Giving Compass' Take:

• Jeff Raikes explains how equity is different from equality and why that difference is fundamental to understanding how to advance the needs of marginalized communities in the United States. 

• How can you bring a greater understanding of equity to your philanthropy? How can you best use the principles here to guide more impactful donations? 

• Learn about ways for wealthy, white donors to address race and privilege. 

This is a column for white people.

There’s a big, important conversation happening in our country right now. It is about race and identity and how we care for, treat and include one another in American life.

There are a lot of well-meaning white people out there who want to engage, but many of us have no idea where to grab on. Sometimes we just don’t understand the conversation because we haven’t lived it. Sometimes we feel defensive. And as a result, we shut down and opt out. But we can’t afford to do that. Not now. The moment we are in is too important. We must get over our discomfort, listen, learn and use our power and privilege to make change.

I work in philanthropy, where most trustees, board members, and leadership are white, and I spent the first 30 years of my career in technology, which is also lacking in diversity. So even when white people want to enter the dialogue, we often don’t know how because we’ve lived and operated in world where we never had to. We see the world through our own lens, and it takes intentionality to put another lens on to change our view. Fortunately, we’re seeing more white leaders willing to do that – in business, sports, philanthropy, and politics. But we need more. A lot more.

For the past several years, the field of philanthropy has been having a deep conversation about what it means to advance equity and justice in our work. And by breaking down some of the concepts, it might make it easier for others to wade into the water.

Let me start with the word equity. Equity and equality are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same. We like the term equality. It sounds nice. It’s how America bills itself – we all get an equal chance to be successful. We think equality equals fairness and who can be against fairness? Equity is more polarizing – in part because it’s not well understood. It requires us to dig a level deeper.

Equality is when everyone has the same thing. Equity is giving people what they need. I think any parent with more than one child fundamentally understands the difference. We want to treat our children equally, but they are different people with different needs. Our three kids are now adults, but when our oldest daughter was in middle school, she was relentlessly bullied. It took a tremendous toll on her, and my wife Tricia and I had to attend to her individual needs and give her the focused attention necessary to get her through that traumatic time. If we were treating her on an equal basis as her other two siblings, she would have been shortchanged by us, and it could have done long-term damage to her development into the healthy adult she now is.

Now expand that concept out broadly across our society and you see the ideal of equality doesn’t work very well. Just look at the statistics. Race and class are the most reliable predictors of life outcomes across several areas: academic achievement, income, wealth, life expectancy, physical and mental health, and maternal mortality, just to name a few. These statistics are not accidents. Nor are they recent developments. And treating everyone the same way isn’t going to change them.

Read the full article about equity by Jeff Raikes at Forbes.