As a funder, we recognise that leaders from ethnic minority backgrounds, and the organisations that serve young people from these communities, are disproportionately underfunded. We reject these patterns and are committed to advancing racial equity through our grant making, capacity building support, policy work, and organisational culture.

This means funding equitably, amplifying the leadership of communities most impacted by racism, and challenging systemic inequities. It also means doing the work internally, examining our own practices, learning continuously, and fostering a culture of inclusion and accountability within the Impetus team.

We understand that this is an ongoing journey, not a one-time statement. We hold ourselves responsible for turning these commitments into action, and we welcome transparency, dialogue, and partnership in that journey.

Our commitments

The evidence shows that ethnically diverse teams outperform ethnically homogenous teams by 35 per cent. Embedding diversity in every aspect of our work; recruitment, staff development, due diligence, funding decisions, our non-financial support, our governance structures and more, will make us a better, smarter organisation, truly able to implement our mission. This has been made explicit in our values.

We have committed to:

a) At Impetus

We will increase representation across our governance and our staff teams, with a target of 40% aggregate diversity. Diversity is specifically focused on ethnicity, socio-economic background, and self-identified (consent-based) mission aligned lived experience. Gender balance is also a value that we hold and consider in our decisions.

b) In our partnerships

• Racial diversity is part of our core criteria in selecting new organisations for our multi-year, unrestricted partner organisation investments. We run open grant rounds to widen access and reduce barriers to funding.
• We consider racial diversity in all aspects of our policy work. Our policy partnerships and coalitions are more effective if they are more diverse in background and experience. We have an important role to play in advocating for this and ensuring that when we commission research we look for partners who can demonstrate that they celebrate and “get” diversity and truly represent young people and the barriers faced in our mission.

We are committed to building an inclusive organisation where everyone can thrive.

a) At Impetus

- We embed diversity in all our internal policies and procedures

This includes testing, learning and iterating what works in our recruitment processes, induction plans, training and development work and our office culture. We have:

• Conducted a comprehensive race equity audit that highlighted strengths for us to build on and opportunities for change.
• Allocated a dedicated budget to support cross-organisational EDI initiatives.
• Embedded equity goals into annual performance objectives for all staff.
• Established regular learning sessions to deepen understanding of racism and inclusion, and set up affinity groups to support connection and shared experiences.
• Reviewed recruitment documentation and processes to ensure they are equitable and reduce bias, making sure we have inclusive onboarding and progression pathways for all staff.
• Begun updating our policies to align with best practice within inclusive processes and language.
• Listened to staff feedback and are acting on it through structured engagement.
• Begun the process of reviewing our external and internal language.

- We are committed to embedding diversity into our governance and leadership practices, through:

• A dedicated EDI Trustee that co-chairs our People and Governance Committee.

• Embedding EDI in the People and Governance Committee’s terms of reference.

• Using a Board composition strategy to ensure diversity of skills, perspectives, and consent based lived experience.

• Advertising public pathways into Trustee roles and providing inclusive onboarding for all Trustees.

• Using our Committees as spaces to nurture promising future Trustees

• Recognising and encouraging different routes to perspective - professional, community, and consent based lived experience.

b) In our partnerships

- We aim to apply equity principles in how we select, support, and influence through our partnerships and policy work by:

• Working with portfolio leaders to embed inclusive culture and leadership in their organisations e.g. building more diverse Boards, senior teams and proactively considering diversity in CEO succession.

• Adding race to portfolio partners’ data collection and analysis for better impact management.

• Testing new types of funding streams and investing in a broader range of organisations by running open grant rounds to widen access and reduce barriers to funding.

• Backing and supporting minoritised leaders both through our portfolio and through our successful Impetus Leadership Academy (ILA), which we set up to support talent from ethnic minority backgrounds in the UK youth sector to progress into senior leadership roles.

• Supporting partners to embed cultural competency in their programmes to ensure young people receive relatable and tailored support.

• Encouraging partners to consider the inequity of outcomes across different groups when designing services.

• Leaning into feedback and discussion with partners on power dynamics in our relationships.

• Conducting research to deepen insight on outcomes and barriers affecting young people, for example through our Youth Jobs Gap series.

• Contributing to coalitions and convening panels to amplify equity-focused work.

• Only taking speaking slots on panels that have diverse representation.

How We Measure Progress

• Diversity targets for the Board, Committees, leadership team, and whole staff are measured across ethnicity, socio-economic background, and consent based lived experience.

• We use qualitative feedback from trustees and staff observers to assess Board culture and inclusion.

• The diversity of representation in leadership teams of portfolio partners is formally tracked.

• We survey and monitor the uptake and impact of staff learning sessions.

• We monitor progression of our EDI commitments, inclusion and belonging through our regular staff survey.

*Our Definition of Diversity: For Impetus, diversity includes (among others) ethnicity, socio-economic background, disability, gender identity, and mission-aligned lived experience of the education and employment systems our young people navigate. “Lived experience” is about perspective on systems, not the disclosure of personal stories. It is opt-in and consent based - nobody is labelled, and no one is expected to share anything personal. This complements, (rather than replaces) our evidence-led approach.