As Rhode Island’s only community foundation, we mobilize generosity and motivate change that makes a difference. Our local roots, state-wide relationships, and century of experience anchor our work, and our hopes for our home reach high.

Since 1916 we’ve been a funder and true partner to those who help this state thrive, working hard at each table, across every community, by their side to improve the lives of all Rhode Islanders. Only together, through strong partnerships and building on work that’s come before, can we create progress that lasts.

Although we have had a long-standing commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and access (DEIA), in the fall of 2020, the Foundation’s Board of Directors committed to a 3-year, $8.5 million investment to advance DEIA. Community members were asked to help define a plan for the use of those resources, via a survey.

Nearly 250 Rhode Islanders responded with thoughtful and instructive recommendations. The overarching themes included:

o    Creating more opportunities to hear underrepresented voices from the community.
o    Providing training and capacity building related to diversity, equitable access, and inclusion for Rhode Island residents and organizations.
o    Developing new leaders from within the community.
o    Providing more funding and support for grassroots organizations, particularly those led by people of color.
o    Partnering with and amplifying organizations already engaged in diversity, inclusion, and racial equity work.
o    Leading by example and being publicly accountable.

That community input was used to shape spending and develop programs. In May of 2023, the Foundation publicly reported that all the $8.5 million had been committed, and highlighted a series of investments made with those funds, including:

o    Nearly $1.5 million responding to needs identified by the community; for example, the Foundation helped to fund "When Justice Works," a partnership between the Center for Health and Justice Transformation and the Rhode Island Courts' Committee on Racial and Ethnic Fairness.

o    Nearly $300,000 for convenings related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and access.

o    Nearly $1.5 million to build capacity among community organizations, such as through the Foundation’s Capacity Building for Community Organizations Grants and Anti-Racism Training Grants.

o    More than $1.8 million to fund the Foundation’s leadership development program for Rhode Islanders of color – the Equity Leadership Initiative.

o    Nearly $2.2 million to support programs to dismantle systemic racism and promote social justice.

o    More than $1.2 million to create designated endowments for 14 local nonprofits, which are led by, and primarily serve, people of color and that are working to reimagine systems that are built on structural inequity and racism. 

In June 2023, David N. Cicilline, began his tenure as President and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation, following Neil D. Steinberg, who served in the role for 15 years. This marked an important inflection point and opened an opportunity to perform a deep assessment of every aspect of the Foundation’s mission, operations, programming, grantmaking, and initiatives, culminating with the development of a Five-Year Action Plan to guide the Foundation’s work.

In early 2024 a comprehensive Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Needs Assessment was conducted by Upton Consulting Group. This included feedback from community partners, the internal Foundation team, and members of the Foundation’s Board of Directors. The results revealed the need for a more data-driven and substantive DEIA strategy to help improve the Foundation’s culture and enhance our relationship with our community partners.

This feedback helped inform our DEIA Strategic Roadmap, ensuring that that the Foundation’s DEIA commitment is embedded in every aspect of our work. Achieving this goal requires a change management approach that drives both behavior and systems change across the Foundation.

The DEIA Strategic Roadmap fully aligns with and informs the organizational priorities within the Foundation’s Five-Year Action Plan and guides us as we continue working in partnership with the community to build a more inclusive and equitable future for all Rhode Islanders. The DEIA Strategic Roadmap is both externally and internally focused, ensuring our DEIA commitment strengthens our relationship with the community we serve and fosters an equitable and inclusive work environment for our team members.

The Rhode Island Foundation is committed to advancing equity centered on valuing and embracing diverse identities and experiences and guided by inclusiveness, accessibility, compassion, mutual respect, and humility in partnership with our team and the community.

Our commitment to DEIA starts with being clear about how we define and communicate terms. Definitions provide a shared understanding of our goals and guide how we pursue outcomes and priorities. Like the DEIA vision, they extend to the internal operation of our organization and every aspect of our external work, which includes charitable giving, grantmaking and community investments, convening, advocacy, and capacity building.

•    Diversity: Increasing the representation of different identities and experiences.
•    Equity: Actively challenging individual and systemic biases and injustices to ensure fair access to opportunities.
•    Inclusion: Fostering an environment in which people of all identities and experiences feel welcomed, valued, and a sense of belonging.
•    Access: Ensuring opportunities for people with different physical and cognitive abilities to participate, contribute, and thrive.
 

A clear governance structure is crucial for DEIA efforts because it provides transparent leadership, accountability, and strategic direction to ensure that DEIA initiatives are successfully implemented and sustained. A well-defined structure is essential for ensuring DEIA efforts are strategic, sustainable, and effective while fostering a culture of accountability, inclusivity, and equity across the Foundation.

The DEIA Strategic Roadmap includes strategies with both internal and external areas of focus. The priorities and actions associated with these areas of focus ensure that the Foundation’s Five-Year Action Plan is implemented and measured through a DEIA lens – embedding our DEIA commitment in what we do as a community foundation to create progress that lasts across six community priorities for a thriving Rhode Island.

Based upon learnings from the comprehensive 2024 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Needs Assessment conducted by Upton Consulting Group, which included feedback from community partners, the internal Rhode Island Foundation team, and members of the Foundation’s Board of Directors, six internal and external strategic areas of focus have been identified.

These areas of focus are essential to fostering a more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible organizational culture, ensuring the Foundation’s Five-Year Action Plan is implemented and measured through a DEIA lens, and embedding our DEIA commitment in all that we do as Rhode Island’s only community foundation.

Strategic Area of Focus #1: Communication
Outcome: Implementation of a communications strategy that increases the internal team members, board and former board members, current supporters, community investment partners, advocacy targets, capacity building participants and partners, and the broader Rhode Island community’s understanding of the Foundation’s commitment to DEIA and its progress.

Strategic Area of Focus #2: Systems Review and Policy Development
Outcome: A new set of policies and practices that reflect our commitment to DEIA.

Strategic Area of Focus #3: Talent Acquisition
Outcome: Implementation of a formal strategy to attract and retain diverse talent.

Strategic Area of Focus #4: Growth + Retention
Outcome: Implementation of an innovative strategy that provides team members with meaningful growth opportunities.

Strategic Area of Focus #5: Employee and Board Engagement
Outcome: A culture where team members feel psychologically safe and free to fully engage as their whole self.

Strategic Area of Focus #6: Training + Development
Outcome: Implement a comprehensive learning and development curriculum for team members and the board that focuses on skills development and behavior change.

Strategic Area of Focus #1: Community Partner Engagement
Outcome: Increase transparency, trust, and engagement with community.

Strategic Area of Focus #2: Grant Applicants + Grantee Engagement
Outcome: Ensure our grantmaking process (from the application to decisions) is transparent, equitable, inclusive, accessible, and easy to navigate.

Strategic Area of Focus #3: Donor + Prospect Relations
Outcome: Attract philanthropic support from the diverse Rhode Island community.

Strategic Area of Focus #4: Community Investment Process
Outcome: Community Investment processes are equitable, transparent, inclusive, and accessible.

Strategic Area of Focus #5: Endowment Investment Process
Outcome: Increase economic equity in the investment process.

Strategic Area of Focus #6: Supplier Diversity
Outcome: Increase economic equity by supporting historically marginalized communities through Foundation procurement activity (i.e., vendors and suppliers led by women, people of color, veterans, individuals with disabilities, LGBTQ+, etc.).