From SMART to SMARTIE: How to Embed Inclusion and Equity in Your Goals

Last updated: May 3, 2021
Estimated reading time: 2.5 minutes

When you’re moving from equity-neutral goals to goals with equity and inclusion considerations baked in, practice these tips to stay on track:

Mind the “how”

Some goals don’t—at face value—specifically promote equity and inclusion, so you’ll want to specify how you’re mitigating disparate impact or advancing equity and inclusion in yourtactics, benchmarks, or metrics. Below are two examples:

  • Your development team may have an outcome goal to “raise $X by Y to cover this year’s budget and 3 months’ operating reserve.” There are many ways to do this, and one of them might include this activity goal: “recruit, retain, and develop a total of 30,000 dues-paying members, at least X% of whom identify as [people of color / women / trans or gender non-conforming / poor / Spanish-speaking].”
  • 您的政策团队可能有一个目标，在年底前创建和传播X政策简报的移民。为了在这个过程中更加包容和公平，你可以明确地说:“我们将在最终确定前咨询X联盟或Y社区领导人，以获得反馈。”

Ask yourself:If the outcome specified in the goal isn’t specifically promoting equity and inclusion, is the process of achieving this goal going to improve equity and inclusion on our team/organization?

Check for unintentional disparate impact

A big part of developing aSMARTIE goal就是根据身份和权力检查无意的不同影响，并找到减轻这种影响的方法。但有时，你只是没有足够的信息(无论是先例还是观点)来预测意想不到的后果。如果是这种情况，请确保明确地说明如何以及何时进行检查。Below are two examples:

  • “Lower overhead costs by $X by [date]” can be improved by adding “…with quarterly check-ins with staff to check for negative disparate impact of cost savings.”
  • “Increase representation of staff with marginalized identities in our hiring processes by [date]” can be improved with the addition of “…with checks to ensure staff with marginalized identities aren’t carrying an unequal share of the work.”

Ask yourself:What unintended disparate impact might result from this goal? Who have I consulted to check for unintended negative consequences? Any key stakeholders I’m missing from this list?

Make your metrics matter

There’s a fine line between inclusion and tokenism. What’s the difference? Power. In most cases, it’s not enough to tack on “…and x number of volunteers/new hires/spokespeople should be people of color” unless the people you’re trying to include will be able to influence the work in a meaningful way. Here’s an example:

  • “在5月前组建一个由100名挨家挨户拉票的志愿者组成的志愿团队，其中至少有10%是有色人种”的目标与“在5月前组建一个由100名挨家挨户拉票的志愿者组成的志愿团队，首先招募至少10名有色人种作为志愿者领导，这样他们就可以帮助我们塑造拉票的方式。”

Ask yourself:If I added an outcome or activity goal related to a specific marginalized community, will achieving this goal help build power and/or shrink disparities for this community? If so, how?

Check out some other important resources for setting goals:

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