Over a Year in the Making, Our New Landing Page is Also Our New DEI Page

Back in 2022, Carla Dartis, MSC’s Executive Director, asked us to consider adding a DEI page to MSC’s website. Honestly, we — MSC’s small Communications Team — were taken aback by the request. DEI, or Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, “encompasses the symbiotic relationship, philosophy and culture of acknowledging, embracing, supporting, and accepting those of all racial, sexual, gender, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds, among other differentiators,” per InclusionHub. Yes, DEI within organizations is crucial — but MSC, in a way, is DEI. 

As defined by our Mission, MSC is an equitable movement support organization that provides infrastructure and thought partnership “for BIPOC, women, and LGBTQIA+ movement leaders, activists, and communities challenging intersectional issues of systemic racism, rampant environmental destruction, and crippling economic exploitation.” And our Vision conjures “a world of interdependence, liberation, and resilience — where the many govern for the benefit of all.”

Behind the flowery language, our small staff is a DEI stock photo of race, sexuality, geography, and background led by an all women of color senior leadership team. Likewise, the leadership and staff of the many organizations we work with are the picture of diversity. And all of us — from our core staff to our extended ecosystem of partners — are working, in different ways, in support of social justice, racial equity, movement building, and a Just Transition. DEI is embedded in our ethos; we can’t relate to some heteropatriarchal organization that forces its human resources teams to invent a front-facing DEI program to create a virtue signaling veneer for fed up employees and idealistic jobseekers.  

All that said, what would a DEI-focused page on MSC’s website even look like? Or contain? 

We talked about it for months but kept coming back to this idea that MSC is DEI. But why? And how do we do a better job of sharing that we are living and working DEI every day? With that, Why MSC? was born.

Why MSC? is what we are calling our brand new landing page, over a year in the making. Launched at the very end of 2023, Why MSC? is more than a blurb, a donation plea, and a series of links (which was the whole of our old landing page). It’s more like your Netflix home screen — it’s all right there: you can peek into the whole of our ideas, partnerships, and resources. You can get lost in it — you’ll find featured partners as well as easy links to access all our partners. You’ll find our beautiful staff. You’ll find shortcuts to our robust social media channels, to our mission and vision, our annual report, and — of course — a plea to donate. And you’ll find some of the stuff that sometimes gets lost in the shuffle — our videos, our essay series on Shifting Philanthropy, and our Q&As with ecosystem movement leaders we so admire. Best of all, it will allow us to easily update featured components.

We talked about it for months but kept coming back to this idea that MSC is DEI. But why? And how do we do a better job of sharing that we are living and working DEI every day?

Twenty three people wearing blue shirts smile for a group photo in three separate rows. A wall full of framed posters and activist art is behind them.
MSC staff from left, back, Taj James, Marcus Cunningham, Yasmine Laurent, Kathy Moore, David Malinowski, Tiffany Harris, Lauren Wheat, Dejah Williams, Sally Miller, Sandra Bass, Frank Gargione, from left, middle, Bridgette Bell, Jamillah Renard, Mohini Tadikonda, Daniel Parada, Alejandra García Lezama, Marie Joseph, Lidia Alvarez, from left, front, Sophie Hou, Andrea Granda, Karmella Green, Carla Dartis, Aileen Hermoso. Photos by Hewitt Photography.

You will find Diversity; you will find Equity; you will find Inclusion. Because MSC is DEI. 

The design was inspired by a series of disparate websites across disparate industries that employed a sort of grid to differentiate different sections, links, and ideas. The sites we looked at — there were many — were dynamic, graphic, and playful. More importantly, those grids made updating sections very simple. We look forward to swapping our featured partners, resources, blogs, videos, and photos regularly — to keep things fresh and share as much of the critical work our partners are doing as we can. All of this was possible with the help of our friends at Agenda28 who worked with us to develop Why MSC? over many months and many iterations.

We couldn’t be happier with the result. Especially with DEI — all the good, and all the virtue signaling — under attack in the wake of last June’s Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action. Please check it out and check it often. And let us know if you have any feedback.