AFP Quebec had the chance to exchange with Aline Nizigama, National CEO, YWCA Canada on what the DEI landscape looks like today, specifically within the not-for-profit sector. Having been driven to the forefront of the zeitgeist in the early 2020s, we wanted to take the opportunity to see how the energies and the strategies have evolved, half a decade later. With a specific focus on the realities for non-profits and the role they play, we explored concrete advice for leaders in the field.

 

• From your vantage point at YWCA Canada, what are the most significant DEI trends you’re seeing in the nonprofit sector right now?

Not too long ago, DEI lived in policies, trainings, and nicely sounding commitments. What we are seeing now is a transitioning from “cute pilot project” and occasional workshops to measurable accountability.

As the emphasis on structural rather than symbolic gestures deepens, we see DEI frameworks that model and support equity within organizational decisional matrix design. For instance, with accountability: how are complaints handled and how is that information shared transparently?  It also includes greater attention to working conditions, particularly in a sector where the workforce is disproportionately feminized and racialized.

Organizations are increasingly trying to bake equity into core decisions, including how leadership is structured, how funding priorities align internally with community commitments, how programs are evaluated and how success is measured.

• Are there areas where nonprofits are making real progress on equity, and others where we seem to be stagnating or even backsliding?

We are seeing meaningful progress in how organizations understand and practice equity. There’s growing recognition that DEI is not just about representation, but also about power, accountability, workplace culture, and decision-making. Many nonprofits are also becoming more intentional about community-informed programs and leadership pathways for historically excluded groups. We innovate faster and are often more responsive in the non-profit sector than in other sectors.

At the same time, the biggest area of backsliding has been funding to resource the needed work. As we’ve seen broader backlash against DEI initiatives and rollbacks across sectors making issues more acute and complex, nonprofits are increasingly being asked to do more with less. The challenge now is whether organizations can sustain meaningful equity work when resources, staffing, and long-term investment are shrinking.

Impact on Fundraising:

• How can fundraising practices unintentionally reinforce inequities, and what are some ways to disrupt that?

At YWCA Canada, we know trust-based, feminist philanthropy is essential for dismantling traditional power structures. When self-led women’s groups have direct access to resources, they gain the power to confront and change systems that perpetuate their oppression. We know what needs to be done. But will the funders trust us fully? That’s why we are committed to partnering with those who understand that supporting YWCA Canada is not an act of charity or control, but a collective act of solidarity, co-creation, empowerment, and shared responsibility to advance women’s rights and eliminate systemic barriers to gender equity.

More specifically, traditional philanthropy and fundraising can position investors as primary decision-makers, even when they are far removed from the communities most affected by the issue. Too often, in the pursuit of funding, programs become shaped around donor preferences rather than community needs, and “innovation” becomes funder-driven rather than informed by frontline service providers and lived expertise.

At YWCA Canada, our feminist approach means beginning with the needs identified by our communities where are member associations operate. From there, we seek partners and donors who want to enhance, strengthen, expand, and invest in that work, not redirect it. Our communities remain at the heart of our prospecting, and we see part of our role as helping educate donors on why these services, programs, and approaches are needed as designed by the communities themselves. Philanthropy is strongest when it is rooted in listening, trust, reciprocity, and shared decision-making, rather than top-down direction.

Another specific example is how traditional fundraising models often reward organizations and leaders who already have access to affluent networks and corporate circles, typically concentrated in major urban centres. This can disadvantage already under-resourced smaller, rural, northern, and remote organizations that may have deep community trust and impact, but fewer connections to philanthropic or high-wealth networks.

As a national organization representing a diverse network of member associations, we engage member associations from across the country in partnership opportunities, some that may otherwise have been out of their reach. YWCA Canada prioritizes connecting investors to rural, remote, and often overlooked communities because proximity to community should matter more than proximity to wealth.

• How can fundraisers balance revenue-based fundraising targets with equity‑driven approaches?

Intention to Real-World

• What are some common pitfalls organizations encounter when trying to operationalize DEI?

One of the pitfalls is trying to operationalize DEI without the right organizational conditions are in place. This can include a lack of organizational readiness, lack of leadership buy-in, lack of willing to learn from other organizations and support for emerging wise practices. This can also include lack of funding and targeted resources.

Another challenge can be not enough prioritizing of training and a real commitment to learning. This requires a level of organizational humility that can be challenging to achieve. Training can also become inconsistent. Not everyone across the organization has the same level of knowledge, time, access to learning opportunities, or understanding of current best and wise practices.

Organizations also sometimes lack clear evaluation tools or feedback mechanisms to measure progress and monitor follow-through on equity commitments. Without accountability structures, DEI can remain aspirational rather than operational.

To address these pitfalls, organizations should ask themselves foundational questions: Is senior leadership, including the board, prepared to adopt, support, and model DEI frameworks? Are we open to learning from others? Can we center this in our strategic plan? Do we have the resources to sustain this work? And do we have a strong training and accountability approach that brings everyone along together?

• What role do Boards or other senior volunteers play in advancing, or not, equity within these organizations?

Boards don’t usually run day-to-day DEI work, but they often shape what’s ultimately possible through budget approvals, strategic prioritization, governance practices and CEO performance goals. If equity isn’t baked into those decisions, it tends to stay operational instead of becoming embedded in organizational DNA.

Next Steps

• What advice would you give to leaders who want to center equity but are navigating resistance, fatigue, or fear of “getting it wrong”?

Move at the speed of trust, not the speed of comfort. Not everyone will be comfortable with equity-centred change at the same time, and that’s normal. The job isn’t to slow everything down until everyone feels good, it’s to bring people along without abandoning the direction.   

It’s also important to be clear about your non-negotiables. Open dialogue is great, but it can’t mean everything is up for debate forever. Leaders need to be explicit about what is values-driven and settled (for instance anti-discrimination principles), versus what is still evolving in practice.

• How should nonprofits be measuring progress on equity and inclusion in ways that are meaningful?

Organizations need to go beyond counting trainings completed or policies introduced. Meaningful measurement looks at whether staff, volunteers, and communities actually feel safer, more included, respected, and better served.

It’s also important to examine who gets hired, retained, promoted, and supported into leadership roles—as well as who has influence over decision-making and budgets. Equity is not just about representation; it’s about where power and accountability truly sit within an organization.

Visibility – leadership

• What skills or mindsets will nonprofit professionals need most over the next 5–10 years to advance equity?

Critical thinking will be a big one, especially as AI becomes more common in nonprofit work. People will need to ask who is being included, who might be left out, and whether technology is reinforcing existing biases, injustices and barriers rather than reducing them. We also need to remain aware of shifting funding priorities and continue to ask questions and accountability of our public and private partners.

Nonprofit professionals will also need adaptability, curiosity, and a willingness to keep learning. Equity work is not static, and organizations that are open to listening, reflecting, and evolving will be better positioned to respond to community needs in meaningful ways.

• What are a few concrete recommendations that organizations can put in place in the short to medium term?

Start by looking at who actually makes decisions—whether that’s hiring panels, budget approvals, or program design tables. Equity-informed voices should be part of those spaces by default, not as an exception. If the people most impacted are not in the room, it will shape the outcomes and impact

It should go without saying but dedicate funding resources to DEI and ways to measure the intended impacts. If equity isn’t in the budget, it’s not real strategy. Practical steps include funding lived experience roles, community partnerships, accessibility costs, and internal equity capacity-building.

Closing Question

• YWCA Canada has a long history of advancing equity and systemic change. In today’s nonprofit landscape, what feels fundamentally different about the DEI work organizations are being called to do now?

As a legacy organization, YWCA Canada has learned from its past to be able to move forward in a transparent way. In the current iteration of our work, we have chosen to center Reconciliation, Antiracism and Equity in ways we have never done before, embedding this in all aspects of our work. We also continue to learn, engage, and strengthen our approach.

Earlier DEI work often sat in Human Resources or program teams. Now it’s being pushed into governance, budgeting, and strategy. It is also focused on repair work and forward-looking empowerment. This is a big shift, because it is changing long-standing power structures rather than just supplementing them.

At YWCA Canada, there’s still learning happening, and it’s also paired with a stronger expectation of accountability when harm occurs, especially for Indigenous, Black, racialized, disabled, and other equity-deserving communities.  Good intent is no longer seen as sufficient protection from critique or consequence.