Darren Walker has been at the Ford Foundation since 2010. He’s been the foundation’s president for the past eight years, overseeing a $16.5bn endowment and championing what he’s called “a new gospel of wealth.” He’s also called on his philanthropic peers to work towards “dismantling racial inequality and white supremacy in all its forms,” a motif that you’ll see reflected in his answers to this week’s 3 Questions With.
What would you do if you had more power?
DW: Many Americans who are working harder than ever increasingly feel that they are falling further behind. It’s imperative that those in power actively use their place of privilege to advocate for change, shining a light on the disparities that continue to plague our society.
What do you find yourself recommending to everyone right now?
DW: There are so many voices and perspectives that can help us learn and do better to make the world a more equitable place. I recommend reading books such as Ursula M. Burns’ “Where You Are is Not Who You Are” where she shares her unique experience being the first Black female CEO of a Fortune 500 company, her insights on American business and corporate life, and the obstacles she’s conquered being Black and a woman.
We also need to educate ourselves on where we are in the world when it comes to representation and access to opportunity, so we can understand how we can take concrete steps forward to achieve positive change. For example, the Ford Foundation and its partners supported a landmark study on the prevalence and portrayal of Muslim characters on screen, which examined 200 top movies in the U.S. and reveals the scope of the problem facing Muslims in the entertainment industry, and why we need to increase the presence of Muslim voices in storytelling.
Who’s someone whose work more people should know about?
DW: At the Ford Foundation, we have the privilege to partner with trailblazers all across the world who are fighting for social justice. From groups like the Black Feminist Fund which works to create a network of support around key issues that impact Black women around the globe, to Connecticut State Treasurer Shaun Wooden and the Corporate Call to Action to facilitate concrete action by corporate CEOs to improve diversity within their companies and addressing racial economic disparities in the U.S.
On Point
“Social unrest has brought everybody’s values right to the surface” Joanne C. Crevoiserat is the CEO of Tapestry, the fashion conglomerate that houses Kate Spade, Coach, and Stuart Weitzman. Last week, Tapestry said it would be raising its minimum wage for US employees to at least $15 an hour across the three brands, and that starting next year it would tie 10% of executive compensation to progress on what it calls “equity, diversity and inclusion” goals. “When you tie it to compensation, everybody thinks about it. And I need everybody in the organization thinking about this every day,” Crevoiserat, who was the company CFO before taking on the CEO role, told me. On mask mandates and how the company is thinking about the Delta variant, Crevoiserat emphasized that they were “staying close to the science” and taking cues from their customer-facing teams. “Our teams have told us in recent weeks that they’re uncomfortable being in our stores without masks on, and we went back to masking. Our first priority is to keep our associates safe,” she said.
Is your vaccine mandate equitable? In a sign of just how serious companies are about protecting their people, CNN fired three employees who turned up at work unvaccinated, in violation of policy. While we’ve established that requiring employees to disclose their vaccination status is not a HIPAA violation, what’s much less clear is whether companies and organizations are actively and explicitly ensuring that it’s possible for employees to readily comply with vaccine mandates. In an excellent thread on Twitter, New York Times labor reporter Noam Scheiber laid out some of the issues and concerns unions have been raising on behalf of their members on this front. One issue alluded to in that thread, and a significant consideration for people in retail and for gig workers of all stripes, is a lack of paid time off and inflexible or unpredictable shift schedules. Under a provision of the American Rescue Plan announced in April, companies with fewer than 500 employees and self-employed individuals are eligible for tax credits for “for leave taken by employees who are not able to work or telework due to reasons related to COVID-19, including leave taken to receive COVID–19 vaccinations or to recover from any injury, disability, illness or condition related to the vaccinations.” The window for that credit is currently due to expire on September 30, 2021.
An Olympian and an NFT On Friday, Allyson Felix became the most decorated female track and field athlete of all time when she won the bronze medal in the 400m race in Tokyo. Before that race, Felix had already tied the record held by Jamaican sprinter Merlene Ottey. In a very 2021 move, Felix and her team have designed an NFT featuring a digital rendition of her custom racing spikes, and will be auctioning off both the digital art and the spikes she wore to win the bronze. The proceeds of the auction will benefit a fund that supports athletes who need to pay for childcare.
On Background
“You can do it, just do the work, figure it out” In July, Fortune hosted its quarterly Connect Summit that gathered executives from its community of Connect Fellows for a day of talks, workshops, and keynotes on the theme of “Radical Collaboration.” During one of the Connect discussions moderated by Ellen McGirt, the panelists riffed on the question of how brands and organizations can meaningfully (as opposed to extractively) engage with different kinds of people, communities, and cultures. I appreciated what Bukky Ojeifo, Twitter’s senior manager for global culture and community had to say about this: “Oftentimes if you're not a part of a community, or you don't understand it, or you haven't done all your due diligence and you haven't immersed yourself in the culture, you sometimes feel like, well can we do it? And the answer is yes, you can do it! Just do the work, figure it out and make sure that you are in partnership and collaboration with those who have the lived experiences that can guide you along the way, so that you can do your work but also support the communities that you're looking to connect with.”
“It was literally burned to the ground” The closing session of the Connect Summit featured Darren Walker in a wide-ranging conversation with Ellen. Among the topics discussed: the profound and historical structural barriers facing Black communities trying to generate wealth for their communities. “We know what happened when it became clear just how successful this community was,” Walker said, referring to the Tulsa massacre that destroyed generations of Black wealth. “That history is regrettably still with us.” Ford is committing $1bn of its endowment to support minority-owned funds that are investing in minority-owned businesses, Walker said, and challenged other asset managers to do the same.
Mood board / The Big Move
