Diversity Action Alliance’s
Race and Ethnicity in Public Relations and Communications Benchmark Reports
Welcome to the Diversity Action Alliance (DAA) Reporting Tool. This tool collects data annually to track and measure diversity and inclusion progress across the industry. For the 2025 reporting period, the data reflects promotions from January to December 2024.
Key Information and Updates:
This is the 6th year of data collection.
The reporting deadline for all data submissions is June 30, 2025.
We are collecting U.S. data only, using race/ethnicity categories based on the EEO-1 report from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). For a full list of categories, click here.
We are no longer collecting data for academic departments at colleges or universities.
Signatories will be invited to submit their data every January
Security & Confidentiality:
To ensure privacy, all data will be presented as aggregated scores—individual company data will not be publicly disclosed.
The data will help set industry benchmarks and track progress towards DEI goals.
No individual companies will be identified in any public reports.
All data will be stored securely on a platform certified to ISO 27001, and compliant with GDPR and HIPAA regulations.
Instructions for Reporting:
Submit the number of U.S.-based employees as of January 1, 2025, categorized by job type and race/ethnicity. Ensure each employee is counted only once.
The numbers should be based specifically on your communication department/function, not the entire organization, unless your agency covers the whole company.
Only one top communicator should be listed per organization. If a category has no employees, please enter “0”.
The total of employees in categories #3-#9 should match the number in column #2.
For full job and race/ethnicity category definitions, please visit the IPR website.
FAQS
What kind of data will be collected?
The DAA is collecting specific demographic numbers similar to those found in organizations’ annual D&I reports. The DAA may expand data collection in the future. Questions include:
What is the ethnicity/race composition of the communication function or agency, and what is their level (manager, non-manager, VP, and above)?
What is the ethnicity/race composition of the communication function or agency professionals who are promoted annually?
What is the organization type, size, industry, geography, and annual revenue?
When will the data be collected?
When organizations sign the commitment, we request that they provide within 60 days, the number of employees with a breakdown by ethnicity/race as of January 1 of that year and how many employees with the same breakdown they promoted during the previous year. Every January, we will ask for the same data. Please note that if an organization is not collecting the data requested by the DAA the organization will begin collection when the commitment is signed.
Why is this data important?
Benchmarking and tracking diversity rates will provide the DAA with critical insights into key opportunity areas and the effectiveness of our diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies. Furthermore, by sharing data, organizations are helping DAA create objectives to support our goal of reflecting the diversity of the United States by 2025. We realize that some organizations are more advanced than others on this journey, and their department may not be where they want them to be, but these benchmarks are essential for accountability and progress.
How secure is the data reporting tool?
To ensure security and confidentiality, data will only be presented as aggregated scores rather than individual summaries. Data will be used to set benchmarks and track progress toward goals in the public relations industry. Individual organizations will not be identified publicly by name or by description in any way, nor will DAA share your data with any other party.
The collected data will be kept on a secure platform for data privacy and security that is ISO 27001 certified, GDPR, and HIPAA Compliant. Details about the security of the platform can be found here.
How do I collect the data?
Under the reference links section above, please review the How to Collect Data for the DAA Reporting Tool. We also provide a sample survey here for reference.
Questions?
If you have any questions about the data collection, please contact anyone on the DAA staff or Tina McCorkingdale, Ph.D., President/CEO at the Institute for Public Relations, at tina@instituteforpr.org.