Equity in the Center is thrilled to be one of the 286 organizations that received a part of the almost 3 billion dollars that MacKenzie Scott committed to addressing social inequities in our society. We are very proud to be amongst our race equity peers in receiving this funding, all of whom work collaboratively with us to push our sector to live into their anti-racism values.
Four years ago, we emerged as a collaboration of Annie E. Casey Foundation grantees who convened to grapple with this essential question: Why are there so few leaders of color in the social sector? From there we began our research to push beyond diversity and inclusion to building a Race Equity Culture within organizations and the broader social sector. With the minds and experience of many race equity leaders across the country, we learned what organizations could do to be more racially equitable in policies, practices, and programs. In these short four years, this research and our framework, The Race Equity Cycle, has helped organizations chart their own paths to dismantling white supremacy. Our recently launched Pulse Check is an extension of this research and we look forward to continuing to deepen our capacity to transform the social sector in collaboration with colleagues and co-conspirators.
Thanks to MacKenzie Scott’s generous gift to our organization, people and organizations will have continued access to the skills, knowledge and mentoring needed to proactively dismantle white supremacy in the social sector. More organizations will be able to receive the tools and learning that they need to start, sustain and be successful in creating organizational cultures that center race equity. This internal work, in turn, will have a deep impact on their programs and services, and will allow them to better advocate for the broader adoption of race equity in the sector and society.
We deeply appreciate MacKenzie Scott’s deep investment in our field to continue doing this powerful and necessary work. We hope that her vision for giving unrestricted funding will influence the philanthropic sector to also consider directly investing in the work of our fellow BIPOC-led organizations that are committed to racial justice.
