27 Aug 2020

Giving Gifts of Gratitude That Serve a Greater Purpose

In June, we committed to re-evaluate who we are as an agency and how we can make a positive change in the world as it pertains to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Change takes time, but more importantly, it takes dedication. We want any change to be meaningful and impactful. While we work on various aspects of our strategy, we realized there was an opportunity to begin making a small difference right away.

We sometimes send our clients a symbol of gratitude for choosing and trusting us with their work, and often this gratitude comes in the form of a gift or donation. We know people have a lot of choices when it comes to partnering with an agency, and we are grateful for the clients who align with our work, values, and approach. We recently created a company policy stating that any gifts of gratitude must meet, at minimum, two criteria.

Gifts of Gratitude Criteria

Be purchased from or donated to a business, nonprofit, or organization that is owned, founded, or run by people from the Black community as well as other historically marginalized communities.
Align with our client's mission and/or work.
Serve a greater purpose. For example, a portion of the proceeds might go toward a cause or population in need. It might directly support a community where our client operates, or is sourced sustainably.
In the case where gifts are not allowed/accepted, we make donations to a nonprofit in the name of our client that directly benefits the community in which they work.

We are building a list of vendors that meet these requirements, the start of which is below. We’ve incorporated our gratitude process into our Company Handbook to ensure we continue to build upon this practice into the future. If you have similar policies or ideas for other businesses and organizations we can support, we’d love to hear from you!

We believe gratitude and support is a good kind of contagious and we look forward to supporting this growing list and continuing our journey for being a better ally to Black, Brown, Indigenous and other people of color.