The Omaha Community Foundation’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee seeks a training facilitator to create three in-office trainings for the entire OCF staff. The facilitator will work with the DEI team to discuss desired outcomes for the staff and cater a training plan for the second, third, and fourth quarters of 2024.

Background

The Omaha Community Foundation is a nonprofit that focuses on supporting philanthropy in Greater Omaha and Southwest Iowa. The Foundation functions as a charitable bank for philanthropists and works with donors, professional advisors, and nonprofits to build connections between people, ideas, and funding. With a deep understanding of local needs, the nonprofits that are working on solutions, and the philanthropic channels that can help achieve their missions, the Foundation’s goal is to serve as a catalyst for good in our community.

The Omaha Community Foundation has upheld a volunteer DEI committee that includes staff from various levels in the organization since 2018. The current team includes Nicole Murry, Director of Human Resources & Administration, Anne Meysenburg, Director of Community Investment, Sydney Calcagno, Philanthropic Services Advisor, and Molly Mullen, Content Manager. You can learn more about us here.

We believe that consistent DEI education and training for all staff is important, particularly coming together for training as an entire group so that all staff members can operate from similar working definitions and have basic knowledge of how to create a welcoming workplace. Our team consists of six departments with a total of 29 employees.

OCF currently requires new staff to take the Racial Equity Institute’s Groundwater Training through the Nonprofit Association of the Midlands to learn about systemic racism and privilege. In addition to this new staff training, the DEI team would like to have a facilitator lead the entire team through training that will provide our team with the skills and tools necessary to continue to build an inclusive and supportive work community.

Last year, the DEI team worked with the CODE survey to understand team members’ perspectives on DEI and the role of DEI in our workplace – and to use these results to identify an action plan for DEI initiatives within the organization. Later in the year, the DEI team worked with Inclusive Analytics to make a DEI action plan for 2024 based on data from CODE and other surveys, along with the knowledge of the DEI team. The facilitator will have access to these documents to develop an understanding of our team and what the staff is looking for.

Goals of Training

The DEI team seeks a facilitator who will use three training sessions in 2024 to build a stronger sense of community at the Foundation by equipping our staff with the knowledge and tools they need to make a more welcoming, inclusive workspace. We are looking for training in the following areas:

  • Having hard conversations and creating psychological safety
  • Working authentically in a diverse workforce
  • Relevant topics such as microaggressions, unconscious bias, intentional inclusion, intersectionality, cultural competency, etc.
  • Continuing educating yourself and others

We are open to further reading, homework, suggested study, etc. for those who want to continue learning outside of the allotted training times.

Scope of Consultant Work

The DEI team seeks a facilitator to work with the DEI team on training plans and then lead the training in person quarterly.

Training sessions will be 2-3 hours each. We understand that DEI training is experienced differently by underrepresented groups, and we are searching for a facilitator who can guide us through sessions that do not focus on or harm employees with underrepresented identities but instead focus on supporting behavioral and organizational change.

Project budget

The anticipated budget is $7,500 -$10,000.  Reach out to discuss further if this range is not sufficient.

Proposal Process and How to Submit

Complete proposals should be submitted to the DEI team DEI@omahafoundation.org by April 2, 2024. Proposals will be reviewed with a final selection by the end of April.

The proposal submission must include the following:

  • Cover letter
  • Resume of facilitator
  • Relevant work samples of similar training
  • Proposal including approach, timelines, suggested content
  • References