TiER1 Performance joins the Indianapolis community in addressing racial inequity through the #IndyRacialEquityPledge. Led by our Indianapolis team, TiER1 vows to challenge behaviors and mindsets through a long-term commitment to learning. TiER1’s Indy Racial Equity Pledge includes three concrete commitments: support Black and African-American–led community organizations and initiatives that focus on mental health; invest in Black-owned business; and launch college internship and scholarship programming to increase racial diversity Our Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) team will regularly assess our cultural and strategic practices to ensure we are aligned to and progressing toward these commitments.
What is the Indy Racial Equity Pledge?
The Indy Racial Equity Pledge was started in October 2020 by a coalition of corporate and civic organizations as a commitment to advancing racial equity in Indianapolis and neighboring communities. Each pledging organization will report on the progress of their commitments, which helps hold them accountable. Learn more about the Indy Racial Equity Pledge here.
The TiER1 Pledge Commitments
As a strategic consulting firm with more than 320+ TiER1ers across the U.S., (including a team in Indianapolis), we are committed to creating a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture within our company and our communities. Racial equity requires us to acknowledge where disparities show up across our systems and recognize how it impacts our employees, customers, and community. We commit to our journey as a long-term commitment to learning and challenging behaviors and mindsets. Our Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) team will regularly assess our cultural and strategic practices to ensure we are aligned to our commitments and progress. The IDEA team has developed content, recordings, and experiences related to our broader internal initiative to activate our IDEA Commitments, which includes the Indy Racial Equity Pledge. We commit to challenging behaviors and mindsets with a long-term commitment to learning. The TiER1 Indy Racial Equity Pledge is made up of three specific commitments:
Pledge 1: Support Black- and African-American –led community organizations and initiatives that focus on mental health and wellness.
We Commit To:
- Utilizing our Social Impact Project Grants Program to fund and support organizations.
- Dedicating up to 200 service hours annually with Indianapolis-based organizations.
- Promoting partner organizations’ mental health and wellness initiatives and resources.
2023 Progress
We continue to partner and support both Dayspring Center and Gleaners Food Bank through monetary donations during their fundraisers and actively volunteering time in their community events. The Indy team spent 24 hrs working at Gleaner’s Distribution Center, bagging and loading boxes of food in their drive through program, to serve families in need. We also collected $250 for Dayspring’s breakfast fundraiser, and then 473 pairs of socks for children, mothers, fathers, and grandparents who are temporarily staying at Dayspring.
We were the sole sponsor of the Cincinnati Public Schools Career Symposium – sponsoring the whole event lunch and had three TiER1ers at a table providing career information for high schoolers.
Our biggest initiative was a 3-month long project in collaboration with Roche Diagnostics, to create “Career Quest” a one-day immersive experience for 60 freshmen at Lawrence North and Lawrence Central high schools. On November 8th, around 40 Roche and TiER1 volunteers came together on the US Roche Campus to serve BIPOC and economically disadvantaged students who were hand-picked by guidance counselors and teachers to come and participate. These students were then able to participate in activities throughout the day all related to careers in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics).
Both the Roche and TiER1 teams designed shirts, swag, the overall Career Quest brand, a video, 1-pagers, and communication. Our teams came together and built this event from the ground up. We also had the opportunity to support diverse vendors and both the shirts for students and the water bottles came from BIPOC-owned organizations.
The event was so successful, we’re already talking about expanding the event to all Roche campuses in the US and inviting other Indy-based organizations to join in, to honor their racial equity pledges.
2022 Progress
As of October 2022:
We once again sponsored a team and raised $2,120 for Dayspring Center as part of the Walk for Dreams event. Supported Exodus Refugee group with a large clothing and household items drive. It was a big success! We continue to support Irvington Counseling Center through our Social Impact Grant, hosting their entire team for continued strategy activation brainstorming sessions. We also supported the search for and hiring of their summer intern, who helped Irvington Counseling Center with their BIPOC wellness fund and LGBTQIA+ support services. (For more information about our Social Impact Grant, click here).
As of April 2022:
- Raised $2,120 for Dayspring Center as part of the Walk for Dreams event.
- Continue to support Irvington Counseling Center through Social Impact Grant, hosting them for continued strategy activation brainstorming sessions. They also supported the search for and hiring their summer intern, who will help Irvington Counseling Center with their BIPOC wellness fund and LGBTQIA+ support services.
- Supported Exodus Refugee group with a clothing and household items drive. It was a big success!
2021 Progress
We are partnering with the Irvington Counseling Collective who applied for our Social Impact Grant, to specifically help them acheive their goal of full funding for their BIPOC Mental Wellness Fund that will serve 100 individuals in the Indianapolis area yet this year. We are providing design, creative, and communication support to make this happen. To date, we’ve donated 90 service hours of support towards the design of this initiative and are now transitioning to creative and communications support. We also have spent 30 service hours and donated $1,260 in support of the DaySpring Center in the Walk for Dreams event this past spring.
Pledge 2: Invest focused, priority spending with Black-owned businesses.
We Commit To:
- Investing intentionally in Black-owned businesses for our Indianapolis regional events, office, and project needs throughout 2021 so that a minimum of 50% of our total Indianapolis region spend is with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) owned businesses.
2023 Progress
We have exceeded our goal this year. As of November 1st, we’ve spent $2,900 with BIPOC businesses in support of our Indy regional activities.
We spent $3,950 on Career Quest materials, swag, and other items needed for the Nov 8th student event, and of that, $2,073 was with BIPOC businesses. (For more information on Career Quest, see our 2023 update on Pledge #1).
Finally, in January, we provided TiER1 branded sneakers for all 300+ employees as part of our company wide kickoff event, spending $21,645 with Smoove Creations, a BIPOC business.
2022 Progress
As of October 2022:
We are on track to exceed our Spend goal for the year. As of Oct 1st, 2022, we’ve spent $6,900 in support of BIPOC Indianapolis businesses, which is 50% of total regional spend (and more than double the spend from 2021). In September, we hosted a successful Client Open House at our new Indy location in the Ft. Ben area for over 50 guests. All food and dessert vendors were local BIPOC, women-owned businesses. Our t-shirt and printing partners were BIPOC businesses, and we raffled off a wonderful “Hoosier Pride” gift basket full of items from local BIPOC and women-owned businesses. We also promoted these businesses during the event and on social media for several weeks leading up to the event, as part of our Back Home Again TiER1 Indy Event and Marketing Campaign.
As of April 2022:
- Spent approximately $2,500 with BIPOC businesses this year.
- Planning their Back Home Again Indy Open House and plan to use only BIPOC, Women-Owned, local businesses for catering needs. These businesses will also be allowed to include signage and information about their businesses during the event.
2021 Progress
In our Indianapolis region specifically our BIPOC spend is up over 200%. Currently, 40% of our total spend is with BIPOC businesses. We’ve partnered with numerous BIPOC businesses to cater meals and special events, and to create “Hoosier Pride” swag boxes of local goodies to send to all 260+ employees as part of our January 2021 Virtual Annual Kick Off Meeting that was sponsored by our Indy office. Marsha’s Specialty Desserts, Tea’s Me Cafe, Garrett’s BBQ, and La Hacienda have been frequent partners throughout the year. Starting in July, the Indy region began having IDEA Journey “meet ups” monthly at a BIPOC restaurant to have a conversation about DEI while supporting our BIPOC spend pledge. Gordon’s Milkshakes and Yaso Grill are the first two BIPOC businesses for these meet ups. At a company level, we’ve created an online BIPOC Marketplace and linked it to our Founders Awards Ceremony, held twice a year. Award winners receive $250 and can search the BIPOC Marketplace to purchase items of their choice. The first award recipients shopped the BIPOC Marketplace in Q1. Our next awards ceremony is in early Q4. Even outside of the Founders Awards, our 8 regions are adding to and leveraging the BIPOC Marketplace for regional events, meals, and gifts specific to their offices. In September, we will have our Annual Company Meeting (ACM) in Cincinnati, OH. While planning is still underway, we partnered with ROCKaBLOCK apparel in Merriville, IN for the design and purchase of 291 themed t-shirts for the ACM. In addition, we are partnering with several Cincy-based BIPOC businesses for food and other event support.
Pledge 3: Launch of college internship and scholarship programming to increase racial diversity.
We Commit To:
- Partnering proactively with Central Indiana universities, colleges, and student resource groups that promote the needs of Black and African American student populations.
- Launching a Diversity Scholarship Program with Central Indiana university and college partners to increase racial representation within fields such as creative design, technology, and communications.
2023 Progress
We awarded summer internships and our Diversity Scholarship to 4 BIPOC DePauw University students. 2 accepted and both received $2,500 scholarships while the other 2 declined. We extended one of the internships into the fall/winter semester, having our intern work part time and virtually from DePauw’s campus. We also participated in the following events:
- The Great Lakes Students of Color Leadership Conference and Job Fair at DePauw University with 13 different colleges/universities in attendance – 3 TiER1ers attended.
- University of Cincinnati’s Business Fellows Recruiting Fair which is an event specifically for BIPOC business students (NOTE: TiER1’s largest region and headquarters is in Cincinnati, Ohio and U of Cincinnati provides us with our largest pool of interns and early-career hires.)
For more information about our Diversity Scholarship, please click here.
2022 Progress
As of October 2022:
We continue to strengthen our campus partnership with DePauw University. In February, the Indy region sent a team of five people, including our Director of DEI, to DePauw to speak on “Day in the Life of a Consultant” for the larger DePauw student body with an intentional call out and marketing effort to BIPOC students and student groups. We also met with students at a special reception at the Center for Diversity and Inclusion to promote our TiER1 internships and BIPOC scholarship. We’ve since gone back to DePauw this past fall for another career fair and reception at the DEI Center. The number of BIPOC student intern and early career hire applications have increased as a result. We have just begun our campus champion program at IU School of Informatics, on their Bloomington campus and hope to expand our BIPOC student reach there as well. For more information about our Diversity Scholarship, please visit: https://web-archive-2025.tier1performance.com/diversity-scholarships/.
As of April 2022:
- Continue to strengthen our campus partnership with DePauw University. In February, the Indy region sent a team of five people to DePauw to speak on “Day in the Life of a Consultant” for the larger DePauw student body. But they also met with students at the Center for Diversity and Inclusion to promote our TiER1 internships and BIPOC scholarship.
2021 Progress
Since Q2, we’ve been partnering with DePauw University in Greencastle, IN specifically in support of BIPOC students. We are working with DePauw’s Director of Career Services & Employer Relations to plan DEI workshops for students this fall semester. Possible topics include: “How to ask questions about DEI in a job interview”, “Steps to prepare yourself to be equipped to navigate DEI in the workplace,” and “Leveraging your DEI competence with employers-why DEI competence makes you a better applicant.” TiER1’s DEI Strategy Director is in the planning stages now for these workshops, including a 15-minute TEDTalk-like event that includes a TiER1er who is active in their IDEA Journey and eager to support & network with DPU BIPOC students, targeted for November 3rd. We are also reaching out to student run BIPOC organizations to see what opportunities exist for talking with BIPOC students about careers, resume and networking, etc.
Racial Equity Pledges in Other TiER1 Offices
Across all teams, TiER1 is engaged in the IDEA journey, an organizational initiative to better center inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility in our values and company culture. Learn more about our IDEA journey and overall commitments here.
We hope you’ll stay connected as we share our progress regarding our pledge goals and expanding efforts in other regions.
Amplifying the Indy Equity Pledge Across TiER1
Education
- To date we have awarded 1 Diversity in Design Scholarship with our partner school in Cincinnati, UC-DAAP, and we have released 3 additional scholarship opportunities extending to 7 partner schools across the US.
Prosperity
- Prioritizing spending on local BIPOC artists and vendors for the 2021 ACM, including Lauren Eylise (live music), ROCKaBLOCK (custom T-shirts), and Market Direct Inc. (custom print materials).
- Creation of the DIY Tour of Cincinnati BIPOC Cultural Institutions (including restaurants, arts, and stores).
- Conscious prioritization of local spend for our regional social gatherings with BIPOC owned restaurants and non-profits for volunteer opportunities.
Workplace
- Creation of 2021 Learning & Performance eXcellence Awards, awarded to four winners in November 2021. These awards are open to persons of color who have led innovation, built momentum, or overcome barriers resulting in healthier, higher-performing organizations. Within the learning and development field, 5.6 percent of learning managers identify as Black/African American, 9 percent as Hispanic or Latino, 2.2 percent as Asian, and 89 percent as white. Click to learn more!
- During the 2021 eXlearn Conference in November 2021, TiER1 donated $10K to The Steve Fund, a non-profit organization that promotes programs and strategies to build understanding and assistance for the mental and emotional health of young people of color. Click to learn more!
