Background
The summer of 2020 forced many individuals, organizations and companies to rethink the way they did business—from pivoting business models due to the pandemic, to rethinking their values and the way they practiced diversity, equity and inclusion internally and externally. Even organizations that thought they were doing things right were challenged to do more—including taking a firm stand on calls for racial and social justice.
Challenge
Organizations that had never taken firm positions on current events before felt uncomfortable doing so now, fearing they were getting too political and running the risk of losing support from supporters and the people they serve. Organization A, a $5B+ nonprofit serving youth in a major metropolitan city, was facing growing criticism for not joining the call for racial justice across the country and not issuing any public statements, despite its mission of promoting diversity and inclusion. Leaders of the organization were being accused of being tone-deaf at best, and racist at worst. The organization faced reputational threats, which would impact its ability to raise money and, worse, threaten its ability to serve its community. This was a high-stress situation dealing with high emotions from all parties.
Strategy
This was no time for traditional PR. In order to find a meaningful solution, we knew we had to find a way to let all stakeholders be heard, foster understanding and, ultimately, build trust. We began by interviewing the leadership team, understanding the timeline of events, researching their mission, programs and DEI strategies to identify gaps or areas of improvement. We worked with them on developing new diversity, equity and inclusion policies and strengthened their mission statement to deepen their commitment to DEI. A series of facilitated discussions were held between staff and their clients, during which all were encouraged to share their experiences, no matter how difficult or uncomfortable, along with ideas on how to foster a more inclusive environment. Feedback from those sessions were used to inform the organization’s strategy moving forward, and invaluable lessons were learned on both sides on issues such as unconscious bias and institutional racism. We suggested—and ultimately drafted, submitted and/or—designed several op-eds and panel discussions focused on how to improve DEI in the workplace, showcasing real examples of the challenges faced as well as best practices. And finally, we helped define the parameters of what the organization would make public statements on, in a way that was meaningful and in alignment with its values.
We chose to address the core problem—deep racial divides fueled by lack of communication and understanding—rather than mask the issue with messaging, with the goal of creating a sustainable model of success for the organization and empowering it with the tools needed to deepen its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.
Results
At the start of this engagement, the organization faced a smear campaign on social media and there was a high likelihood that the story would be picked up by mainstream media. The organization was receiving regular messages and calls from clients and supporters with concerns about what they had been hearing and reading about them. By the end of the engagement, there were no negative articles on the organization, new policies and programs were put in place to solidify its stance on DEI, solutions-based op-eds were published and panel discussions were posted and shared on social media. The organization hosted several fundraisers with no decrease in revenue and no loss of supporters. They were able to maintain their level of clients and continue to broaden their scope of programming and deepen its commitment to serving children of all backgrounds.