Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

We are committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world.

Our mission statement puts justice first, as do we. We are guided by our values and live our mission through the Just Imperative, which charges us to lead with a commitment to justice. This commitment helps ensure that our decisions and actions are rooted in the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion by embracing uniqueness; striving to create a fair playing field for all; and cultivating environments where everyone feels respected, valued, and a sense of belonging.

Our commitment to justice begins with our staffing and operations. We actively encourage all candidates to apply—including those from diverse backgrounds, viewpoints, and lived experiences—so that we can find talent wherever it may be and hire teams that reach all of the communities we strive to serve. Diversity includes all the ways that people differ, encompassing the characteristics that make people distinct from one another.

We also actively seek to:

work with a diverse pool of businesses, consultants, contractors, and investment managers;
elevate the voices of individuals and organizations not always heard in policy and in grantmaking strategies; and
ensure that our grantmaking considers a broad diversity of organizations and helps to address historic and structural inequities.

What We’re Doing

Our many activities include:

Grantmaking

Many of the traditional practices in philanthropy and investments have resulted in inequities in the United States and around the world. Our goal is to support grantee and impact investee organizations in their efforts to address these inequities.

Broader Recruitment

We have added new recruiting partners, resources, and strategies to help us include and consider a diverse pool of candidates for all positions. We are constantly building our networks and conducting outreach to ensure that our opportunities are viewed by, and available to, individuals from all walks of life.

Staff Training and Policies

Our Code of Conduct obliges all Staff to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with the highest professional and ethical standards. We also provide periodic management, legal, anti-harassment, and equity trainings.

Staff Engagement

Our Staff are leaders of and participants in various philanthropy affinity groups that reflect the diversity of the Foundation and the sector. We are active in our local communities, as volunteers, teachers, religious leaders, and engaged residents, and the Foundation actively creates and supports opportunities for volunteering and being present in our communities.

Information Sharing

We post information about the composition of our Staff and Board annually to both hold ourselves accountable and to encourage others to do the same. The Foundation collects and reports on the categories of race and ethnicity, sex and gender, disability, and LGBTQ+ identity for our Staff and Board.

We also collect demographic data on all U.S.-based organizations we support through grants and impact investments. We believe that the best, most impactful work results from organizations with staff who represent a variety of backgrounds and experiences and that center the voices of people who know and understand the communities we seek to serve. We recognize we have work to do to achieve this ideal, among our Staff and the organizations we choose to support.

It is a Journey

We recognize that striving for such a high standard is hard work and a constant learning journey. It will require us to work at the individual, interpersonal, organizational, and systemic levels to develop and implement these goals. We will not get it right every time and pledge to remain committed and consistent in our efforts to incorporate the Just Imperative into our work and our lives.