A PTKO Report

Equity & inclusion in outreach

Give your outreach professionals the tools they need to do their work in a way that is inclusive, equitable, and accessible while at the same time helping you build relationships with supporters you haven’t previously reached.

A practical guide for reaching a larger, more diverse audience

Why aren’t our supporters more diverse?

How can we make our communications more equitable and inclusive?

If you work in nonprofit communications, fundraising, or other outreach roles, you’ve probably heard a team member or leader at your organization ask some variation of these questions. You’ve likely also felt some pressure to solve this important, but vaguely defined challenge.

However, reaching a diverse audience with inclusive outreach strategies is not a challenge that can be solved solely by the outreach arm of an organization. It requires partnership with internal leadership and operational functions, as well as the program and implementation staff who execute on your mission every day. This ensures equitable practices are implemented throughout the organization, and any external efforts reflect the realities internally.

In this report, we provide a model that spans these three pillars of your organization, ensuring the outreach professionals on your team have the tools they need to do their work in a way that is inclusive, equitable, accessible and helps you reach a more diverse range of supporters. We hope you find some inspiration in these pages, or it sparks an interesting conversation among you and your colleagues.


The cover page of our model for equity and inclusion community report


A diagram describing the major stages of outreach and where they intersect IDEA practices
This report contains a practical model for IDEA in your outreach operations and case studies of some of the organization’s already putting these successful ideas into practice