The Corporate Racial Equity Alliance is animated by the mission to support the evolution of antiracist, equitable corporations that can effectively contribute to building a just, equitable, and healthy nation for all. We focus on igniting the racial equity movement more broadly and deeply in corporate America with strategic guidance for business leaders and lead the development of robust corporate standards for racial equity with a broad-based coalition of partners. Equity is our guiding ethos, and working together — in partnership across sectors — is our key to success.

Learn more about our multi-year effort to embed equity into the DNA of business on our Corporate Standards page.

The Case for Corporate Racial Equity

The Covid-19 pandemic and our long overdue national reckoning on racial injustice have thrust into sharp relief the results of centuries of economic inequality and systemic racism in our nation. Now, as we recover and rebuild, we have an unprecedented opening to shift mindsets and redesign systems and structures that hold back the true promise of our nation— a nation where all people can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential. 

Corporate leaders have a particularly powerful role to play in advancing racial and economic equity. They also have every incentive. Adopting new policies and practices that advance equity—defined as just and fair inclusion into a society in which all can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential—is now a business imperative:

By 2045, people of color will be the majority, including the majority of future employees. Our rising diversity is a tremendous asset to innovation and to market growth, as the buying power of customers of color has grown twice as fast as that of the United States overall in the past 20 years.

According to the National Equity Atlas, racial gaps in income and employment cost this nation $2.3 trillion in 2018 alone, and the trillions in losses keep stacking up every year. On top of this, more than 100 million people in America — half of all people of color — struggle to make ends meet every day.

Compared with civil society and our government, corporate America has unparalleled resources to bring about racial and economic equity. While the nonprofit sector has $1 trillion annually to address social issues and our government has $3 trillion, the private sector has $22 trillion in resources annually.

Workers, customers, communities, and investors all want business leaders to do more on racial and economic equity. According to JUST Capital’s recent polling, 95 percent of Black Americans and 79 percent of Americans overall believe it is important for companies to promote racial diversity and equity in the workplace. And, 81 percent of Black Americans and 64 percent of Americans overall say companies have more work to do to achieve racial equity in America.

Corporate leaders possess unique skills in shifting our legal and regulatory frameworks to their will. When CEOs speak — whether with their dollars or their voices — politicians and lawmakers listen. Those skills, ably directed and wielded, can unlock the public policy wins we need to finally achieve racial and economic equity. 

We are now at a historic inflection point.

The path to racial and economic equity in America will require companies to become agents of equity in all their spheres of influence. 

This is not a left or right issue — this is about a just and equitable future for all.

While many corporate leaders are aligned that racial equity is a moral and economic imperative, we know that many are struggling with what to prioritize, how to adopt enterprise-wide strategies, and how to break through expected (and unexpected) roadblocks within their spheres of influence—their workplaces, their communities, and society—to have lasting impact. Learn more about how our work helps business leaders achieve sustained change and meet the increased leadership expectations of their stakeholders in the years ahead.

Our Partners

We want to work with you to co-create a future in which everyone can thrive. We invite you to join us in supporting the evolution of antiracist, equitable corporations that can effectively contribute to building an equitable and healthy nation for all. Learn more about partnership opportunities.

Thank you to our current partners.