Is DEI Language Important?
Is it important for CDFIs to have value statements or mission statements that explicitly address diversity, equity, and inclusion? The answer is a resounding yes according to FUND Community Institute’s recently released report, Advancing Equity: Diversity and Inclusion at CDFIs (available at www.fundci.org ).
As part of this research, FUND CI interviewed staff at CDFIs identified as having standout practices in their support of diversity, equity, and inclusion. One of the common practices among the CDFIs that participated is that they have organizational statements that directly address support for diversity, equity, and inclusion. These might be formal terminology or goals used in their mission statements, corporate value statements, diversity statements or similar. One of the themes is that language is important and signaling support is an important step in the process of fostering greater diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Olivia Rebanal of Capital Impact reflected that, “I think that mission statements and explicit language is key to this work.”
Selected quotes:
“So, we have it as one of our organization values. And then in our mission statement we use the word equitable.”
“We have created a diversity statement since I’ve been here. In that diversity statement, we really kind of define the culture that we want to have that respects individual differences, and we define what individual differences are in this diversity statement to be race, color, of course national origin, age, the protected classifications, and then to also expand that to marital status or sexual orientation or gender identity.”
“And then our values, which are we envision an inclusive world in which all, which is underlined, all entrepreneurs and community have the opportunity to make their dreams come true. But I think that we certainly make it very clear who we believe to not have access to these products, and really how we approach that in our vision and mission.”
“One of the things that we did to blend our cultures was all the employees went out to dinner and it was a small group. I think we had like 22 or 25 people at that time and we sat around drinking and joking and talking about the things that we believe in. If you read our strategic plan, it’s actually in our new strategic plan for 2022, a statement of what we believe in.”
“So equity, diversity and inclusion is actually listed as a strategic pillar.”
As many CDFIs are beginning work to move towards more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplaces, the findings from this report suggest that one important place to start is by formalizing the language around these values. Does your organization have these? Do you think they are important?
FUND Community Institute (FUND CI)
FUND CI was founded in 2017 as part of the family of FUND Consulting organizations. In an effort to support the CDFI Industry, one of the main activities of the organization is to conduct and disseminate research on CDFIs and related topics. For more information, please contact ruthbarber@fundci.org.
Is it important for CDFIs to have value statements or mission statements that explicitly address diversity, equity, and inclusion? The answer is a resounding yes according to FUND Community Institute’s recently released report, Advancing Equity: Diversity and Inclusion at CDFIs (available at www.fundci.org ).