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DEI

For articles, reports, toolkits, how-to guides and data on diversity, equity and inclusion, visit here.

DIVERSITY: Having different types of people from a wide range of identities with different perspectives, experiences, etc. (Source: Merriam-Webster)

INCLUSION: Putting diversity into action by creating an environment of involvement, respect, and connection – where the richness of ideas, backgrounds, and perspectives are harnessed to create value. (Source: Diversity Journal)

EQUITY: Removing the predictability of success or failure that currently correlates with any social or cultural factor (such as race), examining biases, and creating inclusive environments. (Adopted from: National Equity Project)

EDUCATION EQUITY: Education equity is the moral and civil rights obligation to ensure that students are provided the tools they need to succeed, regardless of background, race, color, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, religion, nation of origin, native language, socioeconomic status or any other discriminating factor.  This hinges on access to a school environment equipped for safe and stimulating learning opportunities, resources for social and emotional growth, and excellent educators who are able to support students in getting and remaining on track to graduate from high school ready for college or careers. (Adapted from: The Department of Education)

General FAQs

Many of the projects currently listed on our website are the result of direct outreach by us. We invest significant effort into building relationships with education organizations around the country. We also get referrals from foundations, state agencies and associations. Finally, some of the projects have come to us via our network, with providers in our network reaching out to us when they hear of work that they are unable to take on.

Absolutely! Please use this form to refer a provider for inclusion in our network.

Our community of providers is comprised of DEI professionals who are eager to amplify their impact. Some are affiliated with organizations, while others work as independent consultants. Together, they bring deep experience assessing, designing, and implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in education organizations and a shared commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the sector.

We work with all kinds of organizations serving students and families. Our partners include schools, school systems, nonprofits, community groups, foundations and ed tech companies.

Although DEI Expert Hub’s focus is on education organizations, we recognize that these services may be relevant for other organizations, and we’re glad to offer our support to them as well.

NewSchools is a national nonprofit venture philanthropy that supports teams of educators, and education entrepreneurs, who are reimagining public education.Their Diverse Leaders investment strategy works to close the racial and ethnic demographic gap between education leadership and students by investing in entrepreneurs who are advancing Black and Latino leaders in education.

NewSchools’ release of the “Unrealized Impact” study highlighted how much support education leaders need in taking action on DEI and the difficulties they face in identifying and selecting the right partners. NewSchools enlisted Catalyst:Ed to develop the DEI Expert Hub, in an effort to understand the landscape of DEI providers nationally and facilitate better connections between education leaders seeking support and expert providers.

Catalyst:Ed is a national nonprofit that harnesses the collective expertise in education to help education organizations innovate, excel and scale, so all students have access to an excellent and equitable education. Our goal is to make it easier for education leaders to tap into the expertise and additional capacity they need to serve students and families better. Our technology platform enables us to quickly and efficiently make matches, providing organizations with access to the expertise they need and professionals with opportunities to work on impactful and rewarding projects.

FAQs for Organizations

Meeting our partners’ expectations is core to our mission. Email us at info@catalyst-ed.org if you are dissatisfied for any reason, and we will work with you to ensure a successful outcome.

Providers invoice organizations directly and are paid directly by them.

We work with both kinds of projects.

Providers set their own prices for projects based on the work required to achieve the deliverables. Organizations review the bids and decide who they want to work with and at what price.

Projects vary greatly in terms of cost and timing depending on factors such as the nature of the project, the level of skills and experience required and time sensitivity of deliverables. We have matched projects ranging from $250 for a 2-hour phone consultation to over $150,000 for a multi-month engagement.

We tag projects along various dimensions, including type (e.g., design, implementation, etc.), domain (e.g., personalized learning, special education, etc.), organization type and geography. We then request proposals from experts whose characteristics match the project requirements. You review the profiles and proposals of all experts who respond and decide whom to interview and whom to work with.

Not at this time, since we have promised to maintain the privacy of our professionals. However, organizations that post a project can review the profiles of professionals who bid for the project.

Professionals who apply to the Catalyst:Ed Provider network go through a 3-stage application, interview and reference check process. The process also helps us gather the information we need to make more informed connections.

We help you articulate and prioritize your needs, which helps us develop a detailed project scope with you that, once approved, we share with our provider network. Our clients find the scoping process incredibly helpful and have compared it to “part speaking with an education expert, part speaking with a therapist”.

Nope! This resource is available to anyone who wants to infuse diversity, equity and inclusion in their own work, their teams and their organizations.

Once your project scope is finalized, we identify and notify providers with relevant skills, experiences and interests, and invite them to submit project proposals. Depending on the scope and scale of the project, proposals may be received from within a few hours of the project listing to within a couple of weeks. We will notify you once the deadline closes, and you can log into our platform to review proposals, so you can decide who you want to interview. Our team will help you schedule interviews, and once you’ve made a selection, we’ll inform the specialists.

Once a project is listed on the DEI expert hub, we follow it up with an informational call. We do this for three reasons: firstly, it allows us to dig deeper into the organization’s needs, secondly it helps us understand whether we’re missing something in our scopes, and finally it allows us to meet the needs of partners who may not be tech savvy. Based on the project listing and informational call, we build a project scope that includes the project background, the problem statement, key tasks, deliverables, timeline and the approximate budget range. Once the partner approves the scope, we are ready to share it with the network.

There is no cost for education organizations to use the DEI Expert Hub to find providers. 

FAQs for Providers

There is no fee to join the network, receive and review project scopes or submit proposals. We charge providers 10% of the final accepted project bid for each matched project up to a maximum fee of $3,000. As a nonprofit organization, this fee helps us cover a small part of our operational costs including the cost of recruiting and vetting talent, conducting outreach to organizations, scoping and matching projects, and managing the technology and process. Providers pay us the service fee as they get paid (no advance payment).

Yes, you may vary your rate.

The hourly rate charged by providers varies widely depending on skill areas, nature and years of experience, and interest in a project. Every project is different, and you should determine a rate that’s right for you given your needs. Email us at info@catalyst-ed.org if you need additional guidance.

We share a project range (e.g., $5k-$10k, $25k-$50k) with the project scope, provided we have the client’s permission to do so.

You propose your own price. The organization reviews options and decides who they want to work with. While the budget is definitely a consideration, we have never seen a client make a decision based solely on price.

We list both kinds of projects. Typically, if the project deliverables are well-defined, organizations prefer fixed price contracts. If the work requirement is more ambiguous, they might be structured as hourly contracts.

Midway through a project, and after the project is completed, we ask both parties to evaluate the project’s progress and how the collaborative process has gone. The reviews are shared with both parties unless requested otherwise.

The mid-project evaluation serves to surface any concerns earlier on in the project, and the post-project evaluation serves to collect feedback to improve the DEI Expert Hub’s services and expert network. Providers have the option of sharing their past reviews and ratings with prospective clients, although we do not require them to do so.

We check in with you and the client at regular intervals to ensure things are on track. Once the project is done, we send out surveys to both organizations and consultants to gather feedback and lessons.

Once you are selected for a project, we expect you and the partner to finalize all terms of the agreement and sign a contract with each other before getting started. We are happy to guide you through the paperwork and set up an account on our project management platform so you and the partner can easily track and manage deliverables, invoices and payments.

 

 

You submit your invoice directly to the partner and get paid directly by them.

Once the partner decides, we immediately notify all providers who responded. Sometimes the selection process takes longer than indicated on the project scope timeline. If this happens, we’ll reach out and let you know. The scope also indicates the current status of the project.

We know our providers are eager for feedback when they don’t get selected. We are asking partner to commit to sharing feedback on proposals – while some have responded with detailed and individual feedback, others have provided more general feedback. Either way, we share what we hear back with providers.

The client reviews all proposals and decides who they want to interview, working with Catalyst:Ed for help with scheduling interviews. The interviews are a great opportunity for you and the client to learn more about each other and gauge “fit.”

Yes! Right now, we introduce providers in our network to each other. They typically reach out to us when they need someone with a specific skill set to round off a team or need some additional capacity. Additionally, collaboration can emerge during the project itself. Projects sometimes take on additional dimensions while they are in progress that requires additional skill sets, or you may come across specific challenges that they would like to hash out with a peer. The Catalyst:Ed team is always happy to answer questions you might have, or to put you in touch with other senior providers who can offer actionable insights based on their personal experience.

Moving forward, we expect that our community platform will become a valuable resource for providers who seek to collaborate with each other.

Absolutely. We recognize some projects may be best served through a team-based approach, and encourage you to work with other consultants who are in- or out-of-network. We have also introduced network members to each other and encouraged them to jointly apply for projects that require a mix of skills.

No – it is entirely up to you whether to apply or not. We recognize that you may not have capacity or may not be interested. If you’re not sure about the timing or the fit, you are always welcome to ask. There is no penalty for not applying to projects.

We notify all providers whose domain of expertise and experience fits the needs of the project.

The notification email will link to a more detailed scope. If you’re interested, you can submit your proposal using the form embedded in the scope. The proposal typically consists of 1-5 pages (depending on the project scope and size) and consists of your proposed approach, workplan, relevant experience and budget.

If a project is aligned with your areas of expertise, you will get an email via our technology platform. In the future, we also anticipate sharing scopes – with the partner’s permission – on our community platform.

We bring in new providers into the DEI Expert Hub during our intake cycles. Our three-step intake process is designed to help us get to know you better, pinpoint your specific areas of expertise and understand the contexts where you thrive. It includes an application, a video interview, and a reference check. Sign up here to be alerted the next time our intake cycle opens.

Intake Process FAQs

No. We take your privacy very seriously. Your profile will not be available to anyone unless you apply for a project or you explicitly give us permission to profile you in our list of “Featured Providers”. If you do apply for a project, we will share your profile information with the organization that posted the project.

Any materials and information you share as part of the intake process will be treated as confidential and will not be shared externally without your explicit permission.

You’ll be asked in your application to provide the contact details of three references who know you professionally and can speak to your skills and capabilities. We’ll reach out to you references in February if you’re invited to the interview stage. We connect with references by phone and email – these conversations help us pinpoint your expertise and understand the contexts that you thrive in.

Interviews are typically 30 mins long. Our aim is to get to know the providers better and learn about their work and the contexts that they thrive in. We prefer to do these by video mostly because it’s more fun for us and the providers that way!

You will receive an email on or before January 21, 2019 notifying you of your advancement to the next phase. You will have the opportunity to select a date and time for your video interview. Interviews will be conducted in February 2019.  

Applicants typically spend 10-20 minutes on their submissions. We see your application as the beginning of a conversation. We will use the information to help guide the interview, so we can get to know you and the work you’ve been doing. 

We welcome applications from all experts doing work in this field. The “individual application” is right for you if you: (1) work as an independent consultant or (2) have a sole proprietorship or LLC where you are the only consultant or (3) do consulting on the side. The “firm-level application” is right for you if you work for a larger organization with multiple experts.

No. The purpose of the webinar is to provide interested DEI providers with more information about our mission, model and process. We will also make a recording available in case you’re unavailable but still interested in learning more.

Equity in the Center (EiC), a project of ProInspire, works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems within the social sector to increase race equity. EiC’s work is designed to achieve the following goals: Nonprofit and philanthropic organizations adopt a Race Equity Culture focused on proactive counteraction of social inequities; Organizations define, implement, and advance race equity internally while advocating for it in their work externally; and Race equity is centered as a core goal of social impact across the sector

Through its Awake to Woke to Work: Building a Race Equity Culture research, convenings of nonprofit and philanthropic leaders (including an annual Summit), and curation of resources such as How to Lose/Retain a Leader of Color in 365 Days, EiC accelerates leaders, supports organizations and inspires action across the social sector. Its work has been featured by Bridgespan and Fast Company, and video of sessions from its 2018 Summit can be viewed here.

Catalyst:Ed is a national nonprofit that is unlocking the collective expertise in the sector to help education organizations innovate, excel and scale. We inform and connect education leaders – the change makers – with the top management and education talent they need for their short-term, mission-critical needs. In the process, we are democratizing access to expertise, amplifying the impact of the sector’s brightest talent and redefining the limits of organizational capacity.

 

NewSchools is an early stage seed fund that supports capacity building organizations, and invests in entrepreneurs that have bold ideas in education and leadership. A priority is their Diverse Leaders initiative: working to close the racial and ethnic demographic gap between education leadership and students through direct investment in entrepreneurs, catalyzing donors and partners, and internal commitment to these goals across NewSchools. They have made the case for DEI-focused work in schools through the research and publishing of Unrealized Impact, an expansive study of the state and effect DEI in school, organizational, and individual performance in 210 schools and education organizations. This work has spurred organizations to take DEI on as priority, but NewSchools has found that education leaders often don’t know where to start. They have tapped Catalyst:Ed to build the Expert Hub, in effort to map the landscape of DEI providers nationally and facilitate connections between education leaders seeking support and expert providers.