Equity is not the same as diversity and inclusion.  Organizations often stop at diversity because it is visible and quantifiable and requires the least amount of systemic change. However, diversity does not require changes to power dynamics, while equity does. Focusing only on diversity can cause great harm if the culture and flow of power within an organization or community does not also change.  

Equity is not the same as equality.  In the simplest terms, equality is about sameness; equity is about justice. If you’re not familiar with the concept of targeted universalism, we highly recommend this short video. Not only does it do a good job of differentiating between equity and equality, it provides an equity-informed approach to policy.

Structures, structures, structures. Like many organizations in philanthropy and beyond, we have learned that meeting our mission requires that both internal and external structural injustices be addressed. An article that has helped us appreciate the role that structures play in entities big and small is Ideas Arrangements Effects: Systems Design and Social Justice.

Equity requires changing systems and structures externally. It’s too easy and very human to focus only on individual experiences with inequity and miss “the forest for the trees.” While inequities cause very real harm to individuals, the work of equity is about changing the systems. For example, balancing support for grassroots efforts that have been historically under-resourced, with that of better-resourced and more mainstream organizations, is important to support change at all levels of a system.

It’s all about relationships. While sustainable change must happen at the systems level, the day-to-day work happens through relationships. We must be intentional about nurturing healthy relationships based on trust and make efforts to reduce competition among nonprofit partners to support collaboration. At Sewall, we are committed to practicing trust-based philanthropy and we have adopted many of its tenets to bring this practice more fully into our work and culture.

Community centeredness.  Speaking of relationships, our work in communities must be based on trusting relationships with community members and representatives. At Sewall we believe that community voices of those affected by the issues being addressed must be central to the work we do and look to the framing of the Spectrum of Community Engagement to Ownership as a guide.   

Racial inequities are preventable injustices.  As a privileged sector, philanthropy has an ethical obligation to act to correct preventable injustices. We believe this means that we must be proactive in allocating resources to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities and resources.  We highly recommend you read Decolonizing Wealth and anything/everything by Vu Le.

Centering race doesn’t mean we don’t care about other forms of injustice. But it does mean that we recognize racial injustice as a key structural and systemic barrier to equity in the U.S. and in Maine. We understand that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” and that “your liberation is bound up in mine.”  The concept of intersectionality provides a container for this understanding.

There is no hierarchy of oppression.  Our focus must be on dismantling violent systems of concentrated power and structural oppression, not on making justice a competitive sport. Since it is the systems – built intentionally over centuries – that have harmed all of us by creating societies that are deprived of the full potential of all their people.  The Justice Framework has been a good resource for our work.

Intent vs. Impact:  Good intentions are just not good enough. Knowing and practicing the difference between intent and impact is essential to creating a safe space for any group of people to talk about and work on and towards equity. This short piece about racism and intent and impact articulates this well.

Question the familiar.  We are so used to the familiar organizational structures, processes, and assumptions that seem natural to us, without recognizing how harmful it can be to maintain the status quo of unjust power structures and dynamics. Equity leads us to question our policies and practices and change them when we notice their harmful impacts.