Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

The Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne lives out its mission by helping people make their charitable giving more impactful, connecting resources to nonprofits through grantmaking and education, and providing leadership to address community needs. We seek and welcome diversity in all our efforts. We believe that maximizing the impact of our mission and fostering a commitment to excellence can best be pursued with a governing body, workforce, donors, grantees, and community partners that include individuals of diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and perspectives.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are embedded in all of our work. We define diversity as all the differences that make us unique, including, but not limited to, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, gender, gender identity, socio-economic status, age, and physical and mental ability. We strive to be equitable and inclusive by honoring the unique needs of each individual and organization we work with and providing equitable access to resources and opportunities.

We respect and celebrate the unique needs and diversity contributing to a healthy and caring community. The Community Foundation commits its resources to facilitate and enable change that is inclusive of groups with diverse cultures, philosophies, and experiences. We believe a community where everyone has the opportunity to thrive will only happen when every voice is heard and respected and all our neighbors can dream fearlessly.

What We’re Doing (As of Spring 2025)

We know we don’t have all the answers, but we are committed to the ongoing work of building a more inclusive and equitable community—and we’re sharing our progress here.

Our passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) drives us to listen, learn, educate, and influence. This page is updated at least once a year to reflect the steps we’ve taken toward our DEI goals.

Since our Vision Plan launched in 2019, the Community Foundation has integrated Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion across all our work — from donor engagement to nonprofit partnerships to internal operations. We strive to live out this commitment daily through every interaction.

Learning Through Shared Humanity

We’ve spent the past six years, alongside staff, board members, and community participants, engaged in Fort Wayne United’s United Front initiative.

Key impacts:

• Gained a shared language around inclusion and equity
• Applied what we’ve learned to our workplace culture
• Fostered open dialogue in breakout groups and staff reflections
• Built deeper relationships across our community

This journey continues to shape how we connect and collaborate.

Advancing the Work of the Women’s Fund

Launched in 2019, the Women’s Fund of Greater Fort Wayne addresses opportunity gaps for women and girls, regardless of place, race, or identity.

In 2025, we celebrate five years of progress across three focus areas:

1. Economic Security

• 2022: Released the Women in the Workplace report on women in leadership, women’s compensation, benefits, policies available to women, and equitable hiring and retention practices.
• 2024: A record 75 Allen County employers completed our annual survey, helping track progress in key areas that lead to economic security for women.

2. Personal Safety

• 2022: Launched the No Matter What campaign, partnered with Allen County restaurants to provide resources for survivors of sexual violence via discreet, QR-code linked restroom stickers, drink coasters, and cup sleeves
• 2023: Helped establish a Domestic Violence Court within the Allen County court system to help provide support to victims of domestic violence

3. Young Women & Girls

• 2022: Held three focus groups to explore issues impacting young women and girls (ages 12–24)
• Findings have sparked new collaborations among youth-serving nonprofits that support young women and girls in these age ranges

 

Workplace Equity Certification

In 2022, we partnered with Ellequate, an award-winning cohort-based employer certification program for workplace equity. Ellequate helps employers redesign workplace systems to support the whole employee, promote behavioral change, and strengthen organizational culture.

What we gained:

• A framework to move from talking about equity to having an action plan
• Identification of gaps and opportunities for growth in creating an inclusive culture

Certification Milestones:

• Bronze Certified: December 2022
• Silver Certified: December 2024

Our approach emphasizes:

• Systemic Change: embedding fairness, equity, inclusion, and representation into our policies and practices — creating lasting change, not special treatment.
• Authentic Commitment: We prioritize honest, empathetic conversations over superficial politeness and reject DEI as box-checking. We’re addressing systemic inequities by auditing hiring, pay, and promotion practices.

The result: Stronger decision-making, innovation, and organizational culture.

 

Leadership Diversity

Our Governance Committee annually reviews the demographics of our board and volunteer committees, comparing them with Allen County data to ensure alignment with the community’s diversity.

We also:

• Evaluate the lived experience, skills, and perspectives needed on grants and scholarships committees
• Prioritize recruiting members who reflect our community’s diversity

 

Equitable Grantmaking

In the past three years, we’ve revamped our grantmaking programs to promote equity and prioritize fairness in distributing grantmaking dollars.

What’s changed:

• Simplified grant applications
• Program and operational funding opportunities are available
• Recognizing board and staff diversity as key components of organizational health
• Emphasized trust-based relationships with grantees

 

Listening to Our Community

We welcome input from everyone. Your voices help us continue to listen, learn, educate, and influence — to create a community where everyone belongs, thrives, and contributes.