GLG’s Commitment to Racial Equity

GLG is committed to supporting organizations working for racial equity and criminal justice reform. In addition to monetary donations, GLG directly supports a range of nonprofits on the frontlines of these issues with pro bono services.

“You have helped us see with a clarity that demands decisive action. It’s up to all of us to help address conditions that have led to these tragic outcomes.”

– Paul Todd, CEO, Letter to GLG employees, June 2020
GLG Fellow Organization Austin Justice Coalition

GLG’s work in support of organizations working for racial equity started with our earliest Fellows classes. Our work in this effort redoubled with recent events.

Examples of Our Latest Work

Leveraging data and innovative tech solutions to reform the criminal justice system

Recidiviz

Recidiviz’s open-source data platform and tools help criminal justice decision makers identify opportunities to improve outcomes and monitor the impact of their efforts in real-time. When Recidiviz reached out to GLG to learn more about the corrections data ecosystem – including figures concerning imprisonment, probation, and parole – GLG connected them with two experts: a former director who managed the corrections, court, and justice markets for a large software solutions company, and a former CFO of a data solutions company in the corrections space. Calls with these experts helped Recidiviz understand how they can partner with vendors to access data crucial to their mission of quickly, safely, and permanently reducing incarceration.

Bayes Impact

Bayes Impact builds technological solutions to tackle social issues at scale. The organization turned to GLG to understand the bidding process for federal contracting with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice as it planned a project to increase police accountability and improve community relations through data reporting. Leveraging insights gained by speaking with GLG experts – including the president of a federal market procurement firm and a former Department of Justice trial attorney – Bayes Impact created a winning proposal that ultimately enabled them to develop an open-source software program that facilitates more effective collection, reporting, and publishing of police use-of-force data.

Transforming communications capabilities to scale impact

Austin Justice Coalition

Austin Justice Coalition educates and builds community power for people of color in Austin, Texas through grassroots organizing and activism in criminal justice, education, urban planning, and other issue areas. GLG helped Austin Justice Coalition enhance their communication strategies by connecting them with a director of communications with experience across digital and print platforms, a PR expert with insight into grassroots marketing and nonprofit brand-building, and a former director of marketing and communications whose work focuses on marketing and social media strategies in the nonprofit space. Austin Justice Coalition leveraged these expert consultations to strengthen their PR strategy, social media presence, and graphic design and digital marketing capabilities.

Step Up to Justice

Step Up to Justice is a full-service, free civil legal center for low-income individuals and families in Pima County, Arizona. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the need for legal support for people in poverty – for example, many women who have experienced domestic abuse are now locked down with their abusers and require legal intervention, but don’t have the resources to secure it. GLG connected Step Up to Justice with experts to help the organization increase awareness of their services. One expert, the director of marketing and communications at a large West Coast nonprofit, not only shared their insights through a phone consultation, but also prepared an in-depth marketing plan that included an updated fundraising calendar, messaging suggestions for the organization’s website, and materials for a planned op-ed article.

Prison Scholar Fund

The Prison Scholar Fund provides education and employment assistance to incarcerated people to help them succeed and thrive when they re-enter society. As the Prison Scholar Fund strategized the launch of a new podcast, GLG connected them with the vice president of podcasting at a major Spanish-language content provider and the CEO of a marketing and media firm for help refining best practices. The Prison Scholar Fund also consulted experts with experience at television networks and talent management firms to better understand how to cultivate durable relationships with celebrity talent to build recognition and expand their reach.

Refining core operations and development strategies to extend impact and better serve stakeholders

The Bronx Community Foundation

The Bronx Community Foundation, the first and only community foundation in the Bronx, is a public-private-nonprofit partnership focused on supporting the essential needs of the Bronx community and building an equitable, inclusive, and just Bronx. The organization turned to GLG for expertise in creating and leading a development and fundraising strategy focused on COVID-19. Speaking with a former managing director of a leading foundation, a former vice president of development at a major national nonprofit, and other experts, The Bronx Community Foundation gained critical insights into developing, targeting, and managing their fundraising efforts, and effectively communicating the commitment to social justice at the heart of their strategy.

Represented Foundation

Represented Foundation is a New York-based nonprofit professional development community that provides support and training to social impact founders of color. Represented partnered with GLG to more efficiently match the skills-based volunteers in their network with the founders they serve. GLG connected Represented with a former vice president of an online volunteer matching platform and a former director of marketing at a skills-based volunteer platform to help the organization facilitate stronger volunteer matches and contribute greater support to Black and Latinx social sector leaders.

GLG Fellow Organization Drive Change

Leveling up hiring, training, and retention for under-represented and under-resourced people

Drive Change

Drive Change equips formerly incarcerated youth to succeed in the food service industry, and coaches and trains restaurant leaders to create inclusive work environments. Through their Fellowship with GLG, Drive Change spoke with a former diversity and inclusion executive with experience at multiple major tech firms and a former director of talent for leading retailers, among other experts. The consultations helped Drive Change refine their hiring and retention strategies with an emphasis on equity and diversity in the workplace.

Pursuit

Pursuit works to diversify the tech industry through an intensive skills training program that helps its fellows – diverse individuals with the most need and potential – secure their first tech jobs, advance in their careers, and become the next generation of tech leaders. GLG connected the organization with experts in diversity and inclusion strategy and recruiting, including a senior technical recruiter at an online job hub focused on minority populations and a senior recruiting consultant at a major media company, to help Pursuit fine-tune their program and more effectively train and promote their fellows.

Navigating crises and complex policy frameworks to deliver essential services and support to vulnerable populations

Braven

Braven partners with universities to embed career readiness education into the undergraduate curriculum and close the education-to-employment gap that many low-income and first-generation college students experience. Between COVID-19’s impact on the global economy and Braven’s mission to fight for equality of opportunity and economic justice, Braven decided to address the significant uncertainty among 2020 college seniors by hosting a webinar series designed to help students navigate their post-graduation careers. They reached out to GLG for support sourcing webinar hosts with expertise in HR, learning and development, and talent acquisition. GLG provided Braven with a group of speakers whose experience spanned a cross-sector range of leading global companies and who could speak to the issues facing students today. Nearly 300 college students attended the webinars, which were met with enthusiasm from students, Braven staff, and participating experts.

Fathers’ Uplift

Fathers’ Uplift provides coaching, clinical support, group therapy, and other services to help fathers stay engaged in their children’s lives. GLG connected their team with public health, policy, and advocacy experts with insights into substance abuse and incarceration data in the U.S., allowing Fathers’ Uplift to better understand the impact metrics that funders and legislators value when investing in prevention and intervention programming. The organization also spoke with experts in credentialing, telehealth, and other topics to more effectively expand their support network and navigate the complex regulatory systems of mental health care.

 

Foster America

Foster America improves the lives of America’s most vulnerable children by building a pipeline of leaders and innovators to transform the child welfare system. COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on communities of color – and the over-representation of Black children in the child welfare system – made Foster America’s social justice mission even more critical. Foster America was committed to exploring all avenues to continue their operations without disruption during the pandemic, and GLG connected the team with U.S. policy and banking experts to help them understand their options to secure funding. The team spoke with the executive vice president of a large bank and a former chief of staff at the U.S. House of Representatives, whose insights helped Foster America access crucial financial support through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.

GLG Fellow Organization Fathers’ Uplift

These new GLG Social Impact Fellow organizations are among those fighting for racial equity and criminal justice reform.

Interested in our work in racial equity?