Resilia’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Report 2023

Mission

At Resilia, we are driven by a common purpose: to “power the people who are changing the world.” 

Our mission is to strengthen the capacity of nonprofits and help funders scale impact through our platform. We believe the future of grantmaking is connected. Our two-sided platform empowers grantmakers and nonprofits to maximize and track their collective impact. Today, we work with more than 75 foundations using Resilia to empower 3,000+ nonprofit organizations. 

Vision

Our vision is to transform the sector through partnerships with 20,000+ funders and nonprofits. We aspire to create gathering places where funders and nonprofits come together to connect, learn, grow, and track their impact. 

As part of our theory of change, we aim to promote equitable philanthropic practices and support a significant number of historically marginalized communities. We also understand that sustained capacity building takes time and seek to serve as a partner every step of the way.

Letter of Introduction

Our Early Years and Evolution

Resilia was founded in 2016 to support the nonprofit sector, which employes nearly 15% of the United States workforce and has been chronically underserved by technology.  In our early days, we offered nonprofit formation services and a direct-to-nonprofit software platform for early stage, grassroots nonprofits, many of which were BIPOC-led and serving.

Over time, we have expanded from a direct-to-nonprofit platform to a double-sided platform serving both nonprofits and funders. As we have built new features with broad appeal, like AI storytelling and goals, we now proudly serve 3,000+ nonprofits from early stage to advanced organizations across multiple issue areas (e.g., health, education, civic engagement, performing arts). In addition, we have established dozens of partnerships with corporate foundations, community foundations, state and municipal governments, and large public charities. 

Where We’re Headed 

I was first introduced to Resilia in 2021 when Framework, a venture capital firm where I was a Partner, decided to invest in Resilia. Fast forward and in 2023, I joined Resilia full-time as our new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). In my first 60 days, I met with 60 employees and customers to understand how we are working to bring our bold vision to life. 

Through these conversations and many since, my belief in the important work Resilia is doing has been continuously reaffirmed. I have also come to realize that promoting equity in the industry means prioritizing it in our own culture first. Over the past few quarters, we’ve been making significant investments in bringing our internal diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices in alignment with our deeply held beliefs and values about the importance of DEI work.  

In this inaugural Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Report, we are sharing what’s working, what still needs work, and the initiatives we’re focusing on to continue to build a workplace where all employees can flourish. We’re also publishing employee diversity demographic information as part of a broader effort to own our own journey with this work.

Some of our most notable accomplishments thus far include:

• Establishing a total rewards philosophy and implementing standard compensation and benefits practices to increase equitable pay. We now post salaries on all job descriptions, have 92% of team members in the compensation range for their role and level, and have increased our satisfaction with pay transparency from 14% to 78%. 
• Forming a DEI Steering Committee with representation from a diverse set of Resilia team members to proactively inform and guide our diversity, equity, and inclusion work. This group tackled 10 initiatives in their first 6 month term that helped us progress from a Level 1 to a Level 2 on the Bersin by Deloitte DEI Maturity Model. 

Thank you for your interested in reading our inaugural Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Report. 

Barbara Dirks

CEO, Resilia

Diversity Demographic Information

Diversity, equity, and inclusion work is ingrained in our operating principles through our commitment to elevate equity. Starting in 2024, we began publishing our diversity demographic information to own our own journey of building a diverse and inclusive workplace. 

Methodology

We collect self-reported diversity demographic data from all full-time and part-time Resilians. We do not collect diversity demographic data from contractors or temporary employees (e.g., interns). Executive Management is defined as VP and above. Management is defined as a people manager at the Director level and below. There is no overlap between individuals classified in Management and Executive Management. Technical is all Software Engineers and Data & Analytics team members, including Management and Executive Management. Non-technical is all other roles. 

The data included in this report is up to date as of February 29, 2024 and will be refreshed on an annual basis moving forward. We started collecting diversity demographic data in December 2023. We expect to compare future data to historical data starting in 2025. 

Listen and Act

Since Resilia’s employee base already exceeds the B2B tech industry average for diversity demographic representation for most underrepresented identity characteristics* and we were not hiring for a high volume of roles, we chose to focus our early initiatives on listening to understand how to we create a more inclusive and equitable work environment where all team members have opportunities for career advancement.

In May 2023, we launched our first semi-annual 50+ question engagement survey titled “Resilience @ Resilia.” At that time, our overall engagement score was 63 (bottom 25th percentile for Software/IT companies). We received almost 600 comments that our people operations and leadership team reviewed and responded to. We used these responses to formulate a company-wide engagement action plan, which included but was not limited to collecting workforce diversity demographic data, conducting an equity analysis (e.g. wage gap analysis),  establishing career growth frameworks, developing promotion standards, and rolling out a performance review rating scale.

Since then, our engagement score has increased to and remained at 73 (50th percentile for Software/IT companies). Specific accomplishments include that belief in senior leadership commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging for all employees has improved by 18% and the sentiment that performance is evaluated fairly has improved by 28%. However, over the same period of time, belief that the company is demographically diverse decreased 43%.

In October 2023, we welcomed our new CEO, Barbara Dirks, who met with 60 employees and customers in her first 60 days. Shortly thereafter we launched a Culture Working Group made-up of a team of cross-functional Resilians who worked to collaboratively revamp our company values and establish what are now known as our operating principles.

We also engaged a third-party diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting firm, Hyphens and Spaces, to conduct a series of internal surveys, host leadership training sessions, and facilitate a restorative conversation followed by an action planning session. 

Starting in 2024, we began hosting monthly Gather Round sessions where any employee can drop-in and share feedback on a specific topic. Once per quarter, these sessions focus on an element of DEI at work. Since we know not all employees will feel comfortable attending identifiable feedback sessions, we also partnered with AllVoices to launch an anonymous reporting platform. 

* Resilia has higher than B2B Tech industry average representation of women, LGBTQ+, and individuals living with disabilities at all levels. We also exceed the median age for the industry. However, we have lower than industry average representation of veterans at all levels (0%) and do not have the degree of Black or African American and Hispanic or Latino representation in management and leadership that we’d like to reach. 

Strengthen People Operations Programs

In 2023, we transitioned applicant tracking systems to be able to start tracking diversity demographic data of job applicants, how they convert through our recruiting funnel, and how satisfied they are with their experience. This data is fundamental to being able to build a recruiting process that not only attracts, but retains, strong diversity demographic representation.

We also launched a major total rewards initiative to enhance our salary transparency, increase the percentage of our team members who have and are within established and benchmarked pay bands for their role, and advance pay equity. As of May 2024, 92% of employees are within their pay band and 100% of employees can see the pay ranges for their career track.   

In January 2024, we established our Diversity, Equity, and Steering Committee, which is staffed by Resilians from across the company and supported by both our CEO and Senior People Operations Manager. We’ve partnered with members of this committee to more fully embed DEI across numerous people operations programs. In a few examples, we’ve updated our 6-part Resilia Manager Training Program to incorporate inclusion callouts, reviewed our employee journey map to identify moments for inclusion, and integrated demographic data into our engagement survey to better understand the experiences of individuals from different backgrounds. 

Engage Senior Leadership and Management Commitment

To hold managers and leaders accountable, we updated our management and leadership career growth framework to include specific DEI competencies, such as “You prioritize and empower others to create inclusive and psychologically safe environments where people can ask others for help, make mistakes and learn from mistakes.” We also began hosting monthly Management Guilds that cover a range of topics to help managers continue building skills over time. Some of the topics we’ve covered include psychological safety, individual development plans, and team member recognition.

Product Development

Beyond our workforce development initiatives, we’ve also made significant enhancements to expand the impact of our platform for funders and nonprofits, many of whom promote equity-focused initiatives and community-oriented work. 

Some of our major platform enhancements and milestones this year include:

• Launching our in-app Community and bringing 4,000+ nonprofit professionals together
• Helped nonprofits tell dozens of impact stories to their local communities with Resilia's storytelling and annual report feature
• Supported nonprofits in raising tens of thousands of dollars with our Donations platform, including smart AI optimizer features that typically improve our users' take rate by 8% over those who don't use the AI optimizer
• Provided more than 7,000 hours of live training content, including group coaching sessions, accelerators, peer to peers, and more. 

What’s Next

An outline of the organization's strategic plans for the upcoming year or years, indicating its future direction, goals, and anticipated challenges. To include the biggest areas where we still need to see improvement and what we’re doing about it.

Thank you for taking the time to read our diversity, equity, and inclusion report. 

At Resilia, we understand that driving equity within the sector means holding it in our hearts and prioritizing it in our own culture first. This work is and will always be ongoing. 

If you have questions on practices that Resilia has implemented or suggestions to improve our diversity, equity, and inclusion work, please reach out to a member of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Steering Committee, ask a question at an All Hands Q&A Session, and/or email [email protected].