Foundations can help level the playing field by investing in practices that lead to equitable outcomes and grounding their work in strategies that ensure all people and communities are supported to reach universal and common goals (like all students reading at grade level or graduating from high school).

So, what does this look like? How do funders  develop organizational strategies that are truly rooted in and center equity? That is the question we set out to answer over the past year. 

Some Background...

As social impact consultants, we have supported many foundations to make progress on their equity journeys. This has included consciousness-raising, culture building and operationalizing equity, amongst other types of projects. Many of us also support foundations with strategic planning. However, time and again, we found that while the work on DEI brought greater awareness around issues of equity and somewhat impacted strategy development, it rarely fundamentally transformed how strategic planning was carried out.

Furthermore, as consultants committed to equity, we were also personally aware, and disturbed, that our approach to strategic planning had not fundamentally changed as a result of our own equity journeys. So, we intentionally looked for resources that codified equity-centered strategy development approaches, but found very little.  

As a result, over the last year, our team engaged in a series of conversations with foundation leaders and social impact strategic planning consultants to learn about how they are incorporating equity into strategic planning. What we learned delighted us! We found many leaders and consultants experimenting with and implementing different elements of what it means to center equity in strategy development. The innovation, and courage to experiment and at times, shift against traditional definitions of strategy**, inspired and humbled us. It has been our privilege to compile these different elements, and try to codify what it means to center equity in strategy development. The credit here goes to all those who contributed to this work.

Equity-Centered Strategy: What is it?

We are still in the research phase of this work, but are excited to share some early findings. As we codify the research, we are finding that there are five key elements that define equity centered strategy:

1. Equity-Centered Strategy does not begin when an organization starts developing a new strategy; it starts much earlier with a focus on Readiness for Equity.

Organizations must examine readiness factors at the individual, interpersonal and organizational levels to address cultural issues, build relationships and trust, and understand the 'why' and 'what' of equity. Leadership (especially the Board) also plays a crucial role in prioritizing learning and making sure that there are sufficient resources to support an organization’s equity efforts.

2. The way organizations engage in this work is just as important as the results produced by their strategies.

The Equity-Centered Strategy Development Process dedicates time to building trust, addressing power dynamics and using participatory methods, among other approaches, that set this work apart from traditional strategy.

3. There are distinctive Roles that make Equity-Centered Strategy Development unique from more traditional processes.

• Board and Staff: We found that the role of the board was not to approve the plan, as we find in traditional strategic planning processes. Rather, it was to work together with staff on the plan and examine what role the board can have in advancing the organization’s strategy. Staff at all levels of the organization are engaged in the strategy, and bring their lived experience and relationships with grantees and the community to this process.
• Consultants: In traditional strategy processes, the consultant can often be seen as an expert or someone who does the work of producing strategy deliverables. In equity-centered strategy processes, the consultants can at times play the role of expert but also lean into roles of facilitator, coach and challenger, depending on what is needed at the time
• Community: In Equity-Centered Strategy, the community is seen as knowing what is best, and they, not the foundation, are the experts for their community. Community voice and participation is included in non-transactional and non-extractive ways that begin well before a strategy process even begins.  

4. The Product of Equity-Centered Strategic Planning looks fundamentally different from traditional strategy development.

For most of us who have done philanthropic strategy development, we are familiar with the product looking like a somewhat linear theory of change where outcomes are the result of a series of actions taken over a period of time (typically 5-10 years). The product of equity centered strategic planning, however, are Strategic Directions, which tend to be less linear, more directional, and centers impact on root causes, and those strategies that communities prioritize.  As a result, strategic directions tend to be far more adaptable to external shifts (like COVID) than traditional strategic plans. Even more fascinating to us was the fact that these strategic directions not only defined what the foundation should fund, but how it should be in community.

5. Measurement and Learning are typically included in most strategic planning processes, but what outcomes are measured and who is accountable for delivering on them are key differences in Equity-Centered Strategy.

Instead of prioritizing outcomes philanthropy is interested in, Strategic Directions invite communities to define what successful outcomes look like for their communities and how to measure them.

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, while traditional strategy relies almost exclusively on grantees to deliver on strategy outcomes, and as a result be accountable for them,  we found that equity-centered strategies also include outcomes that the Foundation is holding itself accountable to delivering on.

Where We Go From Here

This is part one of a multi-part blog series. Over the next few months, we will share more details on each of the elements of Equity-Centered Strategy mentioned above. In our next blog post, we will begin with an exploration of exactly what it takes for an organization to prepare for this process and how Readiness supports Equity-Centered Strategy.

*Our definition of equity: The promotion of systems and practices that support just educational, economic, health and social outcomes for people regardless of race, ethnicity and other intersectional identities including gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, disability, religion and immigration status.

**How we define traditional strategy: We use the term traditional strategy to differentiate Equity Centered Strategy from other forms of strategy, but recognize this is a Traditional strategic planning process typically occur over several months, but rarely no longer than six months for larger projects. Most traditional strategy brings in consultants to engage in secondary research, interviews and focus groups, culminating in synthesis and development of a recommended strategy.
 

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