Announcing our Black and Indigenous-owned Business Program
At Culture Amp, our mission is to build a better world of work. And to quote CEO Didier Elzinga, “that requires we build a better world.” As part of our focus on making a world where everyone can thrive, we have made a commitment and a plan to evolve as an anti-racist organization. Because we believe in sustainable change, our plan first prioritized evolving our internal culture and environment for Black and Indigenous Campers (that’s what we call our employees!) to build a solid foundation for the future.
My inspiration for progress
As we’ve begun rolling out our anti-racism commitments, one of the messages that have been resoundingly clear is that we each have a unique and vital role in helping Culture Amp – and our more than 2,750 global customers – root out White supremacy and anti-Blackness from our structures, processes, ways of collaborating, and how we do business.
As I watched our Juneteenth All Camp meeting, where we shared our 2020 Anti-Racism Plan, I realized that there was more I personally could do to support the Black and Indigenous communities as VP of Account Management. My team looks after our current customers, so we have a direct impact on our business operations. I also sit on our Sales Leadership Team, thus I have a way of impacting current and future customers.
As I reflected, I got stuck on one question: while we’re focusing on our internal culture and processes, why can’t we also think about the ways to better support the Black and Indigenous business communities?
The answer is that we can. And we are.
Announcing our Black and Indigenous-owned Business Program
This month, we're announcing a new business discount for Black and Indigenous-owned organizations that are Culture Amp customers. Beginning today, Black and Indigenous-owned organizations will be given a 38% discount on the standard price for our products. This discount represents the most significant discount we currently offer and reflects the $0.38 wage gap between Black women and White men.
We know that all organizations are better when they can listen to their employees and take action based on that feedback. We know that Culture Amp’s tools are essential to parts of that journey for many businesses, and we want to ensure that Black and Indigenous-led organizations can effectively listen to and support their employees while ensuring that these businesses are able to retain more of their revenue and re-invest it in their business growth and employee experience. Fundamentally, this is our way of keeping more money in the Black and Indigenous economic ecosystem.
We also recognize that not all organizations that support, empower, and uplift the Black and Indigenous communities are profit-oriented. While Culture Amp already provides significant discounts to non-profit and educational institutions, we wanted a way to recognize the specific history of exclusion, discrimination, and disempowerment that the Black and Indigenous communities have faced and do our part to help them be effective in their mission.
To that end, in the coming months, we will introduce a grant program that will provide our products free of charge to non-profit organizations focused on racial justice and uplifting the Black and Indigenous communities. Please watch this space, and our anti-racism resources, for more details.
(Hopefully) Frequently asked questions
What businesses qualify?
Culture Amp customers that are 51% or greater owned by Black and/or Indigenous people or groups are eligible for the discount.
What discount is available?
Culture Amp offers a flat 38% discount to Black and Indigenous-owned businesses to recognize the $0.38 wage gap between Black women and White men. While this data is drawn from the United States, we will apply this discount globally.
What groups qualify as Black and Indigenous globally?
We have attempted to create categorization based on appropriate regional practices, definitions, and histories:
- Americas: Black, African American, First Nations, Native American / American Indian, Native Hawai’ian, and Alaskan Native
- EMEA: Black British, Black Caribbean, or Black African
- APAC: Black African, First Nations / Indigenous
How can my business get this discount?
All of our customer-facing sales teams (i.e., Account Executives and Account Managers) are able to support you in getting this discount. Please disclose this information to a member of our Sales team during your discussions, and we will automatically apply this discount to your purchase price. For current customers, we will apply this discount to your next renewal once you reach out.
Why is Culture Amp providing this discount to Black and Indigenous-owned businesses – and not businesses owned by other historically marginalized or underrepresented groups?
Our anti-racism work is based on the theory of equitable design, which explicitly prioritizes considering and designing for the experience of people with multiple marginalized identities (especially Black women, based on Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality). We know that when we provide resources for the Black and Indigenous communities, all of our communities are stronger, so we’re beginning this work with this specific focus.
We will review our organizational justice practices and programs periodically and will provide updates as relevant to ongoing evolutions of this program.
