Theory of Change

In order to align with the movement for racial justice, professionals in capital markets must go beyond making statements and declaring intentions, and address how the current financial system causes and resources harmful actions and behaviors. To make these changes, the industry needs structural transformation brought on by institutional and individual action.

RJI envisions a sustainable, anti-racist and anti-oppressive economy that succeeds in resourcing everyone to be able to meet their needs and to thrive.

RJI’s Theory of Change Principles

Racial capitalism, the foundation of the US economy, draws upon a terrible legacy: the exploitation of Black, Brown and Indigenous peoples, communities, and the environment. Economic factors, focused on increasing shareholder value and maximizing profits, reinforce this racial hierarch

Both ESG data and DEl approaches are necessary and also insufficient. They fail to consider racism and other systems of oppression, or shift power to harmed communities

In order to yield the transformation we need and fulfill the intention of having a positive impact on racial equity, we must have a corresponding racial justice framework that challenges the underlying assumptions of finance.

Investors alone will not and cannot resolve systemic harm. Given the level of power that public and private markets, and those working in them hold, investor-led solutions will inherently be top down

Unless the guardrails and norms of the mainstream financial industry structurally shift, investors will be inherently limited in their professional contribution to racial justice efforts.

A racially just society is not an endpoint that can be achieved through one-off actions/without structural shifts.

  • Analysis

    RJI’s work will foster a deeper understanding of the construction of racial capitalism and how it persists, in order to apply to a corresponding racial justice framework that challenges the underlying assumptions of finance, enables systemic change, and prioritizes restorative practices that utilize a racial justice approach to finance.

  • Spectrum of Transformation

    RJI’s work will push individuals working in capital markets to be bolder, wherever the work on the incremental-to-transformative spectrum might land.

  • Acknowledge Alternatives

    RJI’s work will seek to understand, not impede, and where possible, support, efforts by grassroots and grasstops leaders using new tools, alternative models, and community-led solutions to create just and equitable futures.

  • Collaborate Across the Investment Chain

    Every actor working within capital markets has a role and responsibility in fostering change. RJI's work will bring different actors to work together in order to activate their individual potential, address pain points through collective solutions, and help unlock the collective capacity for reimagining and transformation, as an industry.

  • Grow & Sustain the Tent

    RJI is a BIPOC and gender-expansive led space that offers a collaborative and trust-based, non-competitive community of practice in service of making all of our work more successful. RJI’s work will take responsibility for galvanizing those working in public and private markets towards racial equity and racial justice, and not put the burden on grassroots communities and BIPOC communities within the finance industry. RJI cultivates hope in bringing together investment professionals committed to figuring out pathways for racial justice in their work.

  • Relationships with Impacted Communities

    RJI's work will seek to explore the tensions of working in capital markets and prioritizing justice-oriented outcomes. RJI members will work alongside marginalized communities and their advocates, and share power with these constituencies in order to fight back against the undermining of social justice movements and the reinforcement of racial and economic hierarchies by the finance industry.

  • Accountability

    RJI's standards and rigor around process will foster trust and accountability to:

    • Each other - by slowing down and focusing on a common goal;

    • Communities of color and additional impacted communities - by emphasizing the humanity of others and honoring the knowledge and expertise of stakeholders outside of the investment chain.