This content was originally published as a Woke@Work blog series designed to help nonprofit and philanthropic organizations engage consultants to build a Race Equity Culture™. 

We could not have foreseen the historical course of 2020 and the exponential increase in demand for race equity training and capacity building following the murders of countless Black and trans individuals— Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Michelle Michellyn Ramos Vargas and many others— sparking Black Lives Matter demonstrations nationwide. To address the urgent need organizations have expressed for support in navigating how to begin building a Race Equity Culture, we’ve republished our 2018 “So You Want to Hire an Equity Consultant” blog series as a guide for leaders and organizations seeking to begin this work in earnest. 

For additional context on how leaders and organizations can navigate the profound issues of racial and health inequity that have converged in 2020, see the following: “Do Black Lives Matter in Your Organization: Living into the Values of Your Public #BLM Statement,” “Centering Race Equity and Thinking Strategically in a Long-Term Crisis: A Discussion of Organizational Responses to COVID-19” and “COVID-19: Using a Racial Justice Lens Now to Transform Our Future.”   If your organization released a public statement earlier this year, and seeks to engage a consultant to begin living into the values it articulated, see the following: “What Big Business Said in All Those Anti-Racism Statements: Not Much, Says Our Analysis,”“Is Your Company Actually Fighting Racism or Just Talking About It,” and “Toward a Racially Just Workplace.”