Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility at Taproot Foundation

We accomplish this work through holding space for people and communities with humility, seeking to shift power toward coordinated action that addresses society’s most pressing challenges.

We commit to collaborate across sectors to dissolve systemic barriers that restrict communities – especially those led by and serving women, communities of color, LGBTQIA+ people, and people with disabilities – from securing the financial and human capital needed to drive sustainable social change.

We aim to transform skills-based volunteerism into a tool for economic and social equity. This means redistributing resources and power to uplift historically marginalized groups. It also means empowering nonprofit and small business leaders to direct their own capacity-building and developing powerful partnership along the journey to greater diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.

We live these values through a focus on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility:

• Diversity: Embracing the intersectional diversity of our nonprofit and small business leaders, volunteers, and team members. Respecting their race, ethnicity, gender, orientation, ability, age, religion, class, and more.
• Equity: Examining systems and practices that produce inequitable access, participation, and outcomes. Designing pathways that remove barriers and ensure the fair treatment, representation, and advancement of our nonprofit and small business leaders, volunteers, and team members.
• Inclusion: Cultivating a welcoming organizational culture where all people feel valued, respected, and heard. Encouraging individuals to show up authentically, speak from their experience, and share their unique strengths and perspectives. Communicating across differences with empathy and compassion.
• Accessibility: Proactively designing materials, platforms, spaces, and activities to be usable and comfortable for people with the full range of visible and invisible disabilities. Providing accommodations, modifications, and assistance as needed to ensure all can equitably participate in social impact work and continuing to strive for consistently accessible and inclusive experiences.

We advance these tenets along three dimensions:

• As a Resource Provider, we empower nonprofit and small business leaders with free programming and tools that put choice fully in their hands, designed around their stated needs. We eliminate harmful power dynamics by ensuring a compassionate pool of empathetic skilled volunteers that are trained and ready to engage.
• As an Ecosystem Influencer, we serve as a humble challenger and courageous partner when working with organizations and individuals across philanthropic, corporate, and social impact sectors, designing programs and equitable pathways toward sustainable impact.
• As a Values-based Employer, we implement inclusive policies and practices that help our team members develop and thrive. We aim to create an accessible and engaging culture that taps wider perspectives and rising talent. Through ethical recruitment and professional development, we seek to build a team as diverse as the communities we serve.

Taproot cannot do this work alone. Transforming systems and uplifting communities requires coordinated and sustained action across sectors, to which we are deeply committed.