Equity and Impact: A New Practice Dedicated to Turning Racial Equity Awakenings into Meaningful Action

Sometimes it feels like we’ll never dig ourselves out from under the mountain of white supremacy.

How could even the most committed advocate possibly undo centuries of oppression and exclusion, carefully nurtured perspectives and resistance to progress, and a seemingly endless and growing list of disparities and indignities, big and small? 

One year after the most prominent collective racial breaking point since the emergence of Black Lives Matter, commitment to righting these wrongs remains at a peak around the world. But for different reasons and in different ways, the day-to-day act of dismantling inequity can be an overwhelming feat — from frontline racial justice organizations whose causes are finally being seen and heard, to allies just realizing their responsibility to help overturn the status quo, many are upleveling their racial equity ambitions as they never have before.

This is work that no one actor can do alone. Dismantling racial injustice begs for the movement mentality we’ve seen taken to civil rights generation upon generation. A movement, by its nature, is bigger than the sum of its parts. It exists to spread the load of efforts that could never be carried on one’s own. It thrives on longevity, intersectionality, and a collective sense of pressing in the same direction to make progress —  even in those moments when it’s difficult to see how these diverse efforts cohere into something big enough to change the world around us.

It’s with a movement spirit in mind that we are excited to announce a new Racial Equity Impact Practice at Purpose, with the ambition of helping diverse actors — from frontline advocates to allies across the nonprofit, business, and philanthropic sectors — act effectively on their opportunities to bring racial equity-centered impact to life, authentically. 

Through offerings that help organizations unlock foundational equity-centered impact; new initiatives that respond to emerging movement needs and different actors’ unique capacity to help; thought-provoking content to spark ideas for equitable action; and intentional spaces for building and strengthening coalition, we hope to be an asset across the ever-growing ecosystem of advocates looking to turn the latest cultural awakening around race into concrete impact.

Racial equity is a pillar that the Purpose team has centered intentionally in our work for several years, building on a deep internal practice of education and even more years of campaigning for human rights on behalf of vulnerable communities around the world, while continuing to learn humbly from the frontline activists and organizations on the movement’s cutting edge. As we step forward to support this work, our intent is to combine our social impact experience and commitment to equity across race and identity to offer a unique movement perspective that unlocks power and progress in this historic moment and those to come.

For an open, just, and habitable world.

If we can help: Contact weare@purpose.com