Pacers Sports & Entertainment Pledge Page
OUR PLEDGE TO THE COMMUNITY
Pacers Sports & Entertainment stands alongside those fighting against systemic racism and social injustice in our community. We affirm the value and dignity of every person of color. We will be guided by our commitment to equity and responsibility to all marginalized communities to use the power of our organization to find meaningful, measurable solutions to eradicate racism. We acknowledge that we must begin by challenging our own policies, principles, and processes and holding ourselves accountable, just as we must be willing to publicly hold our leaders accountable. Through collective action we will listen, learn, grow, lead, and invest in civic engagement to create a positive sustainable effect on Black lives and communities.
PLEDGE 1
Investing to Make the Most Equitable Impact
Focus Areas: Education, Healthcare
A majority of our charitable dollars would be directed, or in some cases redirected, to support organizations driving social justice in our community.
PROGRESS
Over half of our charitable dollars continue to be directed towards support of organizations driving social justice and committed to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in our community.
We have adopted and executed a focused strategy centered on intentional generosity and intentional geography which guides grantmaking decisions by the Pacers Foundation board and our Corporate Contributions Committee.
We are exploring expanding the geography boundary methodology currently used to potentially reach more communities and reassessing the overall social justice agenda. Plans are also underway to engage board members in conscious ally development education and revamping foundation mission.
PLEDGE 2
Supplier Diversity Benefits Everyone
Focus Areas: Workplace
Our focus will be on growing supplier diversity with new staff, new policies, and new benchmarks.
PROGRESS
The first employee to oversee purchasing was hired and remains dedicated to implementing equitable utilization of vendors and growing our supplier diversity. Additionally, we have established formal procurement policies and procedures guidelines company-wide and hired two additional individuals to assist with sourcing products and services in alignment with achieving established metrics. We continue to require XBE participation in all our non-exempt bids, and track XBE spend. Additionally, we have established a Supplier Diversity portal which has over 100 XBEs currently registered.
A Guest Chef program was also successfully launched and provided high level exposure for six Black-owned businesses at over 20 Pacers games during the 2021-2022 season. This innovative program resulted in one guest chef garnering a permanent concession stand for the upcoming season. There are plans to expand the program and have guest chefs at the majority of home games in the upcoming season.
PLEDGE 3
A Social Justice Agenda
Focus Areas: Prosperity, Workplace
Every member of our organization is participating in mandatory diversity, equity, and inclusion leadership training.
PROGRESS
All employees, including senior leadership and basketball staff, have completed inclusive excellence training focused on inclusive leadership, cultural intelligence, brave conversations, cognitive bias, and cultivating top talent. Moving forward, a strategy will be developed and implemented to ensure newly hired individuals will also participate in training. All employees will have access to ongoing learning and professional development as it relates to diversity, equity, and inclusive leadership. Everyone in the organization has also completed mandatory respect in the workplace training.
A positive outcome from the training was the tertiary effect on managers and the heightened awareness throughout the employment search process which resulted in the organization increasing the representation of people of color and women.
The company also filled an inaugural role and hired a senior level executive to lead diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy.
Join us in the important work of creating racial equity in Central Indiana.
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