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Our DEIJ Commitment

Mangrove’s Statement on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice

Mangrove Web Development is working to be a company that actively engages in anti-oppression work, and makes diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) a core part of our operations. We acknowledge that generations of oppression, wealth extraction, classism and racism have created a wholly unjust economy and system of privilege, including within the tech industry.

It’s our responsibility to consciously work within our business to dismantle the practices and cultures that perpetuate oppression of our employees, contractors, partners and community. We are heavily focused on engaging specifically in anti-racism work, as racism is one of the most pervasive aspects of oppression in the U.S. today. However, as a tech company, we must also address the persistent sexism, ableism, classism, heterosexism, and other oppressions that exist in the tech industry. Audre Lorde said, “there is no such thing as a single-issue struggle, as we do not live single-issue lives.” Thus, we are committed to a race-forward approach that also accounts for the other facets of oppression that impact staff, contractors, and clients.

Mangrove pursues diversity, equity, and inclusion and justice in all parts of our ecosystem.

  1. At Mangrove: Diversity, equity, inclusion and justice are a cornerstone of our operations. This includes how we show up as individuals, how we treat each other as a team, and how we structure and share power. We must always strive to be an antiracist and anti-oppression organization. We commit to creating a culture of fully noticing characteristics of white supremacy culture*  in our organization and surfacing them regularly and directly.
  2. In our professional circles: One way we realize our commitment to using our website development skills “for good” is to prioritize working with and supporting clients, partners, and collaborators from underrepresented communities.  This includes seeking out clients and relationships with organizations led by folks who identify as Black, Indigenous, non-Black people of color, women, non-binary, LGBTQIA+, disabled, and people of other marginalized identities.
  3. In the tech industry: The technology industry is infamously inequitable – predominantly made up of white, cis, male, able-bodied individuals. We commit, as a company, to take specific actions to increase opportunities for people excluded from employment in the tech industry. Mangrove specifically focuses on providing employment opportunities for people who identify as Black, Indigenous, non-Black people of color, women, non-binary, LGBTQIA+, disabled, or any other underrepresented group. We also donate time and money to programs specifically working to level the playing field including Hack the Hood, Tech Equity, Black Girls Code, and Tech by Choice.

Focusing on white supremacy culture

In May 2021 our leadership team completed a Dismantling White Supremacy learning cohort with several other B Corps as part of the Hella Social Impact Intensive. The 6-week training emphasized the generational and multidimensional effects of white supremacy culture within the workplace and gave us a framework for how to “Notice, Name, and Dismantle™” these characteristics when we see them.

We learned that some of the cultural norms at Mangrove uphold standards of perfectionism, power hoarding, and a sense of urgency. While it can sometimes be difficult to admit that these norms exist within our culture, we have learned to approach these conversations as an opportunity to improve and provide better paths forward for all of our team members.

The team is working toward using Hella’s Notice, Name, Dismantle™ framework to address racial equity and also expanding the framework to the widest range of inequities that we see present within our organization.

The Hella team defines this framework as:

Notice: “Your company’s ability to see and believe the experiences of racially marginalized groups. To understand that a system of white supremacy is based on a number of lies that must be unlearned in order to see the truth of systemic racism.”

Name: “Your company’s ability to speak the truth of racism and white supremacy, to call out harm, and to hold yourself and others accountable to the work of anti-racism.”

Dismantle: “Your company’s ability to radically change and/or eliminate policies and structures that cause harm to Black and Non-Black people of color and to replace them with policies and structures focused on equity and full inclusion.”

 

Highlights of Mangrove’s DEI work to date

  1. Our annual business goals call for us to achieve a percentage of revenue from businesses owned by female or non-binary folks, people of color, and people from other marginalized groups. Another goal calls for us to achieve a percentage of revenue from purpose-driven organizations, which include clients that work to further local and global diversity, equity and inclusion.
  2. Our annual business goals call for us to maintain or increase diversity on our team to remain at 33% “non-white” and 60% female or non-binary. To accomplish this, we re-engineered our hiring process.
    As of the end of 2023:
    27% of our team identify as non-white.
    25% of our leadership team identify as non-white.
    67% of our core team identify as female or non-binary.
    57% of our development team identify as female or non-binary.
    75% of our leadership team identify as female or non-binary.
  3. In 2021, we narrowed our commitment to partnerships and giving (pro bono and financial donations) to focus more on organizations that specifically work to address tech industry inequities.
  4. Since 2016, our corporate giving strategy has included organizations whose missions aim to increase diversity in the tech industry. In 2021, we decided to narrow our philanthropy to only include such organizations.
  5. In 2018, we added a service offering to conduct website audits for compliance with ADA accessibility standards.
  6. In 2021-22, we are working to shift company culture to dismantle some of the white supremacy norms we observed. Monthly team workshops have included topics like shared decision-making, reassessment of company values, and an all-team revision of this DEI statement.
  7. In 2022, we are re-examining our past practice of classifying female-owned/led organizations in the same bucket as “minority-owned” businesses which was established to mirror the categories tracked by the BCorp Impact Assessment. However, while female-owned/led businesses are a minority in the business world, there are still many privileges that a cis/white woman has that differ from BIPOC-led/owned and LGBTQ-led/owned orgs.
  8. In 2020 we made Juneteenth a company-wide day of reflection, celebration, and rest. We also match donations during the week of Juneteenth to Black-owned businesses and organizations, and reimburse any team members for company-sponsored meals on Juneteenth from a Black-owned business.

Next steps

In 2022, we set ourselves the goal of creating Mangrove’s 5-year plan for diversity, equity, and inclusion, including key performance indicators.

In 2022, we also hope to expand on our learnings from the Hella Social Impact cohort so that our entire team can feel confident in their understanding of the “Notice, Name, Dismantle™” framework.  Our goal is that everyone is able to use the framework as a tool to communicate inequities within our organization and amongst individual team members, and have support in proactively addressing these issues.

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