We will share our priorities and progress through quarterly updates on this page and on social media. This commitment to ongoing and transparent communication holds us accountable to this important work, and give visibility to our journey to other organizations who may be on a similar path.

Most recent update: October 2023

-Currently, the majority of Causewave’s employees are white. Given the breadth and depth of our work with hundreds of organizations across the region and the thousands of community members they touch, this means we are missing key perspectives in our work. Organizations of every size and mission should have access to partners and vendors that reflect the diversity of their employees and program participants. See our staff here.

-As a small organization, we recognize that the opportunities to change the makeup of our staff are infrequent. Therefore, we know we need to continue to evaluate and make changes to our recruiting practices in order to have more success in adding diversity to our team.

-Most recently, we reached out to HBCUs to identify candidates and consulted with recruiters who have had success with recruiting diverse candidate pools.

-Currently our 28-person board is 36% BIPOC. In 2018, it was 18% and in 2015, it was 7%. See who's on our board here.

-The nominating committee of our board includes racial and ethnic diversity along with other criteria when considering new board members each year. 

-Our board has formed an anti-racism task force, co-chaired and led by board members. They are developing a list of recommended changes to Causewave policies, by-laws and board member onboarding/ orientation.

-We have ongoing discussions at board meetings related to DEI and antiracism.

-We developed a set of guiding principles for conversations about race and racism as a staff and board. Our hope is that these principles continue to help push us into the culture we want to have here at Causewave.

-We are working across the organization to deepen our understanding and knowledge of DEI and what it means to be anti-racist through staff retreats, workshops, conferences, resource-sharing, and open dialogue. Are you a DEI professional offering paid trainings or workshops? We’d love to hear from you.

-We offer an annual professional development stipend to staff. Our CEO recently completed the 10-month Exploring Racism Group program. Another staff member completed the Intro to Anti-Racism course with 540W Main and produced this final project. Five of our staff attended the Interrupt Racism conference in September 2023, hosted by Urban League of Rochester.

-We launched Catalyst Club, a professional and personal development monthly program where DEI-related topics will be the topic of 6 out of the 12 sessions each year. In 2023, we dedicated 2 sessions to the Antiracist Curriculum Project, presented by CCSI.

-We have practices and policies to help ensure we have a diverse pool of candidates and that our job descriptions are posted and shared in spaces where BIPOC job seekers are more likely to see them.

-When we don't have near-term job openings, we continue to do informational interviews with potential candidates as one way to increase our chances of making a hire that adds diversity to our team when we have an open position.

-Exit interviews are conducted by a Causewave board member to better understand the reasons why FT & PT employees have left Causewave in the past. Compensation and relocation have been noted as the primary reasons for leaving.

-Our staff and board completed the Michigan Nonprofit Association Nonprofit Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Assessment to help assess our current practices and evaluate gaps where we can improve. These recommendations are represented here and in plans we are developing currently.

-In 2022, 42% of the projects we worked on were either for BIPOC-led or BIPOC-serving orgs.

-We work to engage community partners and residents to make sure programmatic and messaging solutions are informed by and resonate with BIPOC people.

-We often conduct focus groups or other forms of research to ensure relevant voices are represented in our work. Focus group participants are always compensated for their time.

-We have a list of BIPOC and MWBE vendors to engage in our work wherever possible to provide balance to our current teams’ makeup. Are you a BIPOC or MWBE vendor we should know about? We’d love to add you to our database.

-Our Race & Media initiative examines how race is portrayed in local news media and ways to improve. Read more about that project here.

-This past year, we partnered with the US District Court, Western District of NY, the NYS Unified Court System and Erie County on developing a solution to bring more diversity to juries so that community members have the opportunity to truly have a jury of their peers.

-A few other recent examples include: partnering with the Black Bar Association on promotion of the Roy W. King Legal Diversity Internship, Deaf Refugee Advocacy on building their first operating plan as a startup nonprofit, and Connected Communities, to help engage the community in their revision of the Comprehensive Neighborhood Plan for the EMMA and Beechwood neighborhoods.

-We make grant funding available to reduce cost barriers to our capacity building programs. In many cases, this can mean up to 75% of costs being covered. Want to partner with us on a capacity-building program? Let’s connect.

-Our organization prioritizes a portion of our marketing budget to support BIPOC-led and BIPOC-supporting nonprofits through event sponsorships. Have a sponsorship opportunity we should consider? We’d love to hear from you.

-We are intentional about selecting BIPOC-owned businesses and vendors whenever possible–designers, publicists, writers, restaurants/food trucks, florists, musicians and other performers for events, and our office cleaning service are recent examples.