February 19, 2019

Last summer, after the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent national reckoning with racism in all its forms, EdFuel sent out a message to our community about our beliefs and commitments as an organization. Our main goal of that message was to make our organizational values clear and to specifically acknowledge and affirm that Black Lives Matter. We also committed to looking inward at our own practices and how we can advance as an anti-racist organization instead of operating as one that perpetuates a culture of white supremacy.

We believe that how we take action matters immensely. Since last summer, we have assessed our practices both internally and externally to determine what anti-racist policies and practices already exist within our organization, and where there is room to grow. In order to ensure that this work remains a priority, we have taken several steps forward, including making our anti-racist journey a key 2021 organizational priority and engaging both internal team members and our Board of Directors to help us clarify our vision and strategy.

In addition, we have established an internal working group to determine and execute the steps needed to create and implement new policies and practices within our organization. Project managed by Cortney Graham Ameckson, Manager, the working group provides dedicated staff capacity to systematically reflect on where we’ve been and where we are currently, as well as provide the structure to research and develop concrete policies and practices to roll out both internally and with the clients we serve.

We are committed to showing up in both equitable and inclusive ways as well as remaining open to ongoing feedback and pushback from both internal and external members of our community. We recognize that this work is never-ending and will always need to be revised and revisited; however, we have determined our initial organizational actions collectively, and we are committed to sharing out these actions and our progress on an ongoing basis.

In the coming months, we will document our learnings and journey to becoming an explicitly anti-racist organization via our Talent Talks Blog. Today, we are sharing our Anti-Racist Pledge that will anchor our work to come. We invite you to read our pledge below, ask questions, share your own resources, and hold us accountable for making this a lived reality. We look forward to sharing our journey with you.

You can find our anti-racism pledge and resources at edfuel.org/anti-racism. To share resources or help us amplify the work of race and equity practitioners in the field, visit edfuel.org/anti-racist-resources.