Hello Reader!

Welcome charity champs! Key your raccoon guide, taking you on this week's nonprofit adventures.

Today we're talking to whales with the research team at the University of California, featuring a tool to make your hiring practices more equitable, and uncovering the problem of DEI deliverables. We hope you enjoy this week's Keynotes and stick around to the end for our weekly good news round-up from around the web.

📬 Summary

This week, we're covering:

🕵️‍♂️ One Problem - Implementing Inclusive Hiring Practices
​
🚀 One Tool - The Gender Decoder
​
🌟 One Highlight - Learning to Speak Whale

🔍 One Problem - How do I implement more inclusive hiring practices?

We all have unconscious bias. That's a fancy way of saying that we all make automatic or unintentional judgments about people based on our ingrained stereotypes, cultural norms, or learned assumptions. Unfortunately, these biases can influence our decision-making and actions (like hiring!) without us even realizing it!

So, how do we try to get around our unconscious bias in our hiring practices? Enter: inclusive hiring from a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) perspective! By consciously integrating a DEI perspective into your recruitment practices, you can foster more inclusive hiring processes that attract candidates from diverse backgrounds, experiences, and abilities. Here are three ways to start:

1. Shake Up Your Job Posting Platforms: Try to reach candidates who may not use traditional job platforms like LinkedIn or Indeed; instead, consider posting job applications through alternative channels. This can include working in partnerships with community leaders, local nonprofits, specialized job boards that cater to specific marginalized groups, and social media platforms that target underrepresented communities. These methods help tap into a broader talent pool and ensure that opportunities are accessible to individuals who might otherwise be overlooked due to systemic barriers in mainstream recruitment channels.
2. Anonymize Applications: If possible, try to remove identifiers such as names, addresses, and graduation years from CVs and cover letters. Why? Because this practice helps to focus the evaluation strictly on the skills, qualifications, or experiences relevant to the job. By minimizing the chance for bias based on demographic factors, candidates are more likely to advance on merit, rather than having the same name as a recruiter's favourite aunt.
3. Try DPI: Diverse Panel Interviewers: Having a diverse interview panel that reflects the various demographics of your staff, including different levels and backgrounds, helps with inclusive hiring. A diverse panel shows potential candidates that your organization values and practices diversity within its existing workforce. Also, it helps your employees feel valued and seen in important decision-making processes.

Your ultimate goal for inclusive hiring practices is not just about filling positions, but rather, it should be to enrich your organization's culture through more diverse talents, perspectives, and lived experiences. In short, adopting inclusive hiring practices is a pretty important part of building a successful and dynamic workforce!

🛠️ One Tool - The Gender Decoder​

Want to eliminate gender coding in job applications? Don't worry, I got you covered! But first, what is gender coding and what does it look like? The Coles Notes is that it is the use of language that subtly aligns with stereotypical "male" or "female" traits. This use of language can unintentionally influence who feels encouraged or discouraged to apply for a position. For example, words like "aggressive" and "leader" may be perceived as masculine, while "supportive" and "understanding" might be seen as feminine. And while we know gender does not exist as a binary, we also want to be as inclusive as possible in our job postings. ​ The Gender Decoder is designed to help identify gender-coded language in job descriptions. By analyzing the posting, it detects words that are subtly coded as masculine or feminine. The goal is to assist employers in crafting more neutral job descriptions that reduce gender bias in the recruitment process, while promoting gender inclusivity in the workplace. Take a look here →

🏅 One Highlight - A world-first breakthrough made by marine biologists in Alaska.

Josie Hubbard, an animal behaviourist has become the first person to have a 'conversation' with a whale. Her PhD studies at the University of California have taken her on a research trip to Frederick Sound in Alaska where the conversation took place.

The response gives the potential to create a framework of messaging that could be used in contact with animals and even aliens in the future, should we encounter any.

To read the full story, take a look at the BBC article, here.

🌎 Good News From Around The Web

​Honey bees are back baby! US honey bee population hits an all-time high​

​Animal shelter sees historic milestone, a 47-year first​

​A​ group of Muslim women find a unique hobby to foster new friendships​

And with that positive note, we're coming to the end of another foray into philanthropy with me, Key. We hope you enjoyed this week's topics and if you did, please share this issue with a friend. We're on a mission to have a positive impact on 1m people so your support helps us push towards that goal.

See you next week, my philanthropy phenoms.

Trash panda salutes.

Key Your friendly neighbourhood raccoon