The Center for Nonprofit Excellence (CNE) envisions a region where all community members have the opportunity to thrive – supported by a nonprofit sector that celebrates diversity, values inclusion, and centers equity across all aspects of our work. Making this vision a reality requires resilience and ongoing commitment within and beyond the nonprofit sector.
Together we must dismantle deeply-rooted and pervasive policies and systems of exclusion and oppression, which promote and perpetuate inequitable outcomes for many members of our communities. We also must understand existing systems of power and rebuild them to foster equitable decision making, while restructuring the distribution of access and resources to ensure fair and just outcomes.
CNE pledges itself fully to this work and understands that it must start, and remain centered, within our own organization. We must reflect on our own role in the perpetuation of inequitable systems and outcomes. We will make mistakes and must seek to learn from them. Our vision of equitable, thriving, and just communities powered by healthy nonprofits compels us on this journey and we commit to our internal work with humility, intention, transparency, and hope.
As a regional capacity builder and membership organization, CNE is committed to contributing to a more just and equitable nonprofit sector and helping to drive positive change in the region. All nonprofits have a critical role to play, bringing the goal of equity into their daily work and aligning their intentions and impact with that goal. This is challenging work and we face barriers, but together we are a powerful collective of community builders with an opportunity and responsibility to create meaningful and lasting systemic change that empowers all community members to thrive.
Definitions
DIVERSITY – Diversity is all of our varied identities and differences, as individuals and collectively, inclusive of beliefs, perspectives, and values.
EQUITY – Equity refers to outcomes that are not negatively correlated with factors such as, but not limited to, race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender or ability.
INCLUSION – Inclusion is the act of creating environments in which any individuals or groups are and feel welcomed, respected, supported, and valued to fully participate and affect decisions and actions at all levels of an organization.