High-quality feedback loops create trusting relationships where clients and service providers are equal, respected players in change-making. By building quality feedback loops, we can create the space for people to share their honest concerns and opinions about equity and advocate for inclusive change. When these concerns are respected and responded to, feedback can be a force for equity. But it must be done right.
This page includes a few quick examples of times that feedback has contributed to diversity, equity and inclusion goals. We also share thoughts from global leaders in the Feedback & Equity blog series, and stories from our friends at the Fund for Shared Insight in their #Feedback4Equity campaign.
When listening to community needs after the September 2017 earthquakes in México, Fondo Semillas decided to prioritize women’s needs that had been long ignored. Read more.
In response to feedback, an arts nonprofit changed its programming to offer a better experience for Black and Latinx clients. Read more.
Local governments are encouraged to prioritize feedback from marginalized groups in India through the 100 Hotspots Program. Read more.
Would you like to read more great examples? In this special 2019-2020 blog series, leaders from around the feedback community grapple with the tough questions and hard work that go into ensuring feedback drives us toward a more equitable future.
Melvin Bridgmon | January 6, 2021 The story of Outreach Chicago’s (OC) leader Melvin Bridgmon is a long and complicated one. Formerly, a homeless veteran for 15 years, he has suffered from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) for quite awhile. During the darkest moments of his life, it was the homeless intervention specialist that found…
Girls share their experiences as Black girls with muralist Austin Miles to help her create a mural for the Mending Walls Project based on their feedback. Angela Patton | November 13, 2020 Black girls are one of the most untapped resources we have in this country. They are underestimated, under celebrated, and face issues that…
Natasha Abrol | August 3, 2020 When the Black Lives Matter protests began this year, my university’s debate union, a community that never misses an opportunity to talk about its commitment to social justice, did not hesitate to send out a letter from the coaches committing to do more to support anti-racism efforts. When students…
Isadora Hastings February 12, 2020 At Cooperacion Comunitaria, we work to help vulnerable communities rebuild private and public spaces post-disaster in Mexico. One of the keys to this process is tuning in to the needs of indigenous communities and honoring their traditional knowledge, even as they may consider adapting or adding new technologies as they…
Yotam Polizer January 22, 2020 As migrants fleeing conflict arrive on the shore of Levos Island, Greece, IsraAID is there to meet them. They provide emergency medical assistance and psychological first aid for the thousands of people who have left their livelihoods behind and made a dangerous journey across the Mediterranean. IsraAID also works with…
Samuel Addai-Boateng | December 4, 2019 Ghanaians, like many other Africans, define equity as the level of fairness in the way people and groups are treated in relation to an issue. And like the rest of the world, while we understand the value of inclusivity and ensuring that the perspectives of all interest groups are…
I work for Polaris, where one of our primary programs is operating the National Human Trafficking Hotline for human trafficking (among other work we do in the field such as policy advocacy).
There’s a very real movement happening right now around equity, diversity, and recognizing power dynamics that are hard-wired into philanthropy. These issues have existed for decades, but people are now getting more comfortable discussing things directly and that’s a good thing.
Valerie Threlfall and June WangNovember 8, 2019 What kind of feedback promotes equity? The Listen4Good team at Fund for Shared Insight is wrestling with this question. We care deeply about its answer for two reasons. At Listen4Good, we are all about high-quality feedback loops – we’ve spent the past four years supporting more than 200…
Fondo Semilas is a feminist fund: we are focused on listening to women’s voices and needs to move towards greater gender equity. We gather funds from other organizations and individual donors around the world and re-grant them to
We are publishing the blog anonymously at the request of the author, who is undocumented and living in the United States. In this powerful piece, they detail what it’s like to give feedback from a precarious position and be met with inaction.
When I first started working with Feedback Labs and they asked about our “Feedback Loop,” I had to google the term to see what it meant. I work with SHAPE Community Center and “feedback” usually takes place with one party saying, “Hey, I’ve been meaning to talk to you.”
As Dennis and I were discussing developing and launching an inclusivity and feedback series, he mentioned how he’s looking forward to feedback leading to a two-way generative conversation. I looked at him, and said honestly, “I don’t feel everyone’s opinions need to be equal in conversations on inclusion and equity.”
For me, feedback has always been about inclusion and equity, though I realize that the link is not always clear – or automatic. So as I step back from my day-to-day duties as CEO of Feedback Labs, I would like….
If you would like to learn more about the connection between feedback and equity, also check out work from our friends at Fund for Shared Insight.
Do you have a story or idea you would like to share about the connection between equity and feedback? Please send us a message at [email protected]. We would like to include your voice in this conversation.
