These efforts have proven to be effective. In FY08 when our initiative began, only 10% of our awards engaged people of color. Today, 61.9% of the K-12 students engaged by its grants are students of color, which is just below the percentage of students of color in Maryland (64.4%). Thirty-three percent of teachers engaged by Trust grants are people of color, while only 28% of the region’s teachers are of color. Forty percent of volunteers engaged in Trust grants are people of color, compared to the demographics of Maryland indicating that 42% of Marylanders are people of color. While we do not have target percentages or specific goals, we have a general goal of ensuring that our grants serve the demographics of our region.
Next Steps
In 2015, our Diversity and Inclusion Committee identified three under-engaged audiences the Trust should engage more in grant-making:
- communities of color,
- faith-based communities, and
- human health sector.
The Trust is devoted to maintaining our diversity in grant-making and identifying audiences who should be more engaged. Our position is that ALL residents benefit from healthy natural resources, and, in turn, all residents have the opportunity to benefit natural resources. For these two reasons, the Trust will continue to reach out to a wide range of audiences.