By Cyndi Suarez, President of Big Soul
Since 2018, Equity In The Center has been at the forefront of driving racial equity in organizations. In its first five years as an independent 501c3, it coined the term Race Equity Culture™ and created a framework for it that is now used as the standard for racial equity in organizations. It convenes a national community of practice for racial equity practitioners. It hosts learning cohorts for those leading racial equity change in their organization. What could be the next biggest contribution that it can make in the next five years?
What is emerging falls along three axes. The first is whether EIC will prioritize a North Star or continue to be responsive to the field. The second is the role that EIC could play in coordinating racial equity work in the field. The third, how to develop sustainable pushback to backlash.
North Star versus Responsive
One of the keys to EIC’s success in its first five years has been how responsive it has been to the racial equity field. In fact, its success thus far—creating the standard setting framework for the field—is due to the unique community it has brought together and inspired to share experience and best ideas. The reach its model has had is helped by a strong network of practitioners who implement it across the field. However, many want EIC to propose a North Star for the field.
Amanda Andere, CEO of Funders Together to End Homelessness and EIC board member, says, “That’s something we’re grappling with as a board. Are we responsive? Are we a North Star and don’t get distracted by the Great Regression around equity or the ebbs and flows?”
Dr Raquel Gutierrez—founder and CEO of Blue Agave Partners, an EIC advisor, and a member of EIC’s team of seasoned racial equity practitioners—says, “I really would love to see them play a larger role in holding the field through being part of a larger strategy. It’s just so missing. We have all these great organizations doing great things, but I don’t feel like they’re all connected. I’m not seeing the larger strategy.”
Sean Thomas-Breitfeld—program officer on Ford’s Civic Engagement and Government team, former Co-Executive Director of the Building Movement Project, and EIC board member—puts it this way,
The landscape has changed dramatically, and the moment for this work has narrowed. But the moment will come back because organizations have not addressed much of anything. What has changed is that there are many more of us in leadership, but there are also many more of us who have cycled out of leadership because the jobs and the pressures of the organizations weren’t worth it.
So what’s the anticipatory readiness that Equity In the Center could do to be ahead of the curve when there’s another moment of opportunity to put race back at the center? We’re trying to figure out what’s the North Star, big picture, strategic thing that we’re shooting for.
However, EIC itself is a race equity organization determining the best way to move forward in this environment. Ericka Hines, founder of Black Women Thriving and EIC’s Managing Director, says, “EIC has to figure out how to operate and have impact in a climate that is inhospitable. And, if we can do that, how can we transparently show that to other organizations?”
Gutierrez captures the apparent North Star v responsiveness paradox. Though she would like to see EIC play a key role in building field wide strategy, she says, “I think what’s next for them is to really step into a vision and be in their agency around it. I don’t know if they’ve had an opportunity from a rest space to dream of something that isn’t what everybody expects them to be.”
Perhaps the paradox is resolved by keeping to its collective approach and hosting and facilitating the development of a North Star with the field.
Coordinating the Field
Another role that the field is asking EIC to play is coordinator. Two key factors have emerged as being in want of coordination. The first is coordinating people who are at the different levels of the framework, that is Awake, Woke, and Work.
Carly Hare, CEO of Headwaters Foundation and EIC board member, says, “How do we support people moving through the framework, because we don’t have a thing like a program? We can hold the container where you can work with peers to identify what your options are. Particularly in this post-affirmative action decision—how do we do things?”
Further, Hare sees an opportunity for EIC to focus on particular levels, “An important role for EIC is to help folks that are in the woke and the work phase that are ready to do change work. Because there are enough practitioners in the Awake phase.”
Gutierrez identifies a key tension to address when she says,
I think there’s a lot of, “We know more than you. We know better than you.” That’s the stuff that’s going to take us down. I’ve been in conversations where organizations roll their eyes at the 101 work. 101 work isn’t for everybody. But how are you in relationship with the people who do 101 work? How do you bring them in and say, “Hey, tell me about your 101 work, and how does it ladder to my work?” And that’s a role I think Equity In The Center could play.
Kerrien Suarez, EIC’s President and CEO, says, “Our next biggest contribution is coaching and capacity building to help folks understand how to apply the principles and the recommendations in the paper on a daily basis. That’s where we fall down the most, in that daily practice of equity as managers, as leaders.”
The second coordinating factor is EIC’s constituencies. Andere explains, “There are levels to it. There’s the organizational learning and change, and there’s the practitioners who support those organizations. EIC gives them space to be human as they’re trying to shift organizational systems and cultures.”
Thomas-Breitfeld asks,
What kind of cohort work is really worth doing? That’s a live question. Another question is: what’s the role for Equity In The Center in relationship to capacity builders in the field? The Deep Equity Practitioners Network (DEPn) is one way of answering that question, but there are strategic partnerships with particular consultants to deliver content to the field. How many different levels of engagement are important and strategic?
This last question is a key one for EIC to answer. It is the core structure of a network. Who is it engaging? What are the degrees of engagement, and do those constitute levels? What benefits and responsibilities are afforded at each level? What skills are needed at each level, and how are they provided? Finally, and often most importantly strategically—how do these levels interact and support each other to advance the purpose?
Sustainable Pushback
The cyclical nature of racial justice work means that periods of sustained action must be counterbalanced with periods of rest and gestation. How to do that thoughtfully is the third axis for what EIC could contribute to the work right now.
Hines shares, “What we know how to do is fight. We know how to go out and protest. We will push back. But how long is that sustainable? How are we thinking about being in a sustainable pushback? I think that’s the great opportunity that we have right now.”
Gutierrez gets more specific, “I think that part of their existence is going to be dependent on how well the health and well-being of their staff is cared for. I don’t think that they’re cared for at the level of work that they carry.”
Marcus Walton, President and CEO of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO), EIC’s first major partner wants to see EIC itself sustained. He says,
I want to see EIC sustained because it’s valuable to have something that is ever present, like an anchor that’s reliable, that you can always revisit as change happens through cycles and forms. We can keep going back to the race equity culture framework to ground us and inform our practice. As much as there might be opportunity for innovation the framework is a road map that is generational in nature.
Cyndi Suarez is president of Big Soul, a creative knowledge firm. She is the author of The Power Manual: How to Master Complex Power Dynamics, in which she outlines a new theory and practice of liberatory power. She is a former president and editor-in-chief at Nonprofit Quarterly (NPQ). Suarez has over 30 years of experience in the nonprofit sector and has worked as a strategy and innovation consultant with a focus on networks and platforms for social movements. She is currently writing a book that offers a new framework for social change. Learn more at cyndisuarez.com.
