Actionable Roadmap for Local Association Diversity and Inclusion

Start by asking what demographic groups you are referring to when you discuss inclusion of diversity.  Ask and answer the question – who in our community is not well represented in our decision making about association business and policy?  Who is missing from the table(s)?  Everyone who lives in your community and market area is occupying real estate.  Who worked with them to find their real estate?  Who serves their real estate needs?  

Most often these will be racial and ethnic groups, but you may also want to look at generational groups, LGBTQ+ inclusion, or religious groups.  Then explore data on the demographics of your community, especially the market area your members serve and your board jurisdiction.  The market area data is often widely available, especially when looking at racial and ethnic demographics.  Your county or city government, the census bureau, state government all have this data.  Often you can find it online when searching for information about specific municipalities and counties.  If you can, find out information on any significant changes in demographic makeup – especially new groups or groups that are growing, reflecting new residents of your area.

Second, the demographics of the association’s membership can be obtained through the NAR Insights HUB, which allows the local association’s Point of Entry to access data on the local association’s membership.  Look for percentages of your membership especially relative to population demographic groups in your community.  Data on generations, religion, LGBTQ+ and some other categories are not yet available on the Insights HUB and gaining that information will often be difficult.  

Third, the demographics of your leadership needs to be assessed by observation.  Most associations leadership is fairly well known.  Take this information and identify which population groups are not well represented in your leadership based on the data – does it match your earlier assumptions and information.  

Fourth, identify opportunities for the structure of your existing association staff for DEI efforts. Who on your existing staff will take on or share DEI responsibilities and/or is your association looking to hire a staff member dedicated to DEI.

Taking all this together, the next step in the process is to determine where the mismatch is and where you want to start your activities.  The Actionable Roadmap helps you determine activities that will address the mismatch where you feel your work is needed.

If the membership is not reflecting the market and one or more demographic groups is not well served by the membership, your activities generally will fall into the Discovery category as you will be identifying who serves that market now, their needs and passion related to real estate, and whether they already are loosely or formally organized. You might also want to help your members learn about the underrepresented groups. In a sense we are always engaged in discovery, and even if your focus is on a later action such as engagement or realizing the benefits of diversity in your leadership, you should consider some ongoing discovery activities.

Goals for discovery should ultimately be to identify those who are serving the underrepresented community, if and where they gather to discuss real estate, the real estate related issues they need action on, their knowledge and experience with the community, and their passions for member education, ethics and advocacy. Once these members are so identified, find ways to build personal relationships between your existing leadership and these members.