This event is RSVP only. Information below.
What is the role of corporations and the private sector in driving racial equity? Angela Glover Blackwell, CEO of PolicyLink, and Mark Kramer, Founder and Managing Director of FSG will be exploring this question in a convening designed for business leaders, CSR professionals, and corporate philanthropy leaders.
We know that racial inequities persist in significant and pervasive ways in the United States, leading to economic, social and political exclusion for people of color. Economists have recognized the impact of racial inequity on the U.S. economy in the midst of a major demographic transformation. Racial equity drives competitiveness and expands the overall economy. Companies benefit from both a more robust workforce and an expanded base of consumers, while individuals and families find new sources of opportunity and economic success. Therefore, private sector leadership is essential to eliminate inequity and create a prosperous future for all.
Funded by the Ford and W.K. Kellogg Foundations, Policy Link and FSG have embarked on a research project to identify best practices and examples of companies that are making significant investments in addressing racial equity across different industries and sectors, whether through their products and services, procurement, marketing, HR practices, governance and ownership structures, or their community investment and public advocacy. The goal of the effort is to identify practices that can address racial equity at scale while creating business value for companies at the same time.
Mark and Angela will share key insights from the ongoing research effort, and facilitate a discussion with Bay Area corporate leaders on the barriers, challenges and opportunities they face in advancing racial equity. We hope you will join us for this important discussion.
Speakers
Angela Glover Blackwell, Chief Executive Officer, Policy Link
Angela started PolicyLink in 1999 and continues to drive its mission of advancing economic and social equity. Under Angela’s leadership, PolicyLink has become a leading voice in the movement to use public policy to improve access and opportunity for all low-income people and communities of color, particularly in the areas of health, housing, transportation, education, and infrastructure.
Prior to founding PolicyLink, Angela served as senior vice president at the Rockefeller Foundation, where she oversaw the foundation’s domestic and cultural divisions. A lawyer by training, she gained national recognition as founder of the Oakland (CA) Urban Strategies Council, where she pioneered new approaches to neighborhood revitalization. From 1977 to 1987, Angela was a partner at Public Advocates, a nationally known public interest law firm.
As a leading voice in the movement for equity in America, Angela is a frequent commentator for some of the nation’s top news organizations, including The New York Times, Huffington Post, Washington Post, Salon, and CNN, and has appeared regularly on shows such as American Public Media’s Marketplace, The Tavis Smiley Show, Nightline, and PBS’s Now. Angela has also been a guest on the PBS series Moyers & Company and PBS’s NewsHour. She appears in the sixth and final segment of the PBS six-part series The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., which aired in October and November, 2013.
Mark Kramer, Founder and Managing Director, FSG
Mark leads FSG, a 150 person nonprofit consulting firm, working from six offices in the US, Europe and Asia, to devise social impact strategies for many of the world’s largest foundations, corporations and nonprofit organizations.
Mark also serves as a Senior Fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He co-founded the Center for Effective Philanthropy, served on the jury of the annual Excellence in Corporate Philanthropy Award, is a member of the Aspen Philanthropy Group and the Kimberly-Clark Sustainability Advisory Board, serves on the planning committee for the Clinton Global Initiative, and lectures in the Executive Education Program of Harvard Business School.
Mark has published extensively on topics in philanthropy, collective impact, evaluation, and creating shared value. He has co-authored many influential articles in Harvard Business Review with Professor Michael E. Porter of Harvard Business School, and in Stanford Social Innovation Review with FSG colleagues, including Philanthropy’s New Agenda: Creating Value, Catalytic Philanthropy, Collective Impact, Strategic Philanthropy for a Complex World, The Competitive Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy, and Creating Shared Value.
Prior to founding FSG, Mark served as President of Kramer Capital Management. He is a graduate of Brandeis University, The Wharton School, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Target Audience
Open to NCG corporate members. Participation is limited and because of the nature of the discussion attendees are asked to bring leaders from within the business (e.g., HR, Products, Supply Chain, Marketing, etc.) with them.
RSVP
You must RSVP to attend this event. Interested corporate members please email to reserve a space. Contact Steve Barton, Director, Regional Vibrancy and Sustainability at sbarton@ncg.org.
Co-Sponsors
This program is co-sponsored by FSG and PolicyLink.