 Good afternoon and welcome to our panel on local policy contracting cannabis and nonprofits Today we'll hear from four diversity and entrepreneurship fellows Nabila Ziz Josh K Leslie Vasquez and Victor Vasquez who worked in Sacramento this summer while conducting research related to diversity in small businesses Specifically each of the fellows on this panel focus their research on some aspect of local policy Two fellows research cannabis equity programs one studied local contracting laws and one fellow focused on the governance structure of local nonprofits At the end of the four student presentations We'll also hear from our community respondent Elizabeth redmond cleaveman who's the street chief strategist of sustainable growth for the city of berkeley Elizabeth will provide commentary to each of the student panelists at the conclusion of their presentations My name is Noah Cole. I served as a graduate student researcher with the diversity and entrepreneurship program this summer And i'm so excited to hear from our fellows today because I saw firsthand how much work they put into this research over the summer First we'll give a general introduction uh and research background of each of our panelists We'll first hear from nabila ziz Nabil studied political science and is a recent graduate of the class of 2021 This summer he interned in the office of eleni Kunalakis the lieutenant governor of california His research is focused on the city of oakland's cannabis social equity program As cannabis becomes more mainstream the marijuana market could exceed the 70 billion dollar market for us wine by 2030 However, many racial minorities are often unable to reap the benefits of this emerging yet highly exclusive industry By analyzing the city of oakland's cannabis social equity program and conducting interviews with applicants of the program nabil's research emphasize this emphasize the significant policy measures taken to ensure racial equity within the cannabis industry After hearing from nabil we'll hear from josh k Josh is a society in the environment and rhetoric major in the class of 2023 This summer he interned in the office of congresswoman doris matsui His research is focused on contracting diversity in san francisco In 1996 proposition 209 officially banned all consideration of race or gender in public college admission employment and contracting While a large amount of research and resources have been devoted to studying the impacts of university affirmative action and its outcome on underrepresented population Little research has been done on the impact of the removal of race and gender conscious programs on these populations Through a review of local business contract data as well as interviews with business owners and procurement experts josh's research examined the current level of representation Among local contractors as well as the experience of san francisco contractors to identify best practices and areas of improvement After josh will hear from victor vasquez victor is a sociology major in the class of 2022 This summer he interned in the cal cannabis department of cannabis control within the california department of food and agriculture His research topic is on cannabis social equity the battle to compete in a competitive marketplace Senate bill number 1294 Creates funding for state and local cannabis social equity programs By examining local policy speaking to and listening to stakeholders Victor determined what makes a cannabis business qualify as a social equity candidate Victor examined oakland and humble county with these examples The industry is about to begin an understanding of the big picture of being BIPOC in the california cannabis industry And last we'll hear from elizabeth redmond cleveland Who will respond to our our panelists as a chief strategist for sustainable sustainable growth for the city of berkeley But before hearing from elizabeth will also hear from our final panelists leslie vasquez who's joining us virtually Leslie studied political science and is a recent graduate of cal class of 2021 This summer she interned with the league of women voters of california Her research is on how diversity of directors affect educational nonprofit governance california is one of the most diverse states in the nation According to the public policy institute of california No race or ethnic group constitutes a majority of california's population And almost 30 of the population are considered immigrants With an increasingly diverse state there is pressure to diversify the workplace particularly in the nonprofit sector Many advocates of educational equity believe nonprofit organizations are stronger when directors closely reflect the people they are serving To study the correlation between diversity and efficiency Leslie's research focuses on the diversity of directors in educational nonprofit organizations So as you can tell we have a lot of ground to cover and a lot of exciting research So i'll pass it off to nabil aziz who's going to talk to us about cannabis social equity programs in oakland. Please welcome nabil The history of cannabis in the united states is one steeped in class race and politics Prior to 1910 the word marijuana didn't exist in the american vocabulary rather cannabis was used up until that point Now this begets the question. How did americans find themselves referring to cannabis as marijuana? In 1913 the first bill banning the cultivation of cannabis passed in california In fact the bill was heavily lobbied by the board of pharmacy in order to regulate opiates and psychoactive pharmaceutical drugs The term marijuana became popular and racialized because anti cannabis interest groups emphasize marijuana's mexicaness Exploding the anti-immigrant sentiment fell at the time due to an influx of immigrants due to the mexican revolution fast forward six decades later And we begin to witness the war on drugs and its toll on communities of color which still lingers today Between 2010 and 2014 nearly one quarter of people jailed for marijuana only offenses were black Yet black people only make up six percent of the state population It's safe to say that cannabis has been racialized and distorted in order to advance the interests of a few at the expense of the many That being said should the way california conducts business in the cannabis industry be used to make amends with minority communities who are affected by the war on drugs Many city officials across the united states think so as cannabis social equity programs increasingly gain traction It's a question of whether cannabis should belong to the free market or if government intervention is necessary to uplift lives Upended by a failed and politically motivated war on drugs throughout the summer i had the opportunity to uh conduct a research project on the city of oakland's social equity program The following research question. How does the city of oakland's social equity program Reduce barriers for victims of the war on drugs to enter california's cannabis industry Help shape the type of research and in guidance that i needed in order to conduct this very research Now i want to give you guys a little bit of background on the cannabis industry and why it's one It's a heavily regulated cannabis industry which causes so many significant financial barriers for victims of the war on drugs And how we can overcome these barriers to help victims of the war on drugs Who seek to gain a foothold in the cannabis market? Now because national banks refuse to lend to the cannabis sector Capital investment remains a major barrier hindering individuals and ability to pay for california's significantly regulated cannabis industry Consisting of costy licenses fees leases and high taxes Also cannabis businesses are inordinately expensive to operate because of meticulous regulation standards Such as installing special ventilation systems and following strict security protocols um, in fact a survey From the city of oakland's equity program has uh, has revealed how equity applicants ranked city approvals Slow build-outs and establishing banking services as the top three barriers to their businesses Nonetheless The city of oakland's equity program has been designed to reconcile these circumstances by enabling the victims of the war on drugs To enter the cannabis industry with resources and opportunities The equity permitting program reserves 50 of the cannabis business licenses for equity applicants Additionally because policy makers are unable to favor certain racial groups under federal law Equity applicants must be oakland residents or in less than 80 of the average city income Reside in a specified a high crime zone for at least 10 of the past 20 years Or having convicted of a crime of a cannabis related crime in oakland after november 5th 1996 In addition the incubation phase of the program bridges the gap between established entrepreneurs and incoming small business owners With a business partnership between equity and non equity applicants oakland's equity program provides an abundance of resources and opportunities in the form of low interests and no interest loans grants legal and technical assistance and a business partnership The city of oakland's main source of funding comes from senate bill 1294 legislation which provides the funding to all california cities cannabis equity programs By utilizing state funding oakland allocates these funds as you can see on the right hand side of the screen towards their revolving loan program Which equity applicants can use for licensing fees for shared use manufacturing spaces workforce development programs and legal and technical insistence In fact over the in the summer of 2020 80 percent of the recipients of the loan program were african americans Nevertheless, it's really easy to talk about the nuances of policy and data, but let's not forget its impact on real people My research findings provide evidence of oakland's cannabis social equity programs immense role In impacting victims of the war on drugs and its transformative capability to invest in communities of color I had the wonderful opportunity to interview four individuals who have a deep understanding of of equity programs I chose these four particular individuals because I wanted to gain insight and perspective on both the participants Of oakland's equity program and those who had a hand in shaping the actual policy First up is jesse grendy a beneficiary of oakland's equity program And now the chief executive officer of the green peaks jesse participated in oakland's equity program in 2018 He told me he had a great experience with the program He said the incubator phase of the program went smoothly and was very beneficial for him When asked what are some of the most significant aspects of the program He said that the coupling of both the priority and licensing and grants and low interest loans Made all the difference for him Next is alfonso tuckie blunt tuckie was one of the first applicants of the social equity program in oakland And it was actually the first person to receive a dispensary license in the city of oakland I asked tuckie about the impact the equity equity program had on his ability to start a business in the cannabis industry Given so many financial and regulatory hurdles. He said oakland's social equity program was a reverse war on drugs in my opinion He said I never thought I'd be able to legally sell cannabis in my entire life Following mr. Blunt's interview I interviewed keith stevensson founder of the first black owned cannabis business in the united states Founder of the fourth oldest cannabis business in america a thought leader of the cannabis social equity concept And a member of the california cannabis advisory committee under the bureau of cannabis control I began by asking mr. Stevenson about what his experience in the cannabis industry has been like thus far He responded with I used to always say that i'm one of the only persons that has a chance to go to jail for going to work Next I asked about what impact the war on drugs had on communities of color He replied people don't understand how the war on drugs was utilized by the government to subjugate african americans and exclude them from doing business When asked about what makes oakland's cannabis social equity programs stand out from other programs He said oakland has an expedited licensing process compared to other social equity programs More so oakland has provided the infrastructure and the information to applicants to actually gain a footing in this industry Lastly I interviewed amber center founder and ceo of breeze distro a distribution and infused cannabis products company Co-founder chair of board and executive director of supernova woman an organization which empowers people of color to become self-sufficient cannabis industry stakeholders Supernova woman worked with the city of oakland to create its first cannabis social equity program in the entire country Supernova woman has also worked with state senator steven brad for its office to create sp 12 94 And recently supernova woman has worked with the city of oakland to develop the country's first social equity workforce development program for cannabis I began by asking amber about what about senate bill 12 94's impact on equity applicants and their ability to start their small businesses She remarked capital investment is not enough. It costs millions of dollars to build these cannabis businesses It's a heavily regulated industry and the social equity program gives applicants just enough to get started Lastly I asked her about the social equity workforce development program That she had helped establish and its significance for the community at large Ms center claimed the goal was to recruit train and place workers within equity applicants cannabis small businesses She said everyone is not cut out to be an owner Which is why this program is really important because everyone should be able to have a role In the cannabis industry, especially those who are affected by the war on drugs yet didn't want to become an owner of a business In conclusion, not only is oakland's equity program the first city to adopt the social equity program in the entire united states But it's arguably one of the most well equipped and resourceful programs in the entire country Serving as a national model for how equity programs can be structured to ensure an achievable and equitable outcome For the victims of the war on drugs Oakland social equity program reveals the the government's significant role in the private sector Having the potential to initiate a catalyst for victims of the war on drugs to launch a career and become owners and stakeholders In the cannabis industry Oakland's equity program has proven to empower those affected by the war on drugs providing ample resources for equity applicants to jump start their small businesses Grants and low and no interest loans have been have enabled applicants to establish cannabis small businesses Which otherwise would have been out of reach due to the banks refusal Refusal to lend to an industry posing so many risks at the federal level The combined impact of the state and local government's role in serving as an intermediary Providing and distributing grants and loans to historically disadvantaged and underserved communities Has highlighted the importance of what the private sector can't and refuses to do and what the government has the potential to do Thank you Next we'll hear from Josh k Who's going to talk to us about contracting diversity in san francisco. Please welcome josh k Thank you all for coming and uh supporting this panel Uh, you know, thanks again to be able to that was a pretty amazing Uh presentation All of you by now at this point in the pandemic have probably heard the phrase by local support local eat local My research specifically looks at what it means to contract local because you know over the pandemic We've been told you should support small local businesses because that creates a competitive business ecosystem It supports diversity in our business community. You know all these myriad benefits What I want to look at is what happens when the actual Municipality when the actual government chooses to do the same thing So specifically we're looking at san francisco's local business enterprise program San francisco, which I believe had a contract budget close to 40 Million dollars over the past three fiscal years has been able to create this local business enterprise program And just to give a quick overview on what this program actually means We need to go back to 1996 and proposition 209 This particular proposition as many of you may be aware Is widely hailed as the end of affirmative action in california But some of the lesser known provisions of this proposition Is its limitation on race and gender conscious programs not just in admission to public universities But in public employment and most crucial for today's presentation for public contracting So historically what these programs look like before proposition 209 Was things like lending support financial assistance advising to many business owners A contract set aside even in terms of actually Putting aside specific contracting opportunities to qualified Minority and women-owned businesses Since the passage of proposition 209 Generally speaking these programs have fallen by the way side. There are a few exceptions But we don't particularly have the time to get into those the crucial thing here is the attempted workaround by san francisco Among many other municipalities to support diversity in its business ecosystem through this local business enterprise Program now specifically san francisco defines a local business or a local business enterprise As something which is primarily based in san francisco has a major headquarters in san francisco And also has an upper bound on size. So while your local cafe may qualify as a Local business sales force, which is headquartered in san francisco unfortunately does not i'm sure they're very upset about that Now i'm looking specifically at the rate of minority and woman-owned local businesses because These are the specific categories that were historically used To judge diversity. These are the specific categories targeted in historic race and gender conscious programs Because these are still used in the few exceptions Specifically in caltrans, which still is allowed to conduct some diversity based programs due to federal funding I want to specifically caveat that minority is the exact term used and i'll be using woman and male-owned businesses Specifically because these are the categories used. I found no evidence of non-binary or other gender Own businesses, but you know, they do still exist out there. It's just none of I did not come across it in my research So finally just the benefits of this local business enterprise program After going through a certification process, which can be somewhat arduous to many of these business owners They are given access to specific prime and sub contractor opportunities set aside for local businesses they are given access to a pool of opportunities for prime contractors essentially prime contractors in san francisco have a participation requirement for these local businesses they need to meet And they are also given specific financial aid and assistance similar to many of these race and gender conscious programs of the past Now in order to collect all of this data, we I went through sf open book, which contains a list of various contract data for the past I don't know how many fiscal years. I only examined the past three We looked at the web presence and a woman owned business or minority owned business status if they pursued certification through caltrans And then we analyzed the average and median value of these contracts and the number of contracts We also conducted interviews with various members of san francisco's business community, including several of the listed local business contractors So I want to start off with this particular graph right here Just to give you a quick walkthrough from the left to the right. We have contractors whose race and gender I was unable to identify Contractors who are female and members of a minority group Contractors who are female and not a member of a minority group Contractors who are male and a member of a minority group Contractors who are male and not a member of a minority group and finally the sum total of all firms which we collected data on So the primary thing to notice right there is that the average contract for contractors of unknown race and gender is incredibly high In particular, there was a single uniform supply company. Who's uh, the owner of whose race and gender I was unable to identify This has had a somewhat skewing effect on the data Which I will discuss further The next thing I want to note is the incredible discrepancy between The number of contracts and the value of contracts for male and female contractors You can see here that while the number of contracts both average and median is roughly the same Moving between 2.6 for female minority business owners and 5.2 twice as much for male non minority members The average contract value is significantly higher Regardless of membership in a minority group I'll discuss further the implications of this potential finding, but that's the particular piece of data I want to highlight right now You may also notice that business owners who are female and a member of a minority group Have actually higher average contract value than females who are not a member of minority group There's some possible explanations for this which I will get into with a separate piece of data But this is another important piece of information which I want to highlight right off the bat So the next thing I want to look at right here again an illustration of the discrepancy between the number of firms and the number of contracts received and the value for women-owned businesses It's a little difficult to make up the numbers off this particular screen But looking at the left hand side wbe standing for women own business enterprises While about half of all participating firms in this particular fiscal year were male-owned a little over half in all of San Francisco as of the 2012 census Male-owned businesses received nearly three quarters of all contract value Accumulated over these past three fiscal years despite receiving only about 40 percent of these contracts They're receiving on average incredibly high value compared to their female counterparts The next thing I want to point out is somewhat unsurprisingly Membership in a minority status does have a somewhat dampening effect upon the average value received and the number of contracts received This is expected if a little tragic We will get into a little bit more of the potential explanations, but I do want to caution against Pulling too much from the data as I'll discuss further. There are some limitations to this particular study Now this one is I think perhaps the most complicated of all of them This correlates essentially the intersection of minority status and women-owned status in Every single business. So we have nine different categories. The big thing here to note would be that for Owners who are female and members of a minority group. There is a very small pool of them participating That would be the yellow right here Which possibly led to the effect Where a female minority business owners had higher average contract value than their non-minority counterparts But before we get into Too much of the actual implications of this I want to talk really quick about the reflections of the business owners The biggest thing that I want to highlight here is the upfront cost in time and resources for these business owners They're not necessarily trained administrators. Many of them are micro businesses So unless they see a return in value They are often even discouraged from even seeking to become certified as a local business enterprise and thus miss out on many of these opportunities And for those who do take the step to be certified oftentimes it works out extremely well for them many Business owners express great satisfaction with the actual program itself Because it allows them to network with larger businesses build those relationships continue working continue growing their business Exactly. In fact what the local business enterprise program was designed to do Now I talked a lot about the limitations of the study. The big thing I want to talk about here is the inability to accurately identify data a lot of this is Is optionally collected from the certification program or based off of self-provided data from web presence Not all businesses have a web presence as I mentioned one particular uniform company Did not have any sort of web presence. I was unable to identify anything and that has limited the data The other thing is a lack of industry specific data now. I mentioned and you all noticed the gender discrepancy in contract value This could be a feature of the actual program, but I can't rule out any other factor specifically because the most plausible explanation to my mind right now is due to the Gender discrepancy in certain industries such as engineering and construction Which typically have very few contracts but very high value contracts. And so for these particular ones we don't know if the huge discrepancy in contract value received for women versus male owned businesses is due to some feature Or otherwise due to an industry specific effect So I'd like to you know, thank everyone for coming and that is the conclusion of my presentation All right. Great job. Josh next up. We have victor vasquez Who's going who's going to be speaking on cannabis social equity the battle to compete in a competitive marketplace? Please welcome victor How's it going everybody? Yeah, this summer I had the opportunity to intern at the californian department of food and agriculture their office of Cannabis cultivation licensing which was later Consolidated into the into the new department of cannabis control Um from there I was able to take an insider's look into this project My project kind of centers around um sp 12 94 as as nabiel mentioned. It's a grant program that helps localities establish and develop Implement social equity programs the author was steve ratford and he describes it as a bill that ensures That individuals from diverse backgrounds underserved communities Or who have been disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs are able to participate in california's legalized cannabis industry My project pretty much asked the question. Is this bill working as intended? so As nabiel did such a great job earlier saying if you talk about cannabis social equity you have to start with oakland california oakland california's program Pro clues is was established before sp 12 94 and was partly the the catalyst for that um oakland is a hub was a hub for medical cannabis prior to legalization and social equity Tried to address the barriers to getting people of color into this industry from my standpoint in the in the the Cal cannabis this summer. I really was able to see firsthand how the industry is very much white male dominated So oakland is the crown jewel of social equity is the the oldest most robust and arguably most successful social equity program in the country to date The most significant barrier to entry for bipoc people into the industry is access to capital because Generational wealth is limited in this community As we can see and as nabiel also presented there's a lot of options for for social equity candidates applicants Operators to find support. I think this is due to the the legacy Of poc entrepreneurs that already were in in oakland prior to this working in the medical industry Amber e-center is one of those people I didn't have a chance to interview them what I did Take a take a quote from a youtube video that I saw and they say You've got to advocate for these things. None of this was just handed to us We demanded that these things happen and oakland said okay You've got to consistently continue to push them My research finds that equity are equity operators are not just entrepreneurs They must be advocates for themselves and companies like them to continue to Sustain themselves in the industry So as I continued to look at uh sp 1294 I decided to move to look at a different Locality and their implementation of the of a social equity program the I looked at humble county which is perhaps Perhaps california's most famous cannabis jurisdiction The The the the cultivation of cannabis in this county was perhaps the catalyst to the billion dollar industry we see today This is a rural county and a new program the state funding from sp 1294 was what helped create Humboldt county's social equity program so While they were kind of while they were establishing their program they found that rural counties in california including humble Were of the places that had some of the most arrests For cannabis in all of the state The state awarded awarded them for almost five million dollars and From a report conducted by the california Bureau of cannabis control We saw that in 2020 by june 8th in 2020. They had almost 1500 applicants And and distributed almost 500 licenses, but they had not given out any grant funding I was able to Interview one cannabis operator in humble county. His name is timo espinoza and he owns Seventh wave llc. He owns a he is the holder of a cannabis micro business license so He qualifies for humble county's social equity program under their criteria, which is different than than oakland One of the things he told me was that I have now received one dime from the social equity program All in all zero to little help timo identifies as a second generation cannabis operator His father was in the industry in san francisco and he moved to seven He moved to to humble county when his when one of his father's business Connections gave him the opportunity to buy property up there He told me that he was told by the office of workforce development in humble county Which runs the program that he would be able to apply for fee reimbursements but That Seemed to be an empty promise ultimately So the office of workforce development in humble county Runs what they call project trellis which is where they they have kind of like Like Created a pool of money for for cannabis equity Where where is this money going sp12 asked the date asked for data from sp12 94 asked for data from Localities about where funding is going yet when asked the bureau of cannabis control stated that these reports were not available to the public According to state policy In sp12 all state funds must be budgeted as 10 percent administrative 10 percent direct technical assistant and 80 grants Espinoza says once I was finally able to apply I was told they were only offering services Yet this Yet this overlooks the biggest problem in it for equity operators access to capital I also want to mention that I was able to speak with uh, the redwood alternative agriculture fund Which is a nonprofit that did receive 50 000 dollars in a grant from project trellis so, um the redwood agriculture fund Alternative agriculture fund covers the cost of environmental and social sustainability certifications for cannabis cultivators in humble county So there's like uh, like talking the industry that doing something like this would help smaller farmers as they uh As they try to distinguish to themselves in the market But I think it over this overlooks the the problem that I said equity Applicants don't have as much access to capital as others to conclude I make these recommendations for the things that the state needs to Needs to do to better help equity applicants throughout the state The state needs to create uniform statewide standards for equity qualification To have better better state data that can reflect social equity status and business owners Outside of the few localities that run programs will also have the a chance to apply So when I worked at the office of cannabis of at cow cannabis I asked the office for data on you know Who's a social equity cultivator in the state and they didn't have that data? And that's because of local control The the the locality would have that would have that data and not the state I also recommend the state to have a standing committee with equity industry leaders and I also Would like the state to challenge not non BIPOC general cannabis industry leaders to help out equity business leaders So to conclude I have one last quote from amber east center What pushes me in this industry is the fact that we can create the world we want to live in Having the power and impact To make a difference is what makes it all worth it. Thanks everybody Okay, our final panelist today is leslie vasquez Who's going to be going to be presenting on how diversity of directors affect educational nonprofit governance Leslie's joining us virtually. So we're going to take a moment to make sure that she's all set up correctly Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for coming. I'm sorry. I couldn't be there in person But I'm happy to be here virtually. So As noa mentioned, I'm going to be talking about how diversity affects california nonprofit organizations So let's go ahead and get started Um, so as noa mentioned before california is one of the most if not the most diverse state in the nation In the graph, uh, you could see the percentage of foreign born versus california born Um, and keep in mind this does not account for people who are first or second generation The graph only shows the percentage of those current residents Who are born outside of the country. So, uh, this graph, uh, doesn't demonstrate diversity quite like it is in california. So, uh, for that I have another graph here um, and as you can see, uh, california is rapidly changing the graph shows a larger influx of, you know, latinx individuals Asian and pacific islanders and multicultural individuals starting from 1970 all the way into 2019 And so, um, as stated in my research, I studied the relationship between diversity of directors and educational nonprofit organizations across california And the overall effectiveness of the organizations So as you may be aware, there may be there's so many benefits to having more diversity in nonprofit organizations Some of them are listed here, um, which include increased productivity Sponsor innovation, it generates new perspectives, enhances reputation and promotes employee retention. So these are just a few of the reasons why Um, diversity is so important to have in the nonprofit sector, particularly in the educational nonprofit sector So, um, for the next slide, I'll be diving into, um, the nonprofits that I chose and, uh, the ones I studied and kind of, um, You know, what I took from these organizations organizations that I studied Right So when you look up diversity, what diversity means in the workplace, you'll find tons of very broad definitions Um, so right here, we have a very general definition. Um, sort of when you google like what diversity means in the workplace This is the very first thing you'll find and it says it means the acceptance and inclusion of employees of all backgrounds A diverse workplace is an important asset since it acknowledges the individual's strength of each employee and the potential they bring Now this is a very general definition doesn't quite, uh, get to what I was hinting at. So for the purposes of this research, um, I define diversity to be companies that intentionally employ people who reflect a variety of characteristics Including gender, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. Now keep in mind for this research I do not dive into sexual orientation. Um, but I do, uh, dive into the rest of, um The rest of these categories So when studying nonprofits, I conventionally measured diversity using a simple number count Um, I took the overall percentage of people who meet various ethnic racial and gender categories Um, then I simply divided the percentage. Um, just by the number of employees of that company So companies have neither penalized for having more or less employees than others. Um, so central valley scholars actually has The most employees they have, uh, I believe 12 to 15 And project encouraged tomorrow has four employees and project invent has somewhere in the middle around seven and so, um effectiveness for the purposes of this research is defined as how well organizations account for things like program monitoring diversity and policy formation Um, now here, um in this slide, you could see some of the questions I did ask So for program monitoring monitoring, it was like, how many people do you serve with your programs? What are your metrics, um, for diversity? Do you consider your team of directors to be diverse? Um, and so for policy formation, like have you ever had to adapt any programs? If so and why so, um And keep in mind because educational nonprofits vary across subsectors So we have high school education k through 12 alternative education I did rely heavily on the nonprofit organization submission statements Um, and then what I did is I compared the mission statements of each, uh, organization through interviews I conducted as well as secondary research involving existing information all available online Whether it be through their website or guide star, which is a website that contains lots of nonprofit data, such as, um, you know, the yearly income mission statements stuff like that. So Um, and for this research, I relied on three nonprofits that I was studying Um project invent encouraged tomorrow and central valley scholars And sort of the reason that I chose these three nonprofits is because they're all within the educational sector And they all have a net income of under 500 000. So I wanted to sort of make sure that They're more or less similar in how much money they make per year. Um, and there are key takeaways. I found, um Including how diversity can help foster new programs and ideas Um, so as I said before the first organization was project invent Whose mission is to create a generation of fearless compassionate problem solvers Project invent primarily focuses on investing in high school students by helping them invent technology to solve real Real world problems And their main method for pursuing this goal is through developing physical technology products to be conducted on what they call demo day Um And that is the first organization. So the second organization is encouraged tomorrow Whose mission is to provide quality educational programs that empower students and families to become resilient and maintain healthy lifestyles So encouraged tomorrow provides a vast array of tutoring programs ranging from pre-k education to college preparation And they also provide several niche programs such as family and financial literacy for their for both students and parents and then The final organization I have here is central valley scholars Whose mission is to empower students across the central valley to realize their potential and make educational dreams of reality Now central valley scholars does offer a variety of programs as well. They offer workshops mentorships scholarships all available to high school students and so Like encouraged tomorrow central valley scholars provides very niche programs Central valley scholars have has what is called the community health scholars program And it basically grants research opportunities to high school students Now before I talk about any of these these findings that i'm not going to talk about I do want to say that because of the small sample size I cannot make really concrete conclusions about how diversity affects organizations More so the purpose of this research is to sort of open a dialogue regarding why nonprofits should aspire to be more diverse And what that can mean for the organization So From my research I did conclude that encouraged tomorrow and central valley scholars Are found to be more diverse than project invent encouraged tomorrow has Both ethnic and racial diversity, which um, you know, uh all four members are women of color and then 10 of 12 central valley scholars directors identify as ethnic minority and orfem And then project invent only had one person who identified as a minority out of the seven members So it is something that I took into account heavily when You know doing my research on this And so um while studying the differences and similarities between the organizations with relation to diversity I think there are two main takeaways More diverse organizations from what I've noticed tend to have more niche programs Specific to their communities and number two they tend to have a larger emphasis on stories about the students So encouraged tomorrow has a total of nine programs to assist students Including camps focusing on inventions the environment and the arts and then central valley scholars also exemplifies Significant attentiveness to communities. They serve And they offer five different programs including, you know, the black youth empowerment program Which creates a network of black leadership across the central valley And according to their website the black youth empowerment program helps advance black wellness education and creativity so, um The two diverse organizations, uh, not only invest heavily into their programs, but as I said before they place a larger emphasis on student participation Um, particularly on their website. So student stories are highlighted in both of these organizations very heavily Um for encouraged tomorrow, they have a section called success stories So that's where they highlight a lot of students and their accomplishments and and central valley scholars has something very similar in their news portion of their website The project invent currently does not have any anything like that So while studying these organizations, I found that although they all do incredible work Having a diverse set of directors can help foster greater innovation in the form of new projects As I said before project and I only had one project While the rest had multiple and very niche ones. So I guess my conclusion is by bringing in a multiple multitude of different backgrounds organizations have the advantage of having a range of views that ultimately foster creativity to generate new programs That help the very communities they serve And then more so I learned that diversity shouldn't be something that companies strive to do simply because they're changing communities demand it But organizations should begin diversifying themselves because of the benefit it brings to the communities to have an array of talent And as we heard from all of the previous presentations, COVID-19 has exacerbated The number of students and families needed help in california and then also with the flourishing You know population in california. That's extremely diverse. It's time nonprofits start reflecting that type of diversity So I don't think it's enough to just put a band-aid over a systemic situation So by that I'm going to talk about some policy recommendations. I've been thinking of since my conclusion of my research So one recommendation I think I can make Is to implement more policies that encourage women and people of color to join organizations So we can start during like the recruiting aspect by eliminating barriers to entry Such as paid maternity and paternity leave And then also like a thoughtful process of what we want to see in candidates. So I know people talk about diversity and equity, but it's um, it seems to be a lot of lip service from what I've done a lot of research on But to really think of you know, why do we want more diverse? Employees and what does that actually mean? Why what's the actual reason we want them to do? You know, do they want them? Do we want them to reflect more the communities they serve? Is it to make students feel more comfortable? You know having people who look like them in positions of power And then just more practices and policies that involve poc and women to climb up the ladder to develop their social capital and you know Maybe begin as an intern for one day become the leaders of these organizations So um, and those are my main conclusions from that and then I would just like to end off with Just a quote that I got from The president of central valley scholars And it says because of our similar identities with the students we serve We can fork deep connections with our students in which they feel safe and comfortable asking for support Our social capital allows us to build long lasting partnerships with students counselors and organizations across the central valley So I think that's the overall takeaway that I got from this is that you know the more diverse Is actually super beneficial. Not just for company reputation, but also for what it can mean and how we can build like longer substantial solutions to these problems Um, and that is the conclusion of my presentation. So thank you all so much for coming All right, we're going to invite our panelists back up to the front of the room And leslie you could stick around on the zoom call Um as we introduce our community respondent Our respondent is elizabeth redmond cleveland. She's the chief strategist for sustainable growth for the city of berkeley Utilizing her partnership development stakeholder engagement project management Facilitation and research skills elizabeth draws on her past cross-sector experience to design city policies and programs to ensure socially and environmentally responsible economic growth Before joining city government elizabeth led ihs Markets economic strategy solutions regional competitive competitiveness Consulting practice and launched the corporate sustainable customer solutions initiative to help clients leverage ihs's information analytics and insight to achieve their own sustainability objectives in the last decade elizabeth has also founded her own consulting firm cross-sector strategies designed regional industry cluster development strategies At the economic competitiveness group and advised many business associations academic institutions philanthropies and nonprofit organizations on a broad range of economic and workforce development topics While her current focus is local elizabeth work experience elizabeth's work experience spans the globe She has worked on industry development and policy research projects in multiple u.s states asia africa and the middle east She also understands the importance of integrating rigorous quantitative analysis with the perspective leadership and initiative of local stakeholders elizabeth will be providing a response To the overall panel and we'll offer One question to each of our panelists in response to them. So please welcome elizabeth redmond cleveland. Hi everybody Thanks so much for having me So like you said, i'm liz i work with the city of berkeley's office of economic development And our job is supporting local entrepreneurs businesses community organizations artists basically anybody that contributes to economic vitality in berkeley So we're looking at everything from increasing economic diversity in the city increasing per capita incomes Getting people to stay with their jobs as well as getting more people into jobs Just generally improving the quality of life and ability to have a thriving berkeley So that means on a day-to-day basis. I do a lot of different things. This is right now manufacturing week So happy manufacturing week everybody. It's uh happening throughout the bay area The reason I was rushing here is I was giving a tour in our west berkeley gilman district Of some of the wines that are being produced in berkeley, but earlier this week I was working with the owners of the artworks foundry where they pour copper Bronze to make sculptures and installations that are put in places all over the world from the san diego zoo to you know home collections And then on tuesday, we were at a brewery and we have lots of other producers in west berkeley But you know manufacturing's just one sector We obviously some of you touched on the cannabis industry growing industry in berkeley several several new cannabis establishments here sprung up in the last few years I don't particularly spend time on the cannabis Policy issues or on our cannabis firm outreach So I have done a little bit of outreach to some in the context of something else I do which is support marketing in general someone mentioned I think it was uh josh the buy local type programs So I oversee a number of things that are about giving back to the community supporting local businesses How can you spend your dollars in the community? So there's marketing there's different industry sector strategies We do a lot working in collaboration with the university and berkeley lab on making sure the intellectual property And early stage tech startups that come out can grow in berkeley And then we have the right type of office and lab space here in berkeley to accommodate them So they don't all have to go to san francisco or silicon valley or cheaper places to run production facilities With regard to equity initiatives There's two particular programs that I just want to mention that i've been working on in recent years That are not related to the ones that any of you detailed, but i'll just tell you what they are So some days other people can look at other ideas and i'm very open To ideas that you have so how we can evolve our programs in both of these areas here in berkeley So one I mentioned the sort of buy local or we run the discovered in berkeley marketing campaign So it's hashtag discover in berkeley on social media on instagram It's at discover in berkeley in berkeley side There have been a number of articles that are sponsored by the city around discover in berkeley And we've been trying to feature more Minority women-owned businesses through those articles and to make sure that we're shedding light on Immigrant-owned businesses or businesses of all different types of owner backgrounds and also business owners They give back and contribute to the community and prioritize equity and berkeley other berkeley values and what they do So if any of you have ideas For either individual companies that you think are really doing a good job here in berkeley Like you've seen or you've met with someone that you think either promote equity within their business or Have a diverse owner that should be recognized for hardships. They've overcome I'd love to hear about that because those are the kinds of stories we want to tell the community So that's one part of where we try to emphasize equity through the discovered in berkeley marketing campaign and Editorials that are published in the newspaper and shared widely The other big program which i'm also looking for fresh ideas on from hopefully igs students As i run the berkeley startup cluster, which is the Collaboration between the city and the lab and campus and then a number of our accelerator incubator programs for tech and life science biotech companies And in light of all the tech lash that you may have heard about in the bay area where you know, there's both more traffic gentrifying Communities home prices going up lack of affordable housing. We wanted to say like what good does tech actually Bring to our community. Why do we want to foster these innovation industry jobs here? Why do we want to keep these companies in berkeley? And so we thought in addition doing all the you know policy support and marketing and You know networking events and things to support these companies We also wanted to encourage the companies to recognize the importance of diversity equity inclusion and what their company and their individual founders Or leadership teams could do to make sure that they're Really integrating values of diversity equity inclusion into their company and giving back to the community So we've done a number of programs over the last few years. Actually, we got a grant from uc berkeley and From city council to start this berkeley ventures berkeley values program So pre-covid we were having students from minority You know women Female students and students from minority backgrounds at berkeley high school getting tours Of local companies in tech and biotech So they could see how their STEM education skills could actually be applied And give them a sense of right here in their community Like do your math homework because you might actually get this cool job And hear a little bit more and they would play these games and do real hands-on STEM activities on site at the companies Facilitated by cal state institute for STEM education Um, those were really well received, but then COVID happened. So we stopped doing tours of companies So in the last year, I had to pivot to think about what more could we be doing to promote equity through our berkeley startup cluster partnerships And where we ended up doing this last year In a number of other things like webinars on workforce development and some of the types of topics that you guys have covered local contracting But we decided to run the berkeley ventures berkeley values learning lab and pitch competition And so I had diversity equity inclusion experts from throughout the area I'll offer to give pro bono support to individual tech or innovation industry founders to help them review like How are they doing their hiring? What kinds of culture are they facilitating in their company? What more could they be doing to be contributing equitable development in berkeley? So we offered them that pro bono coaching We held a number of workshops where we had in the end I think 14 berkeley companies participate as the cohort in the learning lab And then they all got a chance at the end to pitch So a lot of startups are used to the idea of a pitch competition Right, they all pitch and they want to get money to fund their business But so this was a pitch competition Obviously they could use the money for whatever they want But the pitch was about what they're doing to support equity through their business So I never seen anything like this for it was an idea that I came up with In partnership with tech equity collaborative, which is a regional nonprofit That does a lot of work on equity in the bay area with tech companies It was really awesome. We had all these companies engage and think through like, oh, could I be doing better job of Hiring diverse teams in product development So they recognize what kind of users might use my product and who I'm not thinking about when I'm developing my product Or, you know, should I be doing my recruitment strategies differently? Or should I do a volunteer day where we get out in the community and get back all kinds of things We're on the table But we heard some great pitches actually the event to celebrate them in person now that we're able to do that Again is next wednesday and if any of you are interested I'd be happy to share with christine the invite to the berkeley ventures berkeley values networking event To celebrate the companies that engage if you're interested in the topic of equity and where government can get engaged Okay, that's enough about me. I don't know much time I have but I did just want to say great presentations You guys all worked really hard. I'm very impressed I would say i'm not sure exactly what the brief was or like what these I assume were just kind of study, uh local Um program initiative of a government that's helping equity and I it's what I took away with some awesome snapshots of and and the value of pursuing equity I don't know if this was something you were asked to do but personally I would have loved to just hear a little bit more about like Metrics like it's hard for me to know if any of these programs are how effective they are and And so if for some of it's not your fault, but just like they're not they haven't been going on to look at it Longitudinally like how is it working over time? Or against another similar program like is someone in ohio doing this and maybe they're doing it less well or better So I took away that these are great examples But I don't know for sure from these presentations today if they're best practices Or things that we should be trying to replicate or we just should be aware of the fact that they're happening I also Uh listening. I just thought I'd love to hear a little bit more About the unintended consequences or some of the trade-offs that Government leaders or the program the company the non-profit leaders when you don't get equity always and everything else like If you have a limited budget, you might be spending your time to start this new equity program Or you might pave your road Or you know and I'm not saying you don't want to have both or you don't want the people paving the road to be from diverse backgrounds socioeconomic backgrounds, of course you do But it's like governments are always asked in my experience do this and this and this and this and I'm just curious like What the trade-offs are and investing perhaps cash in one of these government programs or You know marijuana cultivation incubators versus something else you might be doing to help incarcerated youth or whatever um Also was curious about like how replicable some of them were I was I think it was um The first one that was uh Victor no, no bill, right? Yeah, you you talked about it was really interesting when you were speaking about the oakland program I was wondering Like could this have this program be as effective anywhere outside oakland? Because maybe some of the leading cannabis entrepreneurs in in the world or in the you know america or california are in oakland So maybe this program looks really good in oakland, but it seemed like it might not have worked as well In humble so it's interesting to see like are they replicable? across geographies Or like sizes of business you alluded to josh, um, you know, it's really hard to say In certain industries or certain sizes of companies some Government contracting programs might actually be more effective than for other industries or sizes of companies and then For the for leslie. I was even thinking like okay. This is a snapshot of three nonprofits in education That's awesome that we found some Again anecdotal evidence of diversity, but how do we know? Uh, would this be scalable replicable in other industries across other things? I could sir um We we we all had like a like just the summer to do our project So it was really hard to just try to do something longer and bigger But when it comes to like the social equity program Uh kind of like being transposed in different places the problem I think ultimately was the local control because The way that the way that it was set up is that like sp 12 94 is just a pot of money and then the the The county or the or the city could just apply to it and create their own regulations based on Based on an assessment that they did themselves on the industry. So Uh, we just need we would need more time to investigate Each one specifically because you know Humboldt and oakland are just two of the 10 programs that there are in the state I've here. I've heard good things about A long beach. Um, there is also um, uh, San Francisco is also very uh, very successful in their program and I think like success is defined as like in when it comes to cannabis social equity is You know, how many people are in the industry? Obviously, there's problems I address some of them in my article when it comes to like the high rate of taxes for these businesses Uh one other thing but and that I can't think of right now, but it's Yeah, there's obviously a lot of problems and more investigation to be had but I think uh Oh They're all in the specific industry because of the access to capital. It's like the you know the supply chain They're all in like distribution. A lot of businesses are in distribution Rather than like cultivation or or uh, or retail because of because it takes less capital to start there. So yeah, it's Obviously we need to do more work to understand the the problems more Yeah, I can respond to your question about if you could replicate, uh, oakland social equity program in some other state In my preliminary research findings. I was actually planning on doing a research comparative paper on Oklahoma and california and their social equity programs, but I thought it was going to be kind of obsolete in a sense because Well, it california's cannabis industry is heavily regulated. Oklahoma's is not So that's one reason why you wouldn't necessarily need a social equity program in Oklahoma Just because there's not that many financial barriers for one to open a dispensary or a cultivation or something like that And you know, you're right. Maybe the oakland does have a thriving african-american entrepreneur community and maybe okloma doesn't And those are just kind of just two things I took away from that question, but Overall, I kind of have a victor was saying like oakland is the crown jewel of social equity programs in the entire state and You know the state gives so much local autonomy for them to structure their equity programs how they see fit And you know, I'm sure it's representative of their, you know, demographics and kind of just like how the warren drugs affected their specific communities compared to others Did you uh, interview any of the people running the program? Like at the city of oakland No, that's one of the things that I was not able to do was talk to anyone from the state or from humble county I would have liked to talk to someone from the office of workforce development in humble county It would have been it would have really helped my research a lot because You know, I mean, like I said timo espinoza would have qualified under the requirements, but he was not able to obtain any support And you also Um, I I interviewed uh, someone who's on the bureau of cannabis control So he deals with more like the regulations of it and then amber centric She was she has her own cannabis businesses, but she also has nonprofits that basically helped uh, steven bradford Uh, develop the policy of sp94 that actually funds all of these social equity programs. So not like directly, but indirectly for sure Yeah, I would just say for the future of your evaluating might be helpful to hear the People who are running the program on the city level their perspective on what's working well and what's not for before putting forward the recommendations Anyway, I mean sometimes they're hard to reach. I'm not saying anything's wrong But just something to consider because I was hearing the participants feedback in your thing, but not necessarily the Program leads. Um, I was just gonna say for josh and leslie if we could keep our responses Like to less than a minute just clear a little bit short on time Yeah, of course, um, I can just go real quick just touching you mentioned about best practices And that's kind of what the whole idea of my project is is you know, because we're starting from a standpoint of diversity is good This is an established policy, you know goal for san francisco for california across pretty much the nation So we're now looking at we can't explicitly say we want to promote minority businesses We can't explicitly say we want to promote women business owners So what's the next best option? And so kind of the goal of my research and apologies if it came off a little muddled Is looking at local businesses if we're promoting local businesses as a whole does that effectively do that And the conclusion that I can draw right now is Probably not but we don't know if that's because of the actual local business enterprise program the upfront cost entry, etc Or if that's just because of the severe gender and uh Racial discrepancy in a lot of these really high value contracting fields like engineering like construction You know where it's not necessarily a fault of the government But so much of it's so difficult to get a position as a journeyman if you're a woman in you know Construction or engineering anything like that. So we can't really disassociate that industry effect From the certification effect, but ultimately it comes to the point where This is kind of working, but we don't know how well it's working, you know, which is frustrating, but You know, that's how the cookie crumbles Yeah, so like to answer your comment slash question about Sort of this research being like anecdotal and if it would vary by industry just because I did focus on education I think um based on my research, I really believe that it's uh pretty similar across the board when it comes to increasing like diversity and retention of diverse members within a nonprofit Just because for my research of you know, what it takes to start a nonprofit, you know, it's a lot It's a hugely complicated and expensive process You know people need irs tax exemption. They need sales tax exemption. They need To draft bylaws like they need Directors like a board member Like a committee and stuff like that So and then also there's a lot of policies and practices that I think discourage a lot of women in poc from Joining nonprofits and for staying longer. For example, um, there are many nonprofits who rely a lot on reimbursement. So like You know team members will actually buy something for for the team and then they'll have to get reimbursed weeks later And that's not a sustainable way to keep, you know, especially people who are low-income and for the first time trying to join a nonprofit um, and you know, they don't They don't have the means to be covering, you know, nonprofit expenses. So stuff like that I think varies across the board and I think that that just policies like that and making sure like Equity is like being at the center of like every conversation in every policy formation within nonprofits I think it's one of the most important takeaways I got All right. Well, let's hear it one last time for our fellows and our respondent