 Well, again, welcome, everyone. Thank you for joining us for this special TechSoup hosted online discussion, Equity in Action. My name is Aretha Simons. I'm the webinar producer here at TechSoup. I'm going to be your moderator today. And in a moment, I'll introduce our speakers and our hosts. But before we do, I want to let you know how you can engage with us today. Use the Q&A feature if you would like to ask a question. A lot of times when you're in the chat room, the questions get kind of moved up. So use the Q&A feature if you'd like to ask a question of our host and our speaker today. We're going to email the entire video and the links that we share. We're going to email that to you in about 48 hours. So everyone who's registered, you'll get that in about 48 hours. You find something you'd like to hear or you want to retweet because you're probably going to get some nuggets, some quotes that's going to be dropping. Want you to tweet us at techsoup.org or share on Instagram or Facebook if you need the closed caption. The closed use the TTC button at the bottom of the screen. Before I get started, I do want to tell you, welcome to TechSoup. For those of you who, this is your first time at TechSoup. A lot of you are probably members here, but for those of you who are new, you probably know us for laptops or we're much more than just a place where you can buy laptops. We have a lot of free webinars like the one you're attending today, free courses. We have technical support. There's great blogs and articles that's asked for for good division. We have executive directors of chat. Make sure you join that. And there's so many other resources that we have that we want to share with you. So if you're not a member of TechSoup, go to techsoup.org and sign up. It's free to join. All you need is your 501c3. But you know what, we're here for a very special event today, Equity and Action. So I want to introduce our speaker. Today, we have LaChica Phillips. She is the Director of Equity, Inclusion, Diversity, and Culture. And she is NGO Source Program Manager here at TechSoup. LaChica works closely with the operations team to ensure a seamless system of processes for programs, including billing, marketing, operations here at TechSoup. She does a lot of things, a lot more hats that I'm not even mentioning. And as the Director of EDIC, EIDC, you know, we always get those all twisted and tangled. LaChica ensures that TechSoup's equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts are a fundamental pillar of the organizational cultural department. And I'm also excited to introduce Jasmine Malone. She is the Equity, Inclusion, Diversity, and Culture intern here at TechSoup. And she is a senior at Xavier University of Louisiana, majoring in, guess what, Espanyol, and also political science. She is so excited to be here today. I'm so excited for her to be being our host today. Jasmine helps with programs here, the initiative with the EIDC to enhance the impact of TechSoup's mission and values. So everybody, welcome Jasmine and LaChica. Jasmine, you can take it over. Thank you for that beautiful, wonderful introduction. Aretha, I appreciate that. Welcome everybody. I'm excited to talk to LaChica. I mean, I talk to LaChica every day, but I'm really excited to talk to you in this way. But before we get started, I do want to do a land acknowledgement. I want to acknowledge that a small yet integral part of building equity is to advocate for the visibility and sovereignty of indigenous nations. And for that reason, I want to honor the elders past and present of the Nissanan Nation, which is known as the Northern Sacramento area, of whom's ancestral land I am zooming in from. And I encourage you all to honor the land you join us from today by using the link I'm going to put in the chat here. And go ahead and let us know in the chat where you're zooming in from. And also want to considering TechSoup's global presence, I want to acknowledge the indigenous peoples of North America and those across the world. So here are some organizations that champion indigenous rights globally. The Global Indigenous Council, whose mission is to defend the tribes and nations whose sovereignty is threatened by their lack of legal status in their territories. The Global Indigenous Data Alliance, whose aim is to defend indigenous data collection and usage and the United Nations reports titled The State of the World's Indigenous Peoples. And so I encourage you all to join me in learning more, donating and being intentional about your use of native lands. And I just want to say that I am fairly new to this role. I am an intern this summer, so I started pretty recently. And I'm also very fairly new to DEI work, but I'm not new to the nonprofit sector. And I have the honor of working with amazing people who acknowledge and advocate for a more just and humane society daily. And for the last couple of years at TechSoup, our guest and my direct supervisor, Lashika Phillips, has been guiding the effort to build a more equitable, inclusive and diverse culture within the organization. Next slide, please. So today we will discuss her approach to these initiatives and how nonprofits can implement similar initiatives holistically at your organizations. So with that, I'm gonna pass the mic to Lashika. Please tell us more about how this program got started at TechSoup and the mission and the vision of the program. Absolutely. Well, I'm super excited to be here, to be doing this with the both of you and everyone here that has joined. Just thank you and welcome. And so a little bit about how the program at TechSoup started. It was very organic, if I could say, because what was really unique about the experience at TechSoup is that equity, inclusion, diversity, cultural awareness and cultural competence has been at the core of TechSoup since the very beginning. So those discussions around, again, equitable practices, inclusive cultures, that is something that was already very familiar at TechSoup way before, long before George Floyd, long before that experience at tragic happened. So when I presented the idea to executives, to our CEO and to other leadership, it just seemed to be the right time for that. I think that it was time for us to carve out a space within the organization dedicated to equity, inclusion and diversity. And so while it was organic, I'm just really happy that we were all aligned. And I know that not every organization has that start. I totally get that. So we have been, and I have been very privileged at TechSoup to have at least been aligned with the leadership and my other colleagues at TechSoup to really kick things off. But it just started with an idea. I said, hey, global diversity awareness month is happening in a few weeks, or at that time it was in a few months. I said, so what can we do? And from there, we hosted several events and I thought it was gonna be something that we may did, we would may do every single year, but it ended up toward the end of October, folks said, well, what are we doing next month? And so then November came, this is like, well, maybe we should plan something for December too. And at that point, we just start to put some things together to be more formal and official. That's good to know. I mean, you spoke to a lot of really important things, talking about alignment, talking about having a month full of events that are focused on building cultural awareness and competency and self-reflection in some ways. I think, Aritha, I think we are done with this slide. Are we done with this slide, Sashika? Yes, I believe so. All right, because I just wanna chat with you. Let's chat. So I know that a few, it's very different to see the word culture included when talking about like a DEI program. So can you speak a little bit more to that? Like why did that word get put into the title of the program and how is it affecting the way that the strategies of the program and the initiatives that are being brought forth are having that focus? Well, for anyone who is not familiar with TechSoup, we are a global organization. And our reach, it spans across over 200 countries and territories. So the idea for culture to not be a part of that, there wouldn't be any balance there, right? I mean, we are connecting and providing services to nonprofits all over the world. And our staff reflect that as well. We have staff all over the world and the culture is a part of that. It is how we connect. Just recently, we had a brownback presentation about how culture intersects work style. So I think for us, it was just, it was a given. It wasn't even something that I think that we required a whole lot of thought about that just because of the nature of our work, the nature of the nonprofits that we serve, as well as our staff and our TechSoup Global Partner Network. So I think that culture is just a part of who we are. It is at the core. And cultural awareness is important to us as well because again, working with other organizations and other parts of the world, being able to connect on a deeper level, I believe that knowing culture and having cultural awareness allows us to do that. And that's a really good point. I mean, speaking quite frankly, having being a black woman leading this program, we are coming in and me being your intern, we're coming in with a very specific lens and having that awareness that comes into the program and saying like, this is how I move through the world. And so this is also what we could bring to the table when talking about equity in the workplace too and how that affects the work that we do in the nonprofit sector is really important. I think that's a value that you add to it. I'm curious then about the early days of actually forming the program. I know you talked about Global Diversity Awareness Month. And how energized the organization was after that. I would like to know, and for the other nonprofit leaders who are watching today, how, what did it look like to build that collaboration in that executive buying to form a formal program at TechSoup? Well, it has extremely rewarding. To say definitely that. One thing about TechSoup is in one of our admins or one of our leaders in our HR team says that when she does exit interviews, 100% of the time when she asks the question, what is your, the best thing you loved about TechSoup? She says that 100% of the time the response is people, that is everyone's response. Wow. And I say that because having the conversation with leadership about having an EIDC program at TechSoup, it was not something that I found to be very challenging. Again, as I mentioned earlier, we seem to be aligned. And I think that we were aligned not because of the, again, the tragic events surrounding George Floyd. If I really believe it's because it is the core of who we are as an organization. But then also I know that it is important to the people at TechSoup. So having the conversations and having tough conversations was something that I felt empowered to do. I felt that I could trust leadership at TechSoup to have these conversations. And I felt like they trusted me to start thinking about and planning some initiatives around these conversations. So I was just, I feel that we are very fortunate, like I said, to have leaders who, where Dee and I are something that is important to them outside of the workplace as well. So that part was easy. I think the struggle in the early part was balancing time because there is so much that can be done. But then there's also, we have to also take into consideration the time that is needed to build out whatever ideas or suggestions that are being brought to you or to the leaders of the organization. So for me, I think that was it. It was trying to manage and decide what to do first. What is most important first? What is priority? And then from there, just creating plans around next steps and concrete plans. So what did you do first? Well, after the global diversity awareness month, I started attending and I still do attend a lot of webinars on equity inclusion, not just in the workplace, but sometimes I've even had to venture out and watch webinars that were specific to folks in the education realm because I found that some of those resources and tools were also helpful in thinking about strategizing for a program like this. Another thing I did was I began to partner with individuals in the organization. I realized that I had a partner within our marketing team, partner in HR, and I began to really establish and develop those relationships. And then I also started looking outside of the organization to see who I could partner with where I can learn, who could I partner with for me to give back as well. And then where can I go for just resources every now and then? So I was able to start clearing a path that way. And I'm still doing those things. I feel that we are in the infancy stage of our program. So I'm still doing a lot of those things, still attending webinars, still looking to be connected in the best places. So I'm still on that journey. And that is really good to know because as you're intern, I will say there is professional, constant professional development is 100% necessary to do EIDC work. And I mean, I have just learned so much in going to webinars as well. I'm just for talking to you about the things that you learned. So I wanna highlight that as a really great place to start versus to educate yourself. I think that's an excellent point. And then having those conversations to build your network of your alliance of people who are going to be doing this work with you. And speaking to that alliance, I know that you mentioned a little earlier working within reaching out to people in culture, our HR team. So can you speak to that relationship and its value when establishing and guiding a DEI program at a nonprofit? Absolutely. So I think though it's important for me to call out the fact that the EIDC program at TechSoup, it sits within the office of the CEO. So it is not a part of our PNC team. It's not a part of our legal team per se. It is in the office of the CEO. So establishing these other kind of partnerships and alliances has been extremely helpful. In terms of my work with our people and culture team, it has been extremely valuable. Especially considering one of the things that we are actively working on is expanding our candidate pools, diversifying that and expanding our reach. And that is not something that I could do by myself. It requires a team. It requires someone who is experienced in recruiting. And so we have a recruiter that's a part of our HR team. And then we have a person who manages policies and the people side of HR. And so all of that, all of those are key elements for a great partnership in terms of connecting with EIDC and making it effective for the entire organization. So we have partnered around diverse recruiting strategies. We've partnered around locating various diverse groups or associations to become members of or to partner with. We also attend webinars together. We're actually attending a conference. It's a DDI conference hosted by SHIRM. It's in October this year. So we'll be attending that. So we've been working very closely here lately and I'm enjoying the partnership. I've learned a lot from partnering with our PNC team. But as I said, it would be impossible to do that work without the two of us together. So it's really been great, been enjoying that work. And I love how at the end there, you also talked about the conference and thinking, I mean, it just goes back into the education piece, like having that relationship also encourages opportunities for growth as well in these other departments. I would like to know more about your collaborations across TechSoup. So outside of the senior leadership and maintaining buy-in in that way. And outside of PNC, what does it look like for you to have your hand in other projects that are going on in other teams at TechSoup? Well, I don't really enjoy it. I mean, I really enjoy it. But I absolutely love TechSoup. I love our mission. I love our big, big, big picture. So the idea of being able to work with and partner with other teams, it's very fulfilling. It's really exciting to me. I've partnered with so many other teams. I mean, you have to in this work. If I can just pause for a second, just for a second to say, if you are watching this and you are a DNI professional, however, it is labeled at your organization. It is extremely important to know that this is not work that you can do by yourself. It definitely requires partnership and it's not something that you can do siloed. So I've partnered with our marketing team. I mean, this webinar being put together, this was with collaboration with our marketing team. And it goes beyond just webinars. We've partnered with our marketing team to produce blogs. As a matter of fact, we've got a blog coming out really soon. Even down to graphics and imagery, like it's really been great to work with them, getting us prepared for various conferences. Working with marketing team has been really helpful and valuable in that way. Another team, it's our cloud support or cloud solutions team. I know that a few months ago, they did an outreach campaign to several of our AAPI members of TechSoup. And so I was included in that engagement, which was, again, I'm really happy to being able to do that. Although I would not have known about some of those organizations had I not been a part of that conversation, but I was able to add some feedback on wording around what we send out to some of our members. What does that look like? And helping us to be more intentional about our messaging. So that was really great. I think that, trying to think of other teams I've partnered with, there's just so many now, just trying to think of other teams. Oh, our digital, our new program, the digital resilience program, I've partnered with Adam, who is the program manager for that, to ensure that messaging is sent out to all of our members and folks who are maybe not members, but just making sure that everyone is aware of our offers and that we are reaching out to some organizations specifically that can reach marginalized nonprofits. So that has been extremely helpful as well, I can tell. And I'm working with impact stories around that as well. So, I mean, the list goes on. Definitely the list goes on, but I hope that if anything, I hope that the folks get that collaboration definitely is key with this work. That is a really good point. And I know that you've also reiterated that a few times here about your collaborations with other teams and other departments across the organization. But I'm also really glad that you talked about considering that TechSoup is in the civil sector, big talking about how DEI work and having that presence within the organization affect social impact. So that is really important to note as well and how it has a full circle impact just from getting started, which is really good to know. But I mean, something that the folks listening here today are the folks watching the recording may be wondering is with the DEI work and talking about these collaborations and talking about working on these projects, there may be other initiatives that cost a little more money. So thinking about funding for DEI projects, what has, can you speak to some of that as well? And with funding, how can you expand the EDI IDC program at TechSoup? Well, with funding, I mean, I wanna say the sky's still there. Yeah. Money does lots of things, so yes. Yeah, of course, absolutely. Right, but I think specifically for TechSoup, I think that funding and additional resources will allow us to get more training. I think it will allow us to partner with more DEI practitioners and experts. I think that there are also opportunities for us to engage technology in our learning. What I mean by that is I've discovered a couple of really unique learning opportunities that they use AI as a tool to teach about diversity, equity and inclusion. That's just one idea. But also, I think it's important for not just TechSoup before organizations in general to invest in assessments. Right, it's important to know where the organization is. And that does take investment, not just an investment of a financial investment, but we're also talking about time as well. Because to do an assessment, it's not something that can be done overnight. So that's just something else to think about. But when I think about moving forward and TechSoup's journey, definitely funds would allow us to expand our training and our learning and believe that it will also help expand our existing employee resource group and our any affinity groups that we add. I also think that when we think about community impact, I believe that additional funding can also create opportunities for us to do even more work in the community around DEI for nonprofits as well. That's really good to know and thinking about how to expand the EIDC program and just for other nonprofits when we're looking at doing that expansion, I think that that's really good to speak to that. In thinking about expansion, we also wanna think about the purpose of expanding and what we're doing this for. So I wanna ask your insight on, because I know that you mentioned early on about the Global Diversity Awareness Month response from the employees, but it's been a couple of years since then. And so I'm curious how the EIDC program or how you plan to maintain employee buy-in as well for the folks like me who are interns and who are here for maybe a few months to those employees who may have just started in our customer-facing positions or who are on smaller teams or our contractors. How do we maintain employee buy-in at this level as well? Yeah, I think what's important is really to keep the conversation going. Consistency is crucial. So if we've started monthly events, then we have to continue monthly events. I think that that is important. I think that's how you gain buy-in. I think that's how you get buy-in and people can count on that. So they can depend on that. Then they go to trust that and trust you. Regardless if an employee is with you for a day or two or four or 12 years, I think that establishing trust early on, that's how you maintain buy-in. I really do believe that. I also think constantly engagement. I think constant engagement, whether it's when I see that we have new folks to join, sending them an email or Slack message to welcome them or to invite them to a discussion or just invite them to a virtual chat. But engagement is key. And I know that engagement in this now remote virtual Zoom field world, right? Then we have, I know that sometimes it can be challenging. So I'm learning different tools to stay connected. It's the one tool that I think folks in TechSoup know that I have been playing with and tinkering with for the past couple of weeks. And that's the huddle feature on Slack. We need to do it a few times. Yes, you know, because just staying connected is very important, because if you think about it, right, how it's impossible to gain trust for someone or something that you don't feel a connection to, right? So I think that's how I'm working to maintain buy-in. I love that you just said that because it makes me think of affinity groups, you know? Thinking about feeling a connection to something you think about what an affinity group is and why folks at organizations and companies choose to start those. Can you, for folks who may not know what an affinity group is, do you mind defining that and then talking about what they've looked at like at TechSoup so far? Yeah, sure. So affinity groups were established. I'm not exactly sure like there's an official year that it really kind of kicked off mainly in U.S. was to create spaces mainly for marginalized groups to feel comfortable in the workplace. So affinity groups were established for those purposes. And so here we are 2021. And I think that the idea of affinity groups have, I believe it has evolved. And I think it also depends on the type of organization or the culture of the organization where you are. So for us at TechSoup, the affinity groups that we have right now, we don't have many. We have two or we have three affinity groups actually right now. And so yeah, I think that they help to create an additional safe space. And the reason why I say an additional safe space because I feel that at TechSoup, we have these virtual spaces where we can connect and we can strategize with folks or just talk about something that maybe doesn't even have to do with work, right? TechSoup creates these opportunities. But I just see affinity groups as a bonus space, an additional opportunity to connect with your peers and to think about ways that we can engage with the community. Because I know that our affinity group, we have an affinity group. It's racial justice, allyship. And they need to talk about how can we at TechSoup, how can we have additional resources? So what can we do to effect change in non-profit stead are doing that work? So that's one affinity group. But like I said, then we have two more and creating those safe spaces. It is important, and again, I said again, especially now in this virtual remote world, it can feel like you are remote by yourself. So to have those spaces, I believe has been helpful for the folks at TechSoup. That's really good that these spaces have existed at TechSoup and that they are bringing such a positive space for folks to gather. And it has that organizational support as well. I want to ask you one more question because the Q&A is blowing up. So we wanna make sure you can get to those. So I wanna ask you one more question. Oh, I'm so excited, I'm so excited. Yeah, I peeked at it. There's some really great questions in there. So I definitely wanna make sure that we have time for that. My last question here is, it's a big one, but... I'm ready. Yeah, I just, because you've talked about teams, you've talked about collaboration, and we've talked about bringing this into different parts of the organization. My question, my last question here is, how do we keep EIDC or DEI programs in a strategic and keeping time management and being mindful and all of that and efficient while also addressing the needs of all marginalized folks and talking black folks, indigenous folks, Asian folks in Pacific Islanders, talking about disabled folks, talking about neurodivergent folks. How do we keep all of that on the agenda while still maintaining executive buy-in and doing these collaborations and all of that? And that's why I say it's such a big question because we're talking about all the things. I know, but it is so important because we're also talking about folks with the intersectionality of identities too. Like we are black women, so we have different, being women in the workplace and being black women in the workplace affects us differently too. So I just wanna know if you can provide some insight for the folks watching how to keep all of these things present. Okay, so that, yeah, that was a big question. And I think I have a, no, no, no, I think I have a very small answer. And my response to that is, actually, Jasmine, if I'm being completely transparent, my first thought when you asked that is you don't. You don't. And, but let me clarify what I mean and what I was thinking is that in order to do all of those things, I think the most important, the most important piece is being intentional. I think that all of those things can happen and can happen successfully, be truthful, when we do it with intention as opposed to just checking a box. Because I think that if we have this long list, you called out a lot of things. And if we do those things, rush to do those things, just to do them, to say that we did, then it's not effective, right? So if I could just take a step back, I would say it would have to be slowly and with intention. Because that, I feel that that is how I've been able to work across TechSoup in a way where I don't feel stressed out. I still love my job. I still love waking up and logging on and go to work. But that's because I can tell from our leadership that it's important for us not to just again, be performative. And I think that that's what you have to think about when you start thinking about all of these things that we wanna tackle. And all of those things are things that should be tackled and should have some work done around those areas, right? But I think we only get there with intention not rushing to the finish line because there is no finish line on this journey. I mean, what does the finish line look like, right? I don't even know if I can envision that. But it is, this is the ongoing work. It's an ongoing process. And so again, I'll say with flow slowly, intentionally and always asking why. No great way to end. Gonna pass this back now to Aretha. Thank you so much, Lashika, for letting me ask you. Thank you. And I'm excited to hear what you come up with for these questions that are in the Q&A. Wow, I told you guys you were gonna get a lot of nuggets. She just took my breath away at the end. Wow, wow, wow. I'm gonna go right to the Q&A section. Lots of questions here. I'm going to the one I can't answer. One, he, this was anonymous, Tindi. We're still using J-E-D-I language at my employer. Is there a reason E-I-D-C is being used here? I guess at TechSoup. And then I asked what J stands for. It stands for justice. Justice, yeah. So I love, I absolutely love this question. If I had more time, I would love to tell you the story behind this name, a story that involves me and our CEO, Rebecca. But mainly, so for us, E-I-D-C, it's again intentional focus, right? And so for us, it was important to focus on the order in which we are approaching change, right? So we aim to foster a culture of equity and inclusion in order to ensure meaningful diversity, right? So that's why it's E-I-D-C. Thank you so much for that question. Yeah, great question. Sarah says, do you have a recommendation for a group that specialize in Indigenous people's healthcare? Indigenous people healthcare, great question. I cannot recall one right off hand, but because you've asked that, I will give you an answer. All right, thank you so much. And Debbie says, is there a nonprofit that's fully integrating E-I-D-C into its mission that you would recommend us to look towards for best practices? Okay, such a great question. And interestingly, and we're talking about E-I-D-C, but what I'm about to say is extremely biased. I was gonna say, I would say take a look at TechSoup's mission and take a look at our values. It is, to me, it speaks volumes because our mission and our values were created years ago, years ago, right? And then you look at what we're doing in terms of E-I-D-C and they are directly connected. Very good. So maybe a little biased there, I'm sure, but... Sorry, I thought you were finished. So the Kidney Foundation says our organization is small. I'm the only full-time person. We serve a fully diverse group of families living with CKD and we're moving our information offerings more online and virtually. In the past, most offerings have been in person. So I guess you were talking about engaging with people on purpose, I mean, on purpose, because you did say on purpose, I love that. It is on purpose, that's right. On online, so I guess you use some words, engage and stay connected. So virtually, how are we accomplishing this virtually, Lashika? I mean, there's so many ways and I'm always experimenting. I'm like, I will try a new tool in a minute. I think Jasmine and Adam, who leads our digital resilience program, now they have me tinkering with a new tool called AirTable. No, AirMeat. Oh, AirTable. Oh, it's AirTable. Okay, because there is an AirMeat, which is great. Yeah, so I'm just experimenting with different tools and not just tools to communicate and to connect, but I'm also experimenting with different tools to collaborate. So I've started using Trello. I've started using, there is a mural board. I don't know if you all are familiar with that, but I've used that before. But I think that it's not just all of these tools, right? It's also just establishing some consistency with connecting because I mean, we just have to do a better job and I'm speaking for myself as well because that is something that we just have to do. We really wanna foster an inclusive culture in this remote world. We have to go the extra mile in terms of our peers, our colleagues, whereas they're not over our cubicle and we can't just look over our monitor to see them anymore, but there are other things that we can do. I had one of my friends from Texas sent me a card, just, hey, thinking about you. So there are other things that we can do to connect. So I would say experiment, experiment and experiment. Awesome, awesome. As someone was asking, how can we inform and train more families regarding options at TechSoup? So I was answering questions. So nonprofits are the ones who have access to the TechSoup products and software. So they'll have to obtain that through nonprofits. What are some good webinars and resources that are good for just those starting out a program at their nonprofit? Wow. We do have some links, but do you know of any like- Yeah, okay, so top of mind for me would be, there is, oh my gosh, there's so many. Okay, so there is, there's diversitycouncil.org. I get a lot of information from them and I'll include that in a, I think you'll receive an email with some links that I'll share, but I will give you this and maybe this is, maybe you're already doing this, I'm not sure, but something that I personally do is you can sign up for Google Alerts. And I've gone and I've set up Google Alerts. So every morning I receive an email that will highlight everything in the news. I have all articles pertaining to diversity, equity and inclusion. And then I have like, I have five set up. So I have one that's an alert for diversity, equity and inclusion. I have one for DEI. I think I have one for diversity and inclusion, but I have all these different alerts set up. So like I said, every morning, I think they all come in at about 10 o'clock and I'll just kind of go through and believe it or not, that is how I have found out about some of the latest webinars that I've attended that were really, really great webinars. So that's one thing. As far as getting some information, you wanna get started, a couple of webinars that the content is still available for replay. And it is the Microsoft Diversity, Equity and Inclusion conference that they did earlier this year. It's called Inclusion. Also, there is a Black Enterprise DEI summit that just happened a couple of weeks ago. The replay is still available as well. I mean, there are other links that I can share in an email to everyone after this. If I can jump in, because the Sheikah's being modest, she also led a whole webinar titled, Five Tips to Successfully Launch a DEI Initiative at Your Non-Profit, which is on demand and available and we can share that with you as well. Thank you. Right, if you can find that Jasmine while we're online, you can put that in the chat room. So this is a great question and this will be the last one. Ooh, this is a good one. I like to ask, this is for you, LaSheikah, of course. It's not for me. Your insight, advice for those non-profits who focus on social justice and actively attempt to create an equitable inclusion change and yet most funds come from or are distributed by wealthy Caucasian individuals. So can you repeat the question? I just wanna make sure I'm understanding. So is the concern that these social justice organizations are receiving funds? Can you repeat that, Aretha? I just wanna make sure I understand you. I like to ask your advice for those non-profits who focus on social justice and actively attempt to create an equitable inclusion change and yet most of the funds come from wealthy Caucasian individuals. Well, I'm not sure that, that's, hmm. Well, I think that we may see more of that happening, right? I think that as people become educated and as folks continue having these tough conversations, I think that more people wealthy, whether regardless of their ethnic background, their race or anything like that, I think that we will see more of that. And I think that receiving an investment like that or receiving a donation like that, I don't know, I guess it depends on the organization and it would depend on the donor because I personally, I don't see how that is a conflict, right? If there is an organization that is doing work around social justice and a person maybe on the opposing side, if I'm understanding this right, wants to give back, I don't report that. I champion that. Like I think that maybe we will see more of that. If, and again, I hope that I am interpreting that and understanding that correctly. I think they might have been asking and I will say this kidney foundation said, just keep saying thank you and do the work. Basically take the money and keep doing the work and say thank you. That's why I laughed a few months ago. I think what they were probably saying is, let me just use one example, which is say Black Lives Matter and I just threw it out there because everybody knows that if they're getting money from Caucasians to do the work, I don't see a problem with that. That's somebody who wants to invest in it and maybe they can't be the face of it but they wanna support it. So yeah, I think if we had a little bit more time, we could dive into that because I can see how that could be some red flags. But so thank you for raising that question. But I think that as long as receiving that donation or those funds or resources does not go against the mission or the values of that organization, I say I support that 100%. Yeah, long as they're not using their money to control the narrative. Someone says I work with a very, they put in parentheses, white group of folks who wanna find ways to bring more equity into each of their organization. I've noticed a repeating cycle of our conversation lately. One, let's try to set priorities to work on and goals to work toward and two, this is a long one but it's good, I gotta read it. We're really, we're a really white group of people. It would be good to get more diverse perspectives on these ideas. We don't want to accidentally do more harm than good. This is so good. I wish you weren't anonymous so I could give you props. And then three, okay, let's find some more diverse perspectives followed by four, let's quickly, how do we do that? How do we do that? Especially without tokenism. So it goes on, very good comment, very good comment. Lashika, you wanna say something about that? Yes, so I think in this, first of all, thank you so much for that question. I would encourage you to find spaces where you feel welcome, find spaces that where you feel like you're able to listen effectively and listen with empathy, but at the same time be heard with empathy as well. And those spaces, they do exist. Because I think once you find whether it's a cohort, whether it's a, I mean, they have groups on LinkedIn, I'll share some links for everyone. But once you find kind of find that space, then you will find a community or a group of folks who you trust to ask these questions to, right? Or to really begin to explore some of these ideas. So it does exist. And guess what? If you can't find that space, it may be an opportunity for you to create the space. That's what I had to do. When I got started in this role, I had no idea. I was thinking, oh my goodness, what should I do first? What should I be doing in what order? And what I did was with the help of an inspiration from my manager, I created a cohort for women who are passionate about DEI. And so every month we meet, we talk about issues pertaining to DEI, whether it's recruiting, this month we're talking about recruiting. And so now I've kind of created this space for myself as well as for other women in the space. So keep that in mind as well in your journey. That's great. Well, thank you everyone. This has been fantastic. Wow, the questions here, the comments, everybody say thank you to Lashika and Jasmine. What a great job. So much engaged, so many questions. So many questions are still coming in. We're gonna share the video in 48 hours and all the links. We have a lot of more additional links to share with you. Wow, I mean, this just took my breath away and this so much conversation that need to be had and a lot Lashika said, it's gonna be ongoing. So we're gonna pass this on to the next generations, but we still have to keep engaged and keep doing the work. So thank you everybody. See you next time on our next webinar. Bye-bye.