By Dan Cardinali

President and CEO, Independent Sector

It’s inescapable. As we have throughout our history, our country is painfully struggling with issues of racial equity. And the questions before us, individually and collectively, are just as inescapable.
Are we facilitating, or are we frustrating, racial equity in America?

As people of good will in leadership roles, as a community well-positioned to foster racial equity and racial healing, are we moving forward? Hesitating? Acting in opposition?

With the support of a number of philanthropic institutions, particularly the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Independent Sector is choosing to move forward.

We have programmed time and talent for anyone participating in the Independent Sector conference November 16-18 in Washington, DC to:

• Engage in self-reflection, creating a disciplined space in each of our lives to acquire the right perspectives; and
• Work with your conference colleagues to develop a shared vision of what can be done to promote racial healing and racial equity.

As I embark on my tenure at IS, I aspire to make this work an integrated dimension of everything we do. It is hard work and we don’t have all the answers. And we recognize that learning necessarily means we will begin by doing some things well and others less so.

Nonetheless, our conference is an important creative moment where we can be honest and offer each other encouragement to continue on this essential journey. We encourage your involvement and we welcome your thinking along the way.