Building Authentic and Impactful Cultural Solutions 

We deliver what we embody — a thoroughly diverse group of DEI professionals committed to helping leaders and their organizations with transformational change through tailor-made solutions.

It’s who we are.

We are majority-people of color, women, and a large cohort of our staff identifies as LGBTQ+. Diversity isn’t just what we do, it’s who we are — it’s why we’ve assembled a meaningfully diverse group of 80-plus professionals who each bring a unique and often untold perspective to our work. We know what it means to show up authentically in our work — our DEI team is led by professionals of color who use their range of experiences and expertise to deliver meaningful impact for our clients.

Our approach & services:

At Raben, we believe DEI is a value, not a function. 

For us, equity, inclusion, and diversity are really about driving organizational transformation. When done right, your equity, inclusion, and diversity strategy is intractable from your organizational strategy.

We deliver “soup to nuts” DEI services:

We’re very clear that an effective equity, inclusion and diversity strategy is not just about rolling out training sessions. We work closely with leaders, employees, boards, and organizations to develop the foundational elements to a more comprehensive equity, inclusion and diversity strategy, that could include: 

Training. We can help your people establish foundational understandings of the current scientific research on bias, how it weaves its way through the human brain, and the way biases influence our perceptions and actions. We can develop and facilitate customized workshops to include presentations, dialogue, and Q & A sessions.

Facilitation. Discussions focused on race, religion, gender, LGBTQ status, disability, and other elements of identity are some of the hardest issues to discuss in public life. Raben brings considerable experience working with clients to sensitively facilitate dialogues, helping your people get clear on their aspirations, barriers, commitments, and ownership.

Team and Leadership Coaching. We understand and work across senior leadership teams, boards, and staff members to create a shared understanding of equity, inclusion, and diversity, achieve buy-in, and drive alignment on strategy.

Third-party engagement. We recognize the power of collaborating with external stakeholders to inform and bolster your equity, inclusion, and diversity efforts. We have a record of facilitating strategic partnerships and forging impactful coalitions that help organizations authentically engage with diverse audiences and clearly demonstrate the inclusiveness of their efforts.

Environmental Surveys / Cultural Assessments. Through a combination of survey instruments, focus groups and/or interviews, we can help you understand your employees’ and other stakeholders’ perceptions of the organization’s current DEI state, and their envisioned future state. Assessments can get stakeholders engaged early on in the transformation process, leading to a sustainable effort. They can also be key to revealing opportunities for refinement to such systems as interviewing, onboarding, performance evaluations, internal and external communications, decision-making processes, meeting participation, and more, establishing a baseline from which to measure growth.

Equity and Inclusion Policy Integration. Equipped with tested equity tools and approaches, our team can help review existing and proposed internal policies and practices, including performance reviews, promotion criteria, hiring and retention practices, recruitment, and pipeline development and holidays. We’ve worked with some of the most recognizable corporate and nonprofit brands in the country to ensure their workforces and products represent a diversity of backgrounds and experiences.

Strategy Sessions. It’s hard to make a structural change to an organization without talking about how power is distributed, who decides, and who is included. Raben brings considerable experience working with clients to co-design and facilitate a strategic planning process to help leaders, boards, and staff members better understand and develop the foundational elements to a comprehensive DEI strategic plan.

Operationalizing Equity. We can also help support you in the implementation of your equity strategy, providing ongoing advice to processes and decision making structures to ensure that equity is embedded in both processes and behaviors.

Who we serve

We pride ourselves on doing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion right.

An equity program, done wrong, can be corrosive. When done right, prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion can unleash a whole new set of capabilities within your teams, generating new opportunities for authentic engagement, partnership, and impact. We’ve enjoyed working with scores of corporate, nonprofit, foundation, and movement clients.