A letter from Larry Kramer, President and CEO of the Hewlett Foundation

Dear All:

I know from conversations I have had with each of you over the past year or so that we are all looking in different ways in our organizations to address the wide array of issues associated with diversity, equity, and inclusion. The subject touches on everything from hiring to internal culture to grantee selection to grantmaking strategy to board selection to internal processes and more.  And as CEOs, we must uniquely wrestle with all these issues. Each of our organizations has emphasized different aspects, and each of us has (presumably) looked for approaches and solutions that fit our particular foundations. And, if your experience is anything like mine, there are very few people with whom to discuss all this who really understands the full array of considerations we’re all grappling with.

I recently met with Keecha Harris, of KHA, Inc., a consultancy organization that includes an equity lens as a central part of its approach.  We have worked with Keecha on a number of different projects in a number of different programs and always found her work to be thoughtful and helpful.  She recently spoke to me about an idea to create a space for CEOs to meet and discuss and learn—both about what we are each doing and what there may be out there that we are missing.  The idea is briefly discussed below (the proposed dates are just that—proposed—and can change based on who else participates and when they are available).

I think this could be a really useful forum and agreed to provide some support and to help Keecha reach out to other funders. I always find meetings with my fellow CEOs and EDs enormously useful, and one focused on these particularly delicate issues could be really helpful.

Best,

Larry