Sharing Our Partners’ Work Around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Most of the articles on this blog are about nonprofit technology. But from time to time, we find it important to share what goes on behind the scenes at Heller Consulting.

Last year, we wrote about our work around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at Team Heller. Today, we continue our efforts to cultivate an environment in which people from a range of backgrounds are welcome and heard. That’s why we support and value the commitment to DEI by our partners, Salesforce and Microsoft.

Here are some of their efforts around DEI:

SALESFORCE

Salesforce publishes their representation goals and Equality data annually. For example, they published a representation goal last year of having 50% of their U.S. workforce made up of underrepresented groups by 2023. This year, they announced additional goals focused on race and ethnicity.

The company also has announced new initiatives and expanded on existing programs. Their strategies include:

• Uniting equality and recruiting — which includes creating a diversity recruiting team
• Investing in development — which focuses on growing future diverse leaders
• Supporting retention and belonging — which includes launching an employee advocacy program
• Adopting inclusive practices — which includes empowering employees with inclusive business practices
• Leading with data — which includes providing senior leaders at the company with regular scorecards
• Empowering Equality Groups — which are employee-led organizations that support underrepresented communities

We’re proud of Salesforce’s commitment to DEI. In fact, we are a Salesforce Equality Partner, which means we share Salesforce’s values around DEI. As part of our shared commitment to DEI, members of our team participated in panels about DEI at the 2020 and 2021 Salesforce Partner Summit events.

Find out more details about Salesforce’s efforts, including free resources, around DEI: Visit the Salesforce Equality page.

MICROSOFT

Microsoft also publishes information about their ongoing efforts around diversity and inclusion, which includes representation data and a DEI report. Microsoft began publicly sharing their annual workforce demographics in 2014. Their 2020 report reflects trends and learnings over the five most recent demographic data disclosures.

Part of Microsoft’s commitments to increasing diversity include:

• Increasing representation and culture of inclusion — which includes building on their diversity and inclusion momentum from the past five years by adding an additional $150M of D&I investment, and doubling the number of Black and African American people managers, senior individual contributors, and senior leaders in the United States by 2025.
• Engaging their ecosystem — which includes using their balance sheet and engagement with suppliers and partners to extend the vision for societal change throughout our ecosystem, creating new opportunities for them and the communities they serve.
• Strengthening communities — which involves using the power of data, technology, and partnership to help improve the lives of Black and African American citizens across our country, including addressing the safety and well-being of Microsoft’s own employees in the communities in which they live.

Microsoft also shares a full library of learning resources to help others create inclusive environments. In addition, they use and promote inclusive design principles to help ensure they recognize exclusions and learn from diversity in their own technology design.

Moving forward with DEI

As we continue our efforts around DEI, we’re proud to partner with nonprofit technology providers that stand committed to DEI work. We are dedicated to continuing to learn and do our part to make a positive impact on the space we occupy: the intersection of technology and the nonprofit sector.  

Photo by: Disability:IN