Call to Action

Both people of color and white people must interrogate assumptions about how the work of nonprofits and grant makers is and can be done, and by whom.

Our shared work is to dismantle the white supremacy and institutional racism on which the social sector is constructed, and create an equity culture that values the humanity and lived experiences of all persons equally.

To do so, we challenge colleagues to adopt specific tactics on the levels at which racism operates:

Personal

Decolonize your mind. Accept that white supremacy is real, and that institutional racism is practiced by people of all races

Interrogate the dominant narrative. Understand implicit bias and your identity and role in enabling and propagating systemic racism

Complete your own internal work. Don’t put the burden exclusively on people you perceive to be more conscious than you, usually people of color, to explain the system. Hold yourself accountable for and commit to doing work at the four levels on which racism operates

Interpersonal

Respect the lived experience of people of color operating within white dominant culture, including your own, if you are a person of color

Commit to building, being vulnerable to, and learning through, relationships with people of a different race, especially people of color whose voices are often marginalized

Acknowledge the impact of race-based power differentials within organizations

Institutional

Commit to understanding and speaking publicly on principles of race equity, and how they apply in the institutional context

Disaggregate staff engagement, performance, and compensation data by race at all staff levels. Hold yourself and leadership accountable for this work

Engage staff and communities of color to inform governance, decision making, and execution across organizational processes

Structural

Be accountable, at the individual and organizational level, for dismantling personal, interpersonal, institutional and structural artifacts of white supremacy

Publicly advocate for race equity and challenge white dominant cultural norms, including naming micro-aggressions in interpersonal and institutional contexts

Cede power to people of color within and across teams, organizations, and systems