DISMANTLE report - PREVIEW Brand By Me 2024

A preview of our DISMANTLE Anti-Racist Brand audit (Charities edition). Buy the full report here. https://bookme.name/brandbyme/dismantle-charity-sector-audit-report-2024

Anti-Racist Brand Audit

CHARITIES EDITION PREVIEW

FREE VERSION

This confidential presentation (the “Report”) has been prepared by Brand By Me Ltd (the “Company”)

solely for informational purposes.

The information provided by Brand by Me Ltd (“we”, “us” or “our”) within this report is for general

information purposes only. All information within this report is provided in good faith, however we make no

representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity,

reliability, availability or completeness of any information within this report. Under no circumstances, shall

we have any liability to you for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of, or reading

of this report, or reliance of any information provided in this report. Your implementation of the

recommendations, findings or results of this report is solely at your own risk.

The information contained within this report may not be complete and may not represent all of the

information which a recipient of the report may desire or deem relevant. Unless otherwise noted,

information included within this report is presented, and is accurate only, as of the date of this report.

This report may contain links to other websites or content belonging to or originating from third parties.

Such external links and content originating from third parties are not investigated, monitored or checked

for accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness by us.

The recipient further agrees that it will not copy, reproduce or redistribute this report, or disclose or

distribute this report to any third party, in whole or in part without the prior written consent of the Company

Disclaimer:

Designer

Thad Cox

Marketing

Jhannai Campbell

Operations

Aprileen Alexander

Background research

Kyle Philip

Report authors

Theresa Jones and Collette Philip

Research Lead

Theresa Jones

Editor

Ettie Bailey-King

Foreword:

Foreword

By Collette Philip, Founder of Brand by Me

“In a racist society, it is not

enough to be non-racist,

we must be anti-racist.”

Angela Y. Davis

Foreword

Since the resurgence of interest in the Black Lives Matter movement following June 2020, we have seen

companies and organisations grappling with the reality of systemic racism.

Some were already doing this work as part of their mission, or a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion.

Some were motivated to do more and do better because their leaders and staff had increased their individual

understanding of racism and wanted to create collective impact. And others were keen to be seen to be

doing “something” - driven by the shame or fear of being “cancelled” (a word that is often used to mask the

accountability of being found out, after engaging in oppressive practices or behaviour).

Nearly four years on, the need for anti-racism work has never been greater. Yet investment, interest

and focus around anti-racism and tackling racism in our society is dwindling. Even if individual leaders are still

focussed and passionate, they are struggling to continue what they started. This is true of all sectors - but in

the charity and non-profit sector, we see this tension between intention, resources and will more sharply than

anywhere else.

At Brand by Me we build brands that drive social justice. As part of this work, we have been working with

brands to embed anti-racism into brand strategy for years. I’ve spoken and written about the power of

brands to drive anti-racism and equity, in sector publications, at conferences and in numerous podcasts.

And my call to action is always the same. “It’s time for organisations to build anti-racism into their brands”.

Yes, it’s time. So we’ve decided to share our learning and practice on building anti-racism and equity into

brand strategy with a wider community of brands (beyond our clients). And that starts, as all of our work

does, with an audit. The role of this research is not a “name and shame” or leader board of “who’s

doing the best”. That approach is unhelpful and implies there is a “best” to anti-racism, which of course

there is not. Anti-racism is a lifelong journey and process - for individuals, organisations, companies and

wider society. This report is designed to help organisations learn and move forward in their anti-racism

journey.

Reading this will help you take anti-racist action. Whether your organisation is featured as one of the named

brands in this report, or peer organisations from your sector are highlighted. Whether you are a charitable or

non-profit organisation or you are a marketing, brand or communications professional who simply wants to

understand how racism can show up in communications. If you are willing to listen, learn and unlearn, this

research will provide you with invaluable insight to get started, continue or refocus your organisation’s anti-

racism journey.

We’re excited to share this first product from our DISMANTLE series with you and we can’t wait for you to

read, absorb, learn and act on what you’ve discovered.

Thank you for reading. Let’s DISMANTLE systemic racism together.

Collette

Introduction

This is a preview of our latest report - a deep dive into anti-racism in charity sector communications,

providing a comprehensive view of both the barriers and opportunities for progress. This preview will give

you overall conclusions - the full report is designed to provide insight, learning and practical

recommendations to help any organisation understand how racism shows up in a brand and what to do

about it. We have focussed on the charity sector for this first deep dive, because it makes up the majority

of Brand By Me’s clients, and therefore our learnings over the last few years.

We analysed content from the top 30 charities, according to Third Sector’s 2023 Charity Brand Index

survey, which measures public perception and awareness of the UK’s leading charities.

Throughout our analysis, we have used Harris Interactive’s sector descriptions for consistency and clarity,

only updating terms where appropriate (see thoughts on ‘Overseas’ and ‘Elderly’). We examined how anti-

racist the brands’ communication is, across key channels, as described in our methodology.

Brand By Me commissioned its Research Lead and founder of Luminance Insight, Theresa Jones, to carry

out this research on anti-racist messaging and imagery within the charity sector, working alongside our

founder, Collette Philip.

Brand By Me is an award-winning brand and strategy consultancy, building social justice and anti-racism

into brand and communications.

Luminance Insight exists to shine a light on nuanced experiences from marginalised communities, allowing

organisations, brands and service providers to better understand their audiences.

Introduction

Methodology

The analysis was conducted between November 2023 and February 2024 and included a comprehensive

analysis and examination of key webpages:

•

Home

•

About Us

•

Our Work

•

Mission

•

Purpose

•

History

This also included looking at relevant sub-pages. Our approach involved using a framework of questions

(see appendix) to guide our assessment.

We looked at each organisation’s three most popular social media channels and limited the timeframe to

a three-month period from October to December 2023. By focusing on the same three-month period

across social media platforms, we got a more comparable perspective of the storytelling strategies of

each organisation. This timeframe also encompassed various awareness days, weeks, months, and

holidays relevant to speciﬁc Global Majority communities, as well as dominant culture dates.

Key dates in October include:

•

Black History Month

•

Halloween

•

Lesser-known dates such as National Hate Crime Awareness Week

Key dates in November include:Islamophobia awareness week

•

Guru Nanak Jayanti

•

Diwali

Key dates in December include:

•

Hanukkah

•

Christmas

These dates by no means represent an exhaustive list, though they are particularly relevant to many UK

charities. Some dates may be more relevant than others, and there may be others that we have not

listed that are more relevant to speciﬁc organisations.

We conducted an exact Google search query of each organisation's name followed by the words ‘anti-

racist’ to gauge the sector impact of their anti-racist efforts. Our multi-channel approach helped us to

identify speciﬁc areas of focus, and compare these across sectors.

There is no ‘one way’ of getting anti-racism right. It includes many elements.

Some important steps in the process of becoming anti-racist that are particularly relevant for brand and

communications include:

•

actively and openly communicating about racial justice / injustice (in a way that is relevant to, and

linked to the organisation’s work)

•

celebrating and centering Global Majority communities and narratives (to counter white dominant

narratives and assumptions)

•

addressing racist inequity in storytelling (for example, disparities in who gets quoted versus who gets

talked about),

Language

Language evolves all the time. It’s important to highlight speciﬁc terms here, as they appear throughout

the report. Anti-racism. Being not racist is not the same as being anti-racist. Anti-racism is an active and

sustained practice over the long term, focused on challenging and dismantling racism.

Coined by Rosemary Campbell-Stephens, this term re-centres people who were historically labelled as

Ethnic Minority, Black and Minority Ethnic, and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic. While these terms were a

starting point for racialised communities in the UK to talk about racial disparity in the ‘60s and ‘70s,

“People of the Global Majority” centres the diverse array of ethnicities and cultures that make up around

85%of the world's population. This especially contrasts the term "minority" which linguistically marginalises

these communities further. We use ‘people of the Global Majority’, ‘people of colour’, ‘racialised’ and

‘racially minoritised’ people interchangeably throughout this report, depending on the context.

Global Majority:

• Race is a social construct that is used to create and justify differences in people’s access to power. It is

based, in part, on visible physical features like people’s skin colour, hair colour, texture and facial

features.

• Ethnicity is based on cultural factors like ancestry, nationality, heritage and language.

While discrimination based on ethnicity happens, this report focuses on how racism shows up in

communications content within the UK charity sector. This is far more often focused on people’s perceived

race and colour (for example, discrimination against darker-skinned Black people) than it is based on

ethnicity (for example, being Spanish or Moroccan).

Racially diverse:

White supremacy is the aim and purpose of racism. While people usually associate the term with more

visible forms, such as racist hate groups and extremist political parties, it’s important that we use the term

correctly to refer to the behaviours, systems and hierarchies that deliberately benefit anyone who is

thought or perceived to be white at the expense of other racialised communities (the Global Majority).

Throughout this report we refer to descriptions used in the Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture, a

body of work co-created by Kenneth Jones and Dr. Tema Okun. Visit the characteristics of white

supremacy culture website to explore these in detail. These characteristics include features like

perfectionism, either/or thinking and fear of open conflict. These characteristics show up in multiple,

overlapping ways and they have created real barriers for marginalised communities, in particular, those of

the Global Majority.

One example, “worship (or dominance) of the written word' doesn't mean that written and text formats are

white supremacist traits in themselves. It only becomes an issue when the written word is seen as the only

credible way to transmit knowledge. That implies that knowledge can only be acquired in one way. As a

result, other forms of communication become 'lower' in status, or less credible. Verbal and visual methods

of sharing knowledge such as images, infographics, videos, and podcasts are not prioritised. Dominance

of the written word is a prominent feature of academic, political and governmental institutions, which have

a long history of excluding Global Majority communities. At the same time, “worship of the written word”

also disregards oral traditions prevalent in Global Majority cultures

White supremacy:

•

using supported language around race,

•

ensuring people of the Global Majority are not harmed through extractive interview processes or

communications safeguarding failures,

•

minimising racial trauma through ethical consent and story-gathering,

•

including vital context, for example, naming when a foundation’s wealth comes from the trade in

enslaved African people, or being sure to explain how racist systems and policies help to create

racist outcomes, rather than presenting the outcomes - like school exclusions or racialised poverty -

as natural and inevitable,

•

countering stereotypes and challenging attempts to minimise Global Majority people’s experiences of

oppression, their perspectives, wisdom and expertise.

Groups of people who have been assigned minority status (or are perceived this way) because they are

subject to forms of oppression. Examples of oppression include (but are not limited to): ableism, anti-

Semitism, cissexism (transphobia), classism, heterosexism (homophobia), islamophobia, racism (as is

frequently referred to in this report), and sexism. This minority status is not simply linked to numerical or

population numbers, but it comes from the power of a dominant group and results in limits or denial of

safety, legitimacy, dignity, freedom and/or belonging. Using ‘minoritised’, not ‘minority’ acknowledges that

this is a result of oppression, not a passive or natural state.

Minoritised:

This myth uses the stereotype that certain minority groups, particularly East Asians, are universally

successful and high-achieving, ignoring the diversity of experiences within these communities. Model

minority myths lead to some marginalised communities receiving less support, since they are assumed to

be flourishing. It is also used to divide minoritised communities and to destroy cross-identity solidarity. We

have noticed a distinct lack of visual representations on charity websites across East Asian communities.

The ‘model minority myth’:

Representing one or a few individuals from minoritised groups to create the illusion of wider racial diversity

without addressing deeper issues of inequality.

Tokenism:

• Representation describes how often people of the Global Majority appear. For example, how often we see

people who are racialised as Black or East Asian in a video.

• Portrayal describes the specific quality of the story being told about the people in the content. For

example, who gets to speak in the video, who is spoken about, whether they are portrayed with dignity

and respect, celebrated as experts or specialists or presented as passive recipients of help.

Representation versus portrayal:

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. Please note that ‘E’ in the acronym can also stand for Equality.

EDI:

The practice of using an individual or group to achieve a purpose, without taking into account that

person’s identity, wants, needs and the impact of using them to achieve that purpose. In this report,

instrumentalisation most often refers to images of Global Majority communities or individuals who are

merely supporting the text, without having anything to do with what is being said, nor having any agency

within the photo. They appear incidental.

Instrumentalisation:

Race-bending:

This is a form of instrumentalisation in which an image of a Global Majority individual is used to accompany

an event that has actually happened to someone who is from another race. Race-bending commonly

shows up when an organisation mainly works with white or white-passing people, and chooses to use an

image of someone from a different race to tell the story, so as to look ‘diverse.’

The practice of controlling access to certain spaces, opportunities, or communities. Gate-keeping is a way

of excluding minoritised and marginalised groups, including people of colour.

Gate-keeping:

This refers to the phenomenon where only one individual from a marginalised community is permitted to

succeed in a dominant group, perpetuating tokenism and hampering meaningful anti-racism progress. It

takes its name from the phrase ‘there can only be one’, from the fictional Highlander universe.

‘Highlander myth':

• Gender identity: While we cannot be sure of a person’s gender and would normally avoid assumptions,

we talk about people’s perceived gender because we are analysing the impact of those content

choices. It's important in this report to be able to talk specifically about Black men, South Asian

women, and other specific identity categories that we are seeing throughout communications content

across the UK charity sector. In some cases, we won't be right about a person’s identity (for example, a

South Asian woman might identify as a man, non-binary, gengerqueer etc) but we are analysing the

representation and portrayal of these different categories across the content.

• Images and text were analysed in the context of the whole message and the relationship between the

aspects of the messaging. Therefore, what may appear as minimising in one organisation might look

more positive in another depending on the story, context and viewpoint.

• Missed opportunities: where mentioned, this refers to any missed chances for an organisation to take

an anti racist or racial justice perspective in the media (or their communications/channels).

• Sector summaries: As the 30 charities were based on a pre-existing list, some sectors are more heavily

represented than others. We want to avoid creating unfair conclusions about sectors to write

summaries where there are less than two organisations, so we have only provided sector summaries

where there are two or more organisations represented in the sector.

• As mentioned in our introduction, we have kept the sector names used by Harris Interactive for

consistency and clarity. The only two exceptions are the ‘Overseas’ and ‘Elderly’ sectors. We have used

‘International’ for the former as a more everyday word, and to avoid colonial connotations, while we

have replaced ‘Elderly’ with a more age-inclusive term, ‘Older people’.

Opening thoughts

• This work is not intended as a judgement but as a tool to help organisations gauge where they and

various other organisations and sectors are on their anti- racist journeys.

• The resurgence of interest in the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 is seen by many as a watershed

moment in the ways in which societies and communities around the world understand and talk about

race, racism and white supremacy culture. Thus, we refer to June 2020 as a key date for widespread

organisational pledges, commitments and renewed focus within the charity sector in addressing racism.

• Most trustees were appointed post June 2020 across races and genders, (especially Black women and

South Asian men and women), which for some charities signals a renewed focus on anti-racism, while

for others it can appear to be a superficial response to perceived external pressure over this time (part

of a reputation management exercise). In organisations that appointed trustees of the Global Majority

after June 2020, we noticed continued instances of white-centred narratives and trivialisation of Global

Majority communities in their content.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15