The following statement can be attributed to Color Of Change:

“Since 2020, Color Of Change has grown rapidly and become a bridge to action for millions of people across the country. From high school students and first-time marchers to century-old institutional leaders and political and corporate decision-makers, people turned to Color Of Change and its rapidly growing staff for guidance on how to respond to the unprecedented crisis of COVID and the unique opportunity of the racial justice uprisings. The racial justice and American democracy victories Color Of Change staff worked together to win in this period were many and often historic: Color Of Change co-led one of the largest boycotts in American history, taking on Facebook while winning policy changes across other major social media platforms. We helped win criminal justice changes at the local and national level, changed Hollywood representations of Black people and the justice system, and engaged millions of Black voters to demand racial justice. We also shifted corporate policies through our #BeyondTheStatement campaign, and exposed rampant racial discrimination in the federal Paycheck Protection Program. In many ways, this moment reflected the best of what our organization can be and we’ve only continued to do more of this powerful work since.

But those hard-won achievements came with an intense challenge: aligning our organizational values with a workplace culture struggling to balance rapid growth and a transition to virtual working during a high-intensity moment. In this context, problems, sometimes serious ones, arose that we were not able to prevent. This included an allegation of sexual assault and allegations of harrassment that demanded immediate action. We took this seriously and personally. We have always – and will always – respond with urgency when made aware of abuse or mistreatment. Every allegation was investigated thoroughly and responded to urgently; individuals who broke our trust by violating our principles were held accountable (including removal from their jobs); and we created dozens of new policies that set clearer expectations that allowed us to respond more easily should problems arise in the future. Make no mistake, we are not done yet. In fact, like the racial justice movement itself, we expect to constantly be improving and evolving to make things better. 

Already we’ve begun to take our internal change work a step further: through an organization-wide culture change and strategic alignment process that has included audits of our internal practices, realignment of our programmatic work and a focus on preventing problems that inhibit our continued growth and success. We are proud that this period of challenge and evolution has also coincided with support for the Color Of Change staff who expressed interest in joining a union. In line with our organizational values, Color Of Change quickly and voluntarily recognized their union and has done everything in our power to expedite the bargaining process. 

Like so many individuals and institutions, we have needed to evolve in the years since COVID and racial justice uprisings. We have taken stock of our losses, found fortitude in our triumphs, and are focused on building and rebuilding, even as we face down new challenges arriving each day. A precipitous and sudden drop in philanthropic giving across the sector has forced us to reevaluate all of our activities and priorities while still working to strengthen our internal culture.

This economic and cultural shift has forced us to make additional internal changes, including recent layoffs, in order to protect the long-term sustainability of the organization. We are not alone in having to face hard choices in this period, and we will continue to do the hard work of leadership to ensure Color Of Change is strong in the years to come when our work and leadership will be needed. 

When the organization was named Color Of Change we implicitly acknowledged a critical fact of our future: change will be the constant. Today, we are bolder, wiser, and more committed than ever to building a world-class organization where our employees thrive while doing the most meaningful work of their careers: building power that delivers real change for Black people.”

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