Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is central to our mission. To ensure that we live up to this mission, we’ve hosted 23 listening sessions (and more to come), with the goal of determining how to transform your valuable feedback into action. As we continue to enhance the member experience, we’ll be more transparent about our strategy — so you feel informed on the work we’re doing and equipped to have conversations about our community.
We updated our DEI commitment to include:
- A clear statement about our aspiration for the Chief community — so you know the vision that guides all our decisions around Impact & Inclusion.
- Data on the racial and ethnic demographic breakdown for our members, Board of Directors, Guides, and the Chief leadership team (VP+) — so you have a disaggregated view of the 33% of our community who identify as a member of color, as well as an understanding of representation across the full Chief ecosystem.
- Guidelines on the behaviors to which we hold ourselves and our entire community accountable — so we can create in-person and virtual environments that foster dignity, safety, and respect.
- A more detailed look at how we’re allocating our $1 million annual commitment to nonprofits that resonate with our mission, are centering the most vulnerable and marginalized communities in their work, and operate with an intersectional lens — so you have specifics on the causes and organizations we support.
- A gender-expansive definition for our community, which has always guided our approach, but is something we have not shared publicly — so it’s clear how we strive to build a diverse and inclusive community that serves multiple and intersecting individuals.
What’s next?
- We recognize, in the absence of clarity, some questions arose about fairness in our application process. We have updated our membership criteria here and published answers to commonly asked questions here so that all applicants have a clear understanding of how we vet for executive seniority to ensure our members have a network of true peers. Additionally, we’re improving how we communicate with Chief applicants in a timely manner, keeping them apprised of the process — and we’re doing the same for you, so you know the status of people you nominated to Chief.
- You may be aware of our grant program and that last year we allocated $5 million in grants to executives identifying as part of an underrepresented group, non-profit executives, and members in career transition. We need to provide more transparency around the purpose of our grants, who is eligible, and how members can apply. Expect this from us soon.
- Updated Community Guidelines — building on what we already have in place — that reflect what we’re learning from our listening sessions.
- Additional inclusion training for our Guide community, coming soon.
Thanks, as always, for your feedback. We’ll continue to share updates on the work we’re doing to strengthen all aspects of the Chief experience.