Faith and Money Network’s Commitment to Racial Equity
“You can’t have capitalism without racism.” – Malcolm X
For hundreds of years, laws, policies, and practices have perpetuated white supremacy – delivering excessive privilege to whites while disadvantaging Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities and precipitating the inequities of today.
Since our founding, Faith and Money Network has invited individuals and communities of faith to examine and transform our relationship with money through honest conversation and connections with community. We have done that in several ways. Through our Trips of Perspective, we’ve built intentional relationships across racial and economic differences. We have joined with others to offer money and race workshops and gatherings with churches, nonprofits, and seminaries. We bank at City First DC, a Community Development Financial Institution whose primary goal is to build the economic health of underserved communities in the Washington, DC, area. CDFIs are federally reviewed and financially supported. And we’ve encouraged the use of socially screened investments.
Yet we did not always work with an intentional lens inclusive of history nor racial equity and too often failed to use our platform to confront racial inequity. For that, we apologize.
As we journey forward, we commit to:
- Work to intentionally diversify our programming and board members, fostering an organizational culture where every employee, participant, and board member is welcomed, supported, and equipped to succeed in advancing our mission.
- Incorporate an anti-racist lens and practices into all aspects of our organization, including programming and core services, education on money’s role in perpetuating racial inequity and the role money can play in healing these divides, and engaging our community to advance personal transformation and systems-change solutions that address racial inequity.
- Choose and examine our partnerships and operations – from where we spend our money to how we invest our money – for opportunities to advance racial equity.
Our progress on these commitments will require long-term focus and action through personal and organizational self-reflection, humility, honesty, and continuous learning. We are dependent on our community to hold us accountable and to share their wisdom.
We have a long journey ahead, and we invite you to join us.
Affirmed by the board of Faith and Money Network on October 1, 2021