Statement of African American Nonprofit Network

Thank you for convening a hearing on this important issue and for the opportunity to provide comments and background information on how the African American Nonprofit Network (AANN) is addressing the issue of diversity in the nonprofit sector in the National Capital Region.  Our own experience has been that there is a need for significantly greater diversity at the volunteer and senior staff level of nonprofit organizations and that recognition led us to develop the African American Nonprofit Network.

The mission of the African American Nonprofit Network is to significantly change the landscape of African American leadership in the National Capital Region so that nonprofit organizations can better empower the constituents they serve and have a positive impact on the community.

Why We Were Established

AANN was established in response to the acute shortage of African Americans in leadership positions within the nonprofit sector, especially those organizations serving the diverse communities of the National Capital Region. 

In order to adequately serve diverse communities, AANN believes it is important to have diverse nonprofit leaders who can understand and appreciate the unique needs of the region’s children, youth and families.  AANN seeks to become a valuable resource that serves as the connector of African American executives and volunteers and the nonprofit organizations that serve diverse communities.

A recent national study by the Urban Institute highlighted the acute shortage of minorities on nonprofit board positions finding that  "Among nonprofits whose clientele is over 50% African American, 18% include no African American trustees.  Among nonprofits whose clientele is 25% to 49% African American, 36% have no African American board members."  Among nonprofits whose clientele is more than 50% Hispanic, 32% have no Hispanics board members.

What We Do:

AANN’s core group of local and national leaders with experience in both the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, brought together their considerable personal and professional networks of talented African American professionals to form a powerful network of African Americans who serve as conduits  for distributing information on nonprofit board and staff leadership opportunities. 

AANN’s efforts focus on increasing a nonprofit organization’s access to talented African American candidates to fill senior staff positions such as executive director, CEO, CFO, COO, as well as board positions.

Currently AANN has two established services:  1) a Positions Alerts program in which we assist nonprofits by distributing senior staff leadership position descriptions through our network and 2) a Board Matching program in which we assist nonprofits in identifying talented African American as candidates for their boards.

Since our formation in January 2007, AANN has begun to see success in matching African American professionals with nonprofit organizations.  As we continue our outreach to nonprofit organizations and expansion of our network of professionals we expect to see significant impact on the landscape of nonprofit organizations serving diverse communities in the National Capital Region.

 Again, thank you for convening this hearing on such a timely and important topic.

African American Nonprofit Network (AANN)

Board of Directors

Ike Fields, Chief Operating Officer, Integrated Resource Technologies

Maxine B. Baker, Former President & CEO, Freddie Mac Foundation

Neil Albert, Deputy Mayor , District of Columbia

Vicky Bailey, President, Anderson Stratton International, LLC

James Forman, Jr. Associate Professor, Georgetown University Law Center

Terri Lee Freeman, President, Community Foundation for the National Capital Region

Artis Hampshire-Cowan, Sr. V.P., Board of Trustees, Howard University

Kimberly Keating, President, Keating Advisors

William Keyes, President, Institute for Responsible Citizenship

Brig Owens, Partner, Bennett & Owens

Jeffrey Penn, Vice President for National Recruiting of Mentors, Big Brothers, Inc.

Ed Robinson, Consultant, Witt/Kieffer

Kenneth Slaughter, Partner, Venable, LLP

LeRoy Thompson, Managing Director, Top Management Assistance

N. Joseph Watson, President & CEO, StrategicHire

Wanda L. Pierce