Balance Now is a 501 (c) registered non-profit that explores how we can enhance justice in institutions and leadership that influence individuals and communities in the United States. As a volunteer-run team of ~30 intern/volunteers, we bring awareness to systemic injustices to equip culturally competent leaders with knowledge to increase justice in the communities they serve.

Our Story

Balance Now was founded with a simple yet powerful belief: that representation matters in creating a more just society. What started as a passion project to track diversity in leadership has grown into a comprehensive platform for change.

Our team of dedicated volunteers and interns work tirelessly to research, analyze, and report on diversity trends across various sectors including government, business, media, education, and healthcare.

Through our data-driven approach and compelling storytelling, we’ve become a trusted resource for organizations, researchers, and activists working toward more inclusive leadership.

Mission

For the sake of our research process, we defined leadership as those serving in the following roles: Board of Directors, Founders/President, Directors, CXO, SVPs. So far, we have focused on two designations: race and gender at birth. We classified race and gender into two categories each: white or people of color (POC), and male or female. People are considered white if they are of European descent and considered POC if they are Asian, Black, Indigenous, Hispanic/Latinx, Mixed, or any other non-white race/ethnicity. As to gender, we began only by looking at ‘sex at birth’ classification. Currently, the US population is composed of 40% people of color and 51% women. The purpose of our research and writing is to showcase how closely the leadership of an entity represents the American population.

We chose the designations of race and gender not only because data on these metrics is more publicly available, but also because historically, people of darker complexion have been exploited for labor and seen as ‘less’ in various aspects of life — from media representation to hiring practices. Women are also less likely to be hired or elected into leadership positions, and women of color are at the intersection of these prejudices.

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Vision

One of Balance Now’s ultimate goals is encouraging American audiences to be more cognizant of the decision-makers in the institutions that influence their daily lives. The perceptions held by our society about people of color and women vary from individual to individual and are by no means equivalent experiences for all. However, these statistics help show the glaring discrepancies in the diversity of decision-makers of major institutions that shape our lives — from those who make our food to films to health policies.

Future

As we move into another era at Balance Now, we hope to broaden our classification systems to represent race and ethnicity more specifically and a fuller range of diversity metrics, such as non-binary gender classification, age, sexuality, religion, education level, socioeconomic background, disability status, and veteran status. We hope the Balance Now platform encourages institutions to embrace diversity within their leadership and for everyday people to drive that change, empowered by a willingness for betterment and insight provided by our platform.

What We Do

Our Impact

500+

Articles Published

50+

Organizations Tracked

100+

Volunteers & Interns

25k+

Monthly Readers