Racial Equity Initiative

Justice reform

In June 2020, we committed $50 million over five years to strengthen and expand our existing Justice Reform Initiative. To date, we’ve established more than 125 distinct partnerships with 103 unique organizations working to provide alternatives to incarceration, accelerate innovative models of public safety, and expand access to data-driven insights. Together, these organizations have improved access to data-driven insights in 165 cities and counties across the US, which led to implementation policy or practice changes in many of these communities.

As part of our commitment to expanding access to data-driven insights, for example, we support Prosecutorial Performance Indicators which is working with eight District Attorney’s offices in Colorado to help identify opportunities to proactively reduce racial and ethnic disparities. Colorado is the first state in the country to have multiple prosecutors’ offices working together to proactively provide an in-depth data analysis to identify and prioritize actions that can be taken at points of prosecutorial discretion to make sure defendants and victims are treated fairly. To ensure accountability, each office identified key takeaways and a set of next steps based on the analyses. For instance, one jurisdiction submitted a proposal to further expand diversionary programs as a result of the analysis, which can have significant long-term impacts on public safety, crime rates, and overall cost efficiencies.

Nonprofits

We grew our Nonprofit Tech Acceleration for Black and African American Communities program, which uses data, technology, and partnerships to help local organizations across the country modernize and streamline operations with technical solutions including technology donations, discounts, and services.

The program works with organizations large and small at all stages, including startup nonprofits. To date, we have helped more than 2,000 local organizations across more than 1,700 communities accelerate their missions and drive greater impact through digital transformation. We’re currently tracking towards our long-term goal of helping more than 25,000 nonprofits.

Broadband connectivity

Our partnerships and projects drive adoption of affordable broadband services, computing devices, and digital literacy across 14 geographies—Atlanta, Baltimore, Birmingham, Charlotte, Cleveland, Detroit, El Paso, Los Angeles, Memphis, Milwaukee, New York and rural Alabama, North Carolina, and Virginia.

Using the power of Microsoft’s data and technology, our new Digital Equity Data Dashboard enables policymakers to identify broadband gaps and target public investments for communities most in need, including state broadband offices such as Louisiana (“Connect Louisiana”).

Some of the largest broadband gaps are fueled by lack of affordable service options. The FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is a powerful tool to help address the affordability challenge. To increase awareness and enrollment in the ACP, we collaborated with Communications Workers of America marshaling Microsoft employees and partners to implement a five-city event series entitled, “Get Connected,” leaning into new funding to address affordability. Local and national nonprofit partners, such as EveryoneOn, United Way of Greater Milwaukee, and Black Churches 4 Digital Equity, a Multicultural Media, Telecom, and Internet Council (MMTC) coalition, also convened affordable broadband enrollment events and digital skills for adoption programs.

Connectivity is only the beginning of our work—Airband partners are using the power of connectivity to deliver digital solutions to address community-specific challenges. In Charlotte, Airband partner Open Broadband provides connectivity for Black-owned firm Druid to use the power of Azure to address food insecurity. We are also working with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), which are important anchor institutions, to use connectivity to digitally transform surrounding neighborhoods that are often broadband deserts. As part of our work in the Black Rural South, our HBCU project with Tuskegee University (AL) offers no-cost, virtual telemedicine access on-campus for students, faculty, and residents while Prairie View A&M University (TX) leverages their precision agriculture research capabilities using Azure-based platforms.

Skills and education

Through our Technology Education and Learning Support (TEALS) program, we have expanded access to computer science education in nearly 400 schools across 21 racial equity expansion cities and exceeded our goal of 8 percent of the 1,300+ volunteers identifying as Black and African American for the 2022-2023 school year. With the 100+ school applications received and/or accepted for the 2023-2024 school year, our cumulative impact is projected to be over 500 schools in the expansion regions supported by TEALS as of June 2023.

We completed the third year of programming for 50 nonprofit workforce development and digital skilling groups led by and serving Black and African American communities accounting for $15 million in grants, capacity-building support, and tech enablement services that have reached over 30,000 people.

Of the 50 organizations, 49 were new grantees to Microsoft, including the Hidden Genius Project in Oakland, which trains and mentors young Black men in technology creation and entrepreneurship; and TechBridge in Atlanta, which aims to break the cycle of poverty through the innovative use of technology.

We have also given $10 million in grants to 18 HBCUs and associations to support curriculum development, student scholarships and mentoring, faculty training, and virtual learning.

Culture of inclusion

Strengthening a culture of inclusion is about a company-wide, sustained focus on understanding and practicing the behaviors that can improve the lived experience for all employees at Microsoft. Shared language and shared understanding go a long way in building the foundation for those culture shifts.

Starting with learning, as of May 2023, more than 97 percent of employees have completed the required D&I learning courses on allyship, covering, privilege, and unconscious bias in the workplace.

The Race and Ethnicity Learning Path was introduced as the first of four personalized learning experiences enabling employees to take ownership of their D&I learning journey by engaging with curated and tailored content. We also launched specific content on being an Informed Ally via an experience that provokes moments of reflection, activation of basic inclusive behaviors, and drives commitment to action. Most recently, we added new interactive D&I Simulations where learners can practice skills acquired through other D&I learning solutions.

The people manager community is making progress for required learning and discussions on D&I. As we strive to increase manager capability on inclusion, we are curating learning & enablement content to allow them to be successful in a hybrid environment.

Microsoft’s Inclusion is Innovation site conveys our unwavering commitment to directly address the systemic and cultural complexity of diversity and inclusion by showcasing the impact employees have when they can thrive.

To continue our commitment to leverage our resources to help accelerate diversity & inclusion across our ecosystem, we provided thought leadership videos to our Inclusion Journey site. These feature external experts who speak to how we can create a culture of inclusion for members of the Black and African American community with Dr. Lawrence Bobo and members of the Hispanic and Latinx community with Dr. G. Cristina Mora. In addition, we explore the Ideal Affect and the way it impacts members of the Asian community in the workplace with Dr. Jeanne L. Tsai, and the evolution of families in today's society with Rebecca Walker.

Career planning and talent development

Growing global networks, enhancing business acumen, building skills, and leadership development have never been more important. With that in mind, we continue to invest in programs internally and partnerships externally that provide employees with a variety of options throughout their careers to learn and explore across professional opportunities and leadership excellence. These programs will expand to include other employee groups as we learn and grow.

We have launched 57 cohorts of our mid-level and senior-level differentiated development programs to date, with further staged cohorts planned for this year and beyond. Differentiated development programs have positive effects on employee experience and career development because they provide psychological safety for learning and growth, but they are only one offering in the larger suite of learning and development programs for all employees. The nine-month experience is opt-in. Direct managers of all participants are required to participate in a parallel track to support and grow how they understand and support their employees.

Our commitment continues to be advancing representation at all levels, and it is even more critical now that we prioritize internal development and growth. This is why we will be expanding eligibility for differentiated development programs to include employees at additional levels within the company.

We continue to invest in dedicated leadership development programs for executives. Dedicated talent discussions are happening in every organization prior to an employee’s promotion to senior roles.

Accountability for progress

Sustained progress on representation requires deep accountability at the most senior levels of the company. Over the last five years, Microsoft has increased representation across demographics and levels. We continue to report externally on our progress annually, most recently in our Global Diversity & Inclusion Report with both a report document and associated video to share progress on our commitments to work toward long-term systemic change.

To accelerate progress, we are providing external coaches to executives. Since the initial coaching pilot was completed in FY21 and more than 115 executives have participated in this program to date with more planned.

We are focused on enhancing the hiring and interview processes to include discussions on both culture and inclusion for management positions and employee hiring broadly. In FY23, we launched an updated Inclusive Hiring Training available to interviewers and managers.

We have made meaningful progress toward fulfilling our commitment to double the number of Black and African American and Hispanic and Latinx leaders in the US by 2025.

As of May 2023, we are 93 percent of the way to our goal for Black and African American people managers (below director level), and 107.2 percent of the way for Black and African American directors+ (people managers and individual contributors). Additionally, we are 27.8 percent of the way for Hispanic and Latinx people managers (below director level), and 74.2 percent of the way for Hispanic and Latinx directors+ (people managers and individual contributors).

This progress on growing director+ representation is meaningful and driven by a number of intentional efforts: investments in differentiated development programs, key talent management motions, and a focus on career development by managers across the company. While we are encouraged by this progress, our commitment continues to be advancing representation at all levels, and it is even more critical now that we prioritize internal development and growth. This is why we are expanding eligibility for differentiated development programs to include employees at additional levels within the company. These programs are just one example of a broader suite of development programs offered to Microsoft employees.

Through our company-wide One Microsoft Diversity & Inclusion Plan, we are amplifying, accelerating, and activating a diverse and inclusive workplace. The Plan outlines priorities and company-wide expectations for all employees, managers, and executives, enabling action for impact across our geographies and organizations and holding us accountable to our commitments.

Broadening our work with suppliers

We have achieved our goal of increasing spend with Black and African American-owned suppliers by $500 million with double the number of suppliers. The current macroeconomic environment has led to an overall reduction in the number of suppliers used and we recognize our work here is not done. We remain focused on growing our utilization of Black and African American-owned suppliers to sustain our progress and strengthen the relationships we’ve forged over the previous three years.​

We’re continuing to encourage Black and African American representation progress in our top 100 suppliers, which account for a significant portion of our indirect spend, by requesting annual disclosure of their diversity profile information (e.g., workforce diversity) and supplier self-assessments. We now have 90 percent of these top 100 suppliers participating in a D&I self-assessment program. We have also made several enhancements to our supplier policies, sourcing processes, and tools. Specifically, we have digitally transformed our diversity certification validation process to accurately identify diverse-owned businesses for supplier diversity program benefits. We have also launched an online community to encourage best practice sharing and will continue to work closely with our top strategic suppliers to create additional opportunities in support our Black and African American-owned suppliers.

To ensure new suppliers are ready for business and receive adequate resources and support to be successful at Microsoft, we have implemented a program called AMP’D (Advocates, Mentors, Peers for Diverse Suppliers) that focuses on supplier mentorship, advocacy, development, and access to capital programs through our banking relationships. AMP’D pairs Black and African American-owned suppliers with an advocate in the business, a mentor and/or supplier peers to help suppliers easily connect and address the topics most important to their businesses.

We have launched a Microsoft-wide training program to drive awareness of inclusive buying decisions with specific actions employees can take to create a more equitable supplier ecosystem and drive our collective success.

Investment in financial institutions

We are using our own banking needs to grow our portfolio investment activity with Black and African American-owned financial institutions. In June of 2020, we committed to double the percentage of our transaction volumes through these institutions by 2023. Three years later, we have exceeded our goal by more than double prior levels from 2020. In addition, we are increasing investment activity with Black and African American-owned asset managers, which now represent 45 percent of our external manager group.

We have also met our goal of creating a $100 million program focused on mission-driven banks. Since then, we have made investments focused on strengthening these institutions­–directly enabling them to deploy increased capital in local communities. For example, we have committed to the Mission-Driven Bank Fund as an anchor investor in collaboration with the FDIC to target Minority Owned Depository Institutions (MDIs), which directly enables an increase of funds into local community businesses, restaurants, housing, etc. We invested in the Southern Opportunity and Resilience Fund aimed at helping small businesses and nonprofits in southern and southeastern states with less than 50 employees navigate and rebuild from the COVID-19 health and economic crisis. We also invested in the Entrepreneur Backed Asset Fund investment to increase capital to MDIs and Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs)​.

Additionally, we have accomplished our $50 million commitment to create an investment fund focused on supporting Black and African American-owned small businesses. The fund focuses on investing to improve access to capital, increasing skill development, and reducing the technology gaps that exist today. Some of these investments include:

• Clear Vision Impact Fund investment with Siebert Williams Shank, created to mitigate deficits in capital access that minority-owned businesses often encounter and to enhance the positive impact that these companies have on the communities in which they operate.
• Investment in the Morgan Stanley Next Level Fund, which primarily focuses on early-stage technology and technology-enabled companies with diverse or women members as part of the founding team.
• Investment in BlackRock Liquid Federal Trust Fund (BLFT) created in partnership with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, which uses a portion of its revenue to fund scholarships at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

Partner investment

Partners are vital to ecosystem growth and transformation, which is why we’ve continued our investments to increase the number of Black and African American-owned partners in our US partner community. Since June 2020, the number of identified Black and African American partners has increased by more than 250 percent, surpassing our initial growth goal of 20 percent by 2023.

In addition to rapid growth in Black and African American-owned technology partners in the Microsoft Partner Network, we have also built active partnerships with technology communities such as Black Women Talk Tech, Black is Tech, Black Men in Tech, and Black and Brown Founders and have sponsored and participated in conference opportunities. Currently, we are building longer term future partnerships with these organizations to share how Microsoft supports partners and founders and works collaboratively to support Black and African American-owned business growth.

The Black Partner Growth Initiative (BPGI) has evolved as an umbrella portfolio of programs and projects to reach, recruit, support, and learn from Black and African American–owned businesses who become partners in the Microsoft ecosystem. We have also recognized the necessity of providing access to capital, cashflow support, and business training. We continue to invest in training programs covering financial management, tech solutions, and go-to-market readiness for Black partners.

We are working towards the following program investments, currently as pilots:

• We are helping Black and African American-owned partners leverage our $50 million general partner fund that helps with access to capital and providing loans to support partners through their startup phase, with the loans recovered over time as their business grows.
• A $20 million financing program for existing and new Black and African American partners to support their cashflow needs.

Along with these programs, we are continuing to invest in areas where Black and African American partners are creating impact for the business community. We are accomplishing this through strategic relationships such as the Black Channel Partner Alliance (BCPA): an economic empowerment initiative founded by and for Black and African American partners to deepen partner-to-partner relationships, expand development opportunities, provide business mentorship/coaching, and fuel inclusive community growth. This partnership has successfully supported growth in revenue, contracts, and the number of new hires for partners registered with the BCPA.