#MovingForward from harassment and discrimination in fundraising
Entrepreneur First is delighted to be a supporting partner of Moving Forward as they launch in the UK.
#MovingForward gathers VC commitments to foster a diverse, inclusive, and harassment-free workplace.
Entrepreneurs shouldn’t have to accept harassment and discrimination as part of the fundraising process. And when this does happen there needs to be clear ways for founders to report what’s happened. Lots of investors have this topic front of mind and want to be part of creating a more diverse and harassment-free eco-system, but they don’t know where to start.
Moving Forward is changing this by supporting VCs to develop their own diversity and inclusion policy, alongside harassment reporting policy and procedure.
I stumbled across Moving Forward when I was trying to write a D&I and harassment reporting policy for Entrepreneur First. It’s hard! It’s hard to know where to start and what to include. After some Googling, I found this document on best practice policies written by Ginny Fahs, one of the founders of Moving Forward. It not only sped up creating the right processes, but also ensured we were using industry best practice.
We have now created a selection of policies and procedures around Diversity & Inclusion, alongside reporting harassment.
- EF Cohort Code of Conduct
- Guidance for cohort members on creating an inclusive community
- Reporting procedure for code of conduct violations
You can read more about EF’s D&I initiatives here, including introducing a stipend to improve socio-economic diversity, pro-actively sourcing for underrepresented candidates and creating a Diversity and Inclusion Working Group.
Ultimately processes and procedures only work when they are supported by culture change. This is a much harder and longer piece of work for all investors to get started on. That said, by committing to create these policies it starts these important conversations.
If you’re an investor, Moving Forward has an invaluable collection of resources to help you get your policies set up. They not only help you write your own policies, but also host those policies on their website. Check out the website here and join us #MovingForward.
