Acronym is a Finalist for Ragan’s CSR & Diversity Awards, recognizing the agency’s “Exceptional Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.” The winners will be announced on July 14th at the Ragan’s award ceremony in New York City.
As an LGTBQ-led agency, Acronym’s diversity commitment runs deep. To ensure that commitment is felt across the entire agency and that we “walk the talk” every day, the agency’s Chief Diversity Officer, Irwin Drucker, developed a plan to embed DE&I in our hiring practices, our supplier selection, and our internal events and language.
“For supplier diversity, we established an initial goal of 20% of our eligible spend to be dedicated to diverse suppliers and created checklists to ensure our suppliers were truly diverse including key certifications,” Drucker explained. “We listened to our employees about insensitive holidays and changed Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day and made Juneteenth a company holiday. We also consistently address diverse issues, and, unusual for a company of our size, we developed a robust CSR program.”
Acronym’s Four CSR pillars are:
- SUPPLIER DIVERSITY: We strive to form lasting bonds with the communities we serve, including partnering with diverse-owned businesses as part of our procurement process. Each year, we establish a goal, expressed as a percentage of eligible spend, that we commit to spending with certified diverse-owned businesses.
- DIVERSITY & INCLUSION: We believe diversity in experience and background leads to increased innovation and greater business results. We’re committed to a corporate culture of inclusion and equality that celebrates each individual’s authenticity.
- SUSTAINABILITY: We’re committed to positively impacting our world and leaving as minimal a footprint as possible. We seek innovations that use fewer natural resources and promote the wellbeing of the planet.
- PHILANTHROPY: Acronym’s leadership and employees are passionate about giving their time and talent to address a variety of societal issues and needs. This is a part of our culture, and the agency is committed to supporting corporate and employee giving programs.
Drucker continues, “To ensure our teams are connected with each other and continue to expand their viewpoints, we created four Employee Resource Groups and regularly invite guest speakers to share their personal experiences as Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian-Americans and Women in Leadership, and we regularly host guest speakers to discuss their unique challenges and successes while offering advise and sharing book/podcast recommendations and more.”
Acronym is also an exemplary corporate citizen. These are some of the organizations we support through AcronymCares, in addition to company matched donations: ACLU, Black Lives Matter, Equal Justice Initiative, GLAAD, Human Rights Campaign, Immigration Equality, Lambda Legal, Matthew Shepard Foundation, National Center for Transgender Equality, Planned Parenthood, The Trevor Project, Unicef and Ukrainian refugees. Twice annually, Acronym donates laptops to the Harlem Children’s Zone for inner-city youth of color.
Since the advent of these programs, Acronym exceeded the supplier diversity target of 20% of eligible spend, just as we did in the two years prior. In fact, the target for 2022 was increased to 22% of eligible spend as a result of our continued success.
The agency’s current workforce is now 75% diverse (includes women, minorities and LGBTQ) and our senior leadership of eleven is now 83% diverse (includes women, minorities and LGBTQ) with a near parity of male to female employees (50% male, 49% female.) Employee participation in our educational sessions and guest speakers has been phenomenal with 70%-90% of the workforce attending these voluntary events.
Stay tuned to learn more about Acronym’s continued commitment to DE&I. And, if you’d like to know how to identify the right diverse suppliers for your brand, please download our Guidebook to Diverse Supplier Selection.
