An open letter on requiring diversity from our vendors and partners

Until recently, race was a topic that was considered too political, too sensitive, and too personal to be addressed by Corporate America. However, in the wake of the killings of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, George Floyd, and numerous others in the U.S. and the subsequent Black Lives Matter rallies around the world, there’s been a global realization that companies have a role to play in creating a more just society for everyone. The playing field isn’t fair — in our schools, on the streets, at our offices — and businesses can be powerful change agents. We have employees, products, platforms, and resources to make it happen. We have to do more.

Today, SurveyMonkey is proud to link arms with change-makers from 23andMe, Age of Learning (creator of ABCmouse), Box, Chime, Eventbrite, Genesys, the Golden State Warriors, Headspace, Intuit, Leaf Group, MassMutual, PagerDuty, the San Francisco 49ers, Slack, Stitch Fix, Tile, Tinder, Upwork, Zendesk, and Zoom to try and do just that.

The companies joining this statement are committed to fighting bias, systemic racism, white supremacy, and the historic oppression of the Black community. Within our businesses, we are on a journey to become anti-racist, creating organizations that are more diverse, equitable, and inclusive — places where everyone can do the best work of their lives.

We also want to help upend the system that has supported bias outside our walls. We are part of an ecosystem, a network of businesses that include our law firms, food suppliers, landlords, marketing agencies, and investment bankers. Collectively, we spend hundreds of millions of dollars with these organizations. Starting today, we will make sure we’re spending our money with organizations that align with our values.

I am looking forward to personally contacting our 20 largest vendors to inform them that investing in diversity, equity, and inclusion will be a requirement for doing business with us. At SurveyMonkey, we are also sending our Vendor Workplace Diversity survey to our 150 largest vendors to draw attention to the issue, ask for progress, and partner with them in changing the system that has supported racism and bias for far too long. We are signing up to evaluate commitment to diversity and inclusion as a critical part of any RFI/RFP we issue. Furthermore, we are committing to withdraw our spend with organizations that don’t show progress.

Our goal as a collective is to partner with our vendors, suppliers, and consultants to provide opportunities to people who are underrepresented and marginalized. Together, we can make all of our organizations stronger and create lasting change within our broader community.

Join us at surveymonkey.com/equity.