Dear Colleagues,
I wanted to give you an update on some early steps we have taken to address the Campbell Foundation’s practices related to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice. As always, I welcome feedback from others on our endeavors, and I invite your suggestions on opportunities we may be missing. This is an ongoing process, and I look forward to reporting back in another few months; on the initiatives described below, and evolving program changes that help us dig deeper into the communities where we are already working on environmental concerns.
- We added a policy to our Employee Handbook that describes the culture we are committed to fostering, and what we expect from our employees, who will always be an integral part of implementing the Foundation’s DEIJ Initiatives.
- We are doing a baseline assessment of our existing grants that advance equity. During this process, we are having internal conversations about how to define and track these grants, and where we could allocate more resources.
- At our weekly staff meetings, we are being intentional about asking more questions and sharing resources around Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice.
- We have started reaching out to grantees through one-on-one personal emails and phone conversations, to ask about the DEIJ work they are doing and have done.
- We are tracking a list of consultants and resources for grantees to use to pursue their own DEIJ work. We will also be issuing a competitive RFP in 2021 to provide funding for grantees’ DEIJ work.
- On our reports and proposals, we will ask about our grantees’ internal DEIJ work. We expect this to yield powerful ideas and more resources to share with others in the field.
- We are developing a program to bring community youth into our decision-making process on grants, and plan to pilot this in the Chesapeake Region in 2021.
- We added Floating Holidays to recognize and include religious or cultural holidays that were not previously represented in our Holiday Calendar.
My deep thanks goes to all the Campbell Foundation staff for helping generate new ideas while working through challenging conversations. I appreciate your partnership on this journey.
Samantha Campbell
President
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