Global Gifts - Justice Equity Diversity Inclusion (JEDI) Committee Charter
The Global Gifts JEDI Committee is dedicated to integrating the principles of social justice and inclusion to further Global Gifts’ mission and vision. The Committee will focus on incorporating equity, justice, and allyship into the way the organization operates, moving strategic priorities to be more in line with the principles and values that we espouse.
The Committee will actively encourage Global Gifts stakeholders (board, staff, and volunteers) to participate in and contribute to these activities and conversations, recognizing that truly effective justice, equity, and diversity work is never finished.
In the context of this charter, and as defined by this committee, Justice means human rights. Allyship means we support efforts to achieve human rights by speaking out and standing up for human rights. Inclusion means anyone disadvantaged by their ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, socio-economic background, and including reproductive rights and body autonomy.
The problems:
1. Global Gifts lacks diversity in its board, staff, and volunteer base.
2. Staff lacks direction on distinguishing between political issues and human rights issues such as racial justice, and how to communicate about it internally and to the public.
3. As an organization, we need to learn about and understand how implicit bias is guiding our decision making, and how we can break this cycle to be more just, inclusive, and diverse.
The goals:
1. More diversity in board membership, staff, and volunteer base. Clear commitment to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in hiring and volunteer participation.
2. A clear directive from the board on when and how to communicate to stakeholders (customers, volunteers, staff, and board) on issues that are relevant to our mission, and when they are not relevant and should be avoided. (We agreed human rights are relevant at a previous board meeting.) As a 501c3, we need staff and volunteers to be informed about what we are not allowed to share– such as support for political parties or candidates.
3. Marketing with a clear commitment to justice and equity when sharing about artisans, as an example: informed consent when using images of artisans and their stories.
4. Ongoing monitoring of organization communications and marketing, and evaluating for implicit bias, with recommendations for improvement to staff.
5. Ongoing education of staff, volunteers, and board on implicit bias, cultural competency, and best practices, and keeping informed on current events and how they may relate to our mission.
Read our JEDI Committee Charter Here.