporting resources have been collated by [Freya]. The Project has been managed by [Jonathan / Katherine /Hilary] at Clore Leadership. Hatched designed the digital tool.