How can you ensure your VC firm's diversity and inclusion initiatives last?

Revise your recruitment and retention practices to ensure they are inclusive. Implement blind recruitment techniques, use diverse hiring panels, and ensure that your job descriptions are unbiased. Additionally, regularly audit and monitor metrics - this helps by continuously tracking and measuring the progress of your organization by collecting and analyzing diversity data within your organization.

I believe you make these initiatives last when you create an environment of empowerment for portfolio companies. When companies know that their backers support them in hiring diverse talent as well as creating talent pipelines, you will see the initiatives be sustainable.

In my experience, what would help is making diversity and inclusion an integral part of your firm's core values and culture. This can be done by clearly articulating D&I expectations, rewards, and recognition in your performance management and evaluation processes.

What helps is getting involved and teaming up with colleges, universities and events - expanding your overall network. Additionally, offer ongoing diversity and inclusion training and education for all employees. These programs can help raise awareness, increase cultural competence, and promote understanding of unconscious biases.

Start by discussing the importance of communication to bring about change and break down traditional networks. Spread diversity policies and celebrate success cases, which can help decrease bias. By communicating correctly, you can build trust within the industry and create a culture where everyone feels welcome and accepted regardless of their differences. When traditional networks are broken down, it allows people from diverse backgrounds to work together without prejudice or preconceived notions.

I would say the first step would be to understand what is diversity in your region/country /city? This is the first step to actually have an impact; most funds, for example, want more female founders, but they end up funding the sisters of their current "typical founder" Ivy League, rich family, etc. This is hardly a diverse inclusion, but instead a lazy attempt to pretend to care. Want to be more diverse? think about low-income geographies, different backgrounds, different cultures, etc. Let's build a welcoming space for everyone instead of making the invitation open to the same group was already invited.