Diversity and Inclusion

Believing that the wide array of perspectives resulting from diversity and inclusion allows all organizations to be more effective, we are committed to promoting diversity and inclusion within our own organization and provide equal opportunity to people of all races, ethnicities, religions, genders, sexual orientations, gender identifications, abilities, incomes, marital statuses, ages, geographic locations, philosophies, and veteran statuses in all levels of staff and governance.

Our Principles: We seek to encourage all OLI leaders to embrace the following principles intended to promote diversity as a matter of fairness and effectiveness in our profession.

Mutual Respect: Within the parameters of our core values and charter requirements, we are committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion; and we fundamentally value and respect experiences that are different from our own.

Freedom and Flexibility: We promote a broad approach to diversity while respecting each individual foundation’s commitment to address those aspects most germane to its mission.   

Knowledge and Creativity: By increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion, we believe we will access more expansive and varied ideas, information, and perspectives, making us more creative, informed investors.

Strategic Approach: To achieve our aims, we believe it is necessary to be strategic and intentional in formalizing and pursuing meaningful diversity goals as central aspects of our governance and programming.

Transparency: We believe we have a responsibility to society and our sector to achieve our goals with honesty and transparency, regularly reporting progress and lessons learned along the way.

Promising Practices: We seek to advance field effectiveness by encouraging voluntary diversity practices that have shown potential to enhance philanthropic sector performance – including periodic self-assessments of board and staff appointments, grantmaking and contracting that better enable institutional leaders to identify and act on strategic opportunities to increase their inclusivity and public problem solving leadership. Following are exemplary practices we have identified that more and more private grant making institutions are successfully utilizing in these connections: