“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” Audre Lorde 

The global eruption of protests against racism has prompted our own organization, as an international leader in cultivating business leadership, to more deeply examine the role we must play in the fight for racial equity and a more just future for all. Our systems have allowed the acceptance of the status quo, leading to far too many decisions, activities, meetings, and events where Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) are underrepresented.

To create an equitable society, we must commit to making unbiased choices and being anti-racist in all aspects of our lives. As a civil society institution with a mission to inspire and equip leaders for a just and sustainable world, Net Impact must make this commitment too and must embed it in all its activities. Further, we must point out, work toward dismantling problematic aspects of our systems.

We, Net Impact, commit to amplifying the voices of BIPOC Net Impact Members, Business Professionals, Entrepreneurs, Academics, Policy Makers, Activists, and others through our events (virtual and terrestrial), workshops, and other engagements. We will also continue to build relationships with other BIPOC, to learn, to uncover our conscious or unconscious indifference, and become authentic partners in the work toward anti-racism. We will include racial equity and social justice in our offerings and identify ways to engage more BIPOC mentors and apprentices. And, we will continue to identify other courses of action to not only make Net Impact anti-racist, but to promote businesses, government, academic, and other institutions to do the same.

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For more information, please read the associated press release.