Philanthropy (like any industry) can get swept up in movements and trends. Some trends are buzzy but quickly flow through our cultural rivers, leaving little trace of their impact or original intent. But we’re here to talk about a growing movement that we hope wholeheartedly is here to stay. It’s the practice of bringing diversity, equity, and inclusion practices and trainings into the office, and ingraining them into the work culture. It’s a practice we see our clients (both foundations and nonprofits) doing more each year and something we see far less often in the tech industry. This needs to change.
At Fluxx, we pride ourselves in being a mission-driven organization led by executives who practice what they preach and who are surrounded by an incredible team – a team that welcomed our own recent diversity and inclusion training this June. We consider this training to be a starting point for us as a company – an honest conversation meant to encourage understanding and dialogue.
This work is difficult and these trainings aren’t meant to be comfortable. That being said, we believe that it’s critical to come together as both a company and a community to explore our diversity and see where we can further improve on our inclusion practices. The training supported the development of a common language for our team. This common language can then be employed whenever we need to have conversations surrounding diversity and inclusion.
We did this because constructive conversation leads to change. When teams are equipped with better methods to comfortably discuss diversity, it becomes that much easier to acknowledge and celebrate our differences while collectively working to be fair and balanced. Our training engaged every employee and we carved out an entire workday for it. The training helped us get to know each other and look at our pasts and presents in different lights. It provided all of us with skills and tools that will enhance our ability to identify and address challenges in regards to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
We believe trainings like these are valuable for all organizations – not just those in the philanthropic space, and we hope that more organizations will choose to engage in this type of work in the future in the hopes of creating better workplaces across the country.
A single-day diversity and inclusion training is just the start – proper follow up must happen in order to ensure that these team trainings lead to change. We began our follow up by sharing an engagement survey which included specific questions around diversity and inclusion so we could better understand how our employees feel about their workplace environment. We will use the results of the survey to drive positive change and build our own internal diversity and inclusion focus groups so we can learn how diversity and inclusion can be further cemented into our mission and daily life.
We understand that cultivating inclusion at work is an evolving process. Thankfully we have a leadership team that is dedicated to diversifying our workforce and employees who are committed to our mission and community. This is only the first step. We’re committed to further including diversity and inclusion practices into our core values as we drive toward making a positive change in our organization. These conversations bring all of us in leadership closer to understanding what more we can do to build trust and open a dialogue. In the coming months, we will be focused on analyzing and answering the question, “what’s next?” And "how does diversity and inclusion fit into our mission and daily work?"
Stay tuned and check our blog for updates as we continue to expand upon our diversity and inclusion learnings in the coming months!
To learn more about who makes up the incredible team at Fluxx, check out our team page.
P.S. If you believe in an equitable, diverse, fair and balanced workplace, then check out our careers page. We’re hiring.
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