Our commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

City Fund partners with local leaders to build innovative public school systems to give more students equitable access to an excellent education. We recognize that to be effective, we must work to tackle the systemic racism and injustice that lie at the root of these systems.

First, we are committing to becoming an anti-racist organization that celebrates diversity in all forms and is led by people of color. Second, we aim to invest in organizations led and informed by people of color and historically marginalized families. While disrupting systems of inequity will require a diverse coalition of leaders and allies, we are specifically working toward more Black and Latina/o/x leadership to better represent the vast majority of students impacted by our work.

There is no time to waste. In 2019, we committed to meaningful and measurable progress alongside our internal antiracism work.

SPECIFICALLY, BY 2023:

The majority of our partner team and our board will be Black and Latina/o/x (currently 54% and 40%)

The majority of our investments will be in organizations led Black and Latina/o/x leaders (currently 63%)

We will invest in organizations that give power to parent voices in all our partner cities (currently 87%)

To achieve these targets, we are taking the following actions:

  1. Diversifying our team: Examining our internal hiring and performance management to mitigate bias and foster equity.

  2. Investing resources differently: Building more diverse coalitions with a specific focus on parent-led organizations, engaging more Black and Latina/o/x vendors and consultants, and ensuring our grantees make plans to do the same.

  3. Cultivating diverse leadership: Building the City Leadership Fellowship with a focus on supporting and investing in Black and Latina/o/x leaders.

  4. Transparent accountability: Tracking and reporting our progress against measurable DEI goals and ensuring our grantees do the same.

We are building a team and investing in work that is inclusive of everyone who shares our commitment to educational equity. We know that we’ll be judged by our actions, not our words. So we’re committed to sharing our progress annually - both when we make strides and when we come up short.