At the Omaha Community Foundation, we’re continuing to explore how we can address, promote, and strengthen equity and inclusion.

As we work together to improve who we are as an organization, we would like to share what we’ve done so far. Our hope is that the actions we’ve taken might spark some ideas for your organization’s DEI efforts.

In 2018, our equity journey began in earnest. We brought in experts from the Center for Equity & Inclusion to deepen our understanding of racial equity and our role in systems that may harm community members of color. This helped us get clear about our next steps and gave us momentum to keep going.

Since then, we’ve taken the following actions:

• We established an Equity Team to lead this work internally and allocated time and a budget to further DEI initiatives. This includes providing funding—in addition to an annual professional development budget—for new staff members to register for “Reframing Racism Workshop: Language and Tools for Advancing Equity,” a four-day online learning opportunity presented by the Center for Equity & Inclusion.

• We’ve hosted quarterly Equi-Teas in person and online to create space for staff to gather, learn, and engage in conversations. For each session, the Equity Team has prepared topics and materials to help build language and a common understanding around racial equity. Last year, we focused on the theme of Being Loving Critics of Philanthropy.

• We developed an Equity Filter to ensure all decisions made at the Foundation consider the impact on community members of color.

• We made deeper DEI engagement a priority in our three-year strategic plan. One goal is to have our staff and board actively engaged in ongoing DEI education and growth.

The Equity Team meets monthly to review internal processes and procedures, prepare for Equi-Teas, and elevate ways to center racial equity in our work with the community. Typically, the all-volunteer team is made up of five to six dedicated staff members from different departments with diverse identities and perspectives. Each member serves a two-year term.

Current Equity Team members include:

  • Eyerusalem Gehringer, Process & Database Administrator
  • Sunni Kamp, Donor Services Specialist
  • Ally Karsyn, Content Manager
  • Emily Nguyen, Director of Research & Strategy
  • Melisa Sunde, Chief Financial Officer

Want to know more about what we did last year? We’ve highlighted our activities here.