The Center for Economic Inclusion Announces Rightsizing Plan for Sustainable Racial Wealth Building and Inclusive Economic Growth
St. Paul, MN, April 11, 2024 – Today, the Center for Economic Inclusion (the Center) publicly announced plans to significantly reduce its staffing and programmatic footprint in the wake of a rapidly changing economic and legal landscape. The organization will reduce its staffing by approximately 50%, realign remaining roles, and reduce its scope of services for businesses and local governments to mitigate the impacts of the changes and continue its advocacy for racially just, equitable and inclusive regional economies.
The Center’s founder and CEO, Tawanna Black shared “The Center has met the needs of hundreds of corporations, small businesses, and local governments for six years, through a comprehensive, innovative, and results-based suite of employer education, job creation, research, analytics and change management services that position businesses to measurably leverage racial wealth equity as a primary driver for economic performance. Despite our impact and promise, the forces against racial justice are increasing and thereby increased the capacity required to execute our mission in ways we were not yet prepared to meet, given the infancy of the organization. Yet, we are not deterred. A dream deferred will not be denied. God gifted me, and every community we’ve touched with this vision and brilliant people committed to executing it. I am confident the vision will be met with the provision required to fulfill it.”
The Center shared two major factors impacting its financial health and contributing to this rightsizing journey. The purpose for a 2023 state grant was repurposed and restricted by the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), after it was appropriated by the legislature, in ways that deeply hindered the Center’s ability to fulfill the grant goals and sustain services. The $3 million, one year appropriation, authored by former Rep. Ruth Richardson was designed to support the Center in meeting the needs of businesses across the state, by expanding the organizations research and change management services, increasing the contracting these entities do with businesses owned by Black, Indigenous, Asian and Latino people, and offering up to $1 million in forgivable loans to small businesses.
After the legislative session, DEED staff adjusted the purpose, restricting more than $2 million for the Center’s Vanguard Loan Program, and approximately $500,000 for the intended services. This reimbursable grant totaled more than half of the Center’s annual budget, and requires the Center to spend the funds, before being reimbursed monthly by DEED. The result was devastating. Yet, the Center continued offering the services Minnesota employers need.
The Center has also faced the headwinds of rising litigation and threats of litigation against corporate and government racial equity actions and policies. These efforts to hinder progress toward racial and economic justice increased the length of time many corporations and local governments needed to make decisions about continued action and consulting services from the Center. As a social enterprise, the Center relies upon both charitable donations and grants, and contracts with corporations and local governments to sustain the organization. The longer a contract takes to generate revenue, the more risk the organization takes on while maintaining its staff for service delivery.
Throughout the months that the Center has navigated these trials, Center staff worked hard to build on our foundation of impact and grow to fulfill the Center’s vision while also investing in the growth and capacity of other Black and Brown led businesses and racial and economic justice organizations. This year, facing stagnant philanthropic investments in our core programs and strategies, and growing costs, we made the decision to prioritize the programs and services that are both driving sustainable mission impact and generating revenue for economic health.
After assessing the changing legal and economic environment, the overt attacks on policies and organizations that have sought to ensure racial equity practices and dismantle historical practices that excluded our capped the progress of Black, Indigenous, Latine and Asian people, the Center recognized an opportunity to right size for continued, sustainable impact. The Center’s Board and staff designed a rightsizing strategy, and in the rightsized model, the Center will reduce its research and consulting offerings, lobbying and advocacy, and continue leading business and government leaders to apply its racial equity standards from the Racial Equity Dividends Index and offer the coaching and advisory services in partnership with an array of consultancy partners. The Center will also continue delivering services in Minnesota, Ohio, and several other states where services were expanded to offer Center tools through the investment of Google and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2022 and 2023.
Ms. Black said, “Ultimately, while an employer never wants to lose talented team members, we realized this is the best decision for the Center and the communities we serve. This restructuring will give us the opportunity to continue building the assets our communities desperately need in the quest for more equitable investments in organizations like ours who are creating measurable change in our communities. As we celebrate the accomplishments of our staff, we amplify the multi-generational life changing impact of our work, and we applaud the leaders whose lives have been changed by our work, and compel them to continue multiplying our impact, together.”
Our organization is fundamentally well-positioned to maximize challenges such as those we face today. We offer products and services that are fundamental to meeting the interests and needs of a rapidly diversifying consumer and business landscape here, and abroad. To meet those needs, we are not only restructuring, but also evaluating the product and pricing mix of our consultancy and business model partnership to ensure it evolves in the most meaningful ways for the organization, the market, and the communities we serve. We are also inviting our philanthropic partners to lean in more closely than ever before as anchors in achieving a shared vision for shared prosperity.
For seven years, we have moved with a speed of urgency. Our pace will continue to match the urgency of the realities of systemic racism that are as deeply embedded in our economy, philanthropy, public policy, and business as it has ever been. Our values will guide our culture, partnerships, and services, as we meet the reality of the moment. We are immensely grateful to our investors and partners who are meeting that pace with acknowledgment of the realities we face together. The time for investing in solutions that dismantle racism, and build new, anti-racist systems has been and is always, now!
So, while we move forward with a smaller footprint, we do so acknowledging that as a Black led and founded, organization, we remain intentional about maintaining a work environment that is healthy, whole, and loving of our community, our colleagues, and ourselves.
We are committed to work in solidarity to continue building the organization that our communities have come to trust, fortified with the reserves we need to weather the tides against justice that will continue to come, while investing deeply in a culture of love, humbly confident learning, shared power, leadership, and accountability.
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About the Center for Economic Inclusion - Headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, the Center for Economic Inclusion is the nation’s leading organization dedicated exclusively to equipping employers with the data, tools, and cultures of accountability to grow the economy by building racial wealth equity. Founded by Tawanna Black in 2017, the Center is a think- and-do tank that helps employers take, measure and scale anti-racist actions to build equitable and inclusive systems, communities, and regional economies. The Center serves communities in Alabama, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Virginia by educating employers and policy makers, advocating for equitable and inclusive policies, investing to build jobs that pay family sustaining wages, and offering transformative tools, consulting, and services.