Outdoor industry leaders announced the formation of the Outdoor Diversity Alliance (ODA) and invited every outdoor brand and nonprofit to be part of its launch. ODA is designed to assist the outdoor industry in addressing systemic issues impacting diversity, equity and inclusion through collective action.
ODA plans to serve as a central group driving and supporting industry-wide collaboration between businesses and historically underrepresented communities in the outdoors by helping brands move from self-driven, isolated diversity equity and inclusion (DEI) work, towards shared, collective action to support BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, people with disabilities, and other members of historically excluded communities.
The idea and effort to launch the Alliance has been led by a group of industry professionals, including Teresa Baker, founder of the Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge and In Solidarity, Josie Norris, an industry veteran who was previously with the Conservation Alliance, as well as thought leaders from seven outdoor brands and organizations:
- Arc’teryx Equipment Dan Walker
- Burton Ashley Laporte
- Cotopaxi Damien Huang
- Moosejaw Eoin Comerford
- Outdoor Industry Association Kent Ebersole
- Protect Our Winters Torrey Udall
- Smartwool Alicia Chin
The ODA founding board hired 18 community advisors representing outdoor affinity groups and historically marginalized communities to consult and advise on what they feel ODA should do to support their community members. The organization developed its goals and activities based on the feedback and recommendations from the community advisors.
ODA believes it will be critical to center the needs of historically underrepresented communities in the outdoors as they shape the work in the first year.
Through listening to brands and community advisors, the board members learned there is a clear need and an unmet demand for collaborative work around DEI in the outdoor industry. Many industry leaders and companies need help setting a clear path forward to advance equity. Others have gained ground in DEI work, but they want to do more across their organization. Brands want to consult with other brands and ask relevant questions like: What are you doing to advance DEI? What has worked for you? What hasn’t? What mistakes have you made? How did you correct them?
While focusing on the needs of marginalized community members, the Alliance will help members advance equity and inclusion with peer-to-peer sharing on topics like representation in marketing, building authentic community partnerships, selecting vendors from marginalized groups, adopting inclusive language in internal and external communications, and more. The board believes that every department can use this peer support – from marketing executives to HR managers to product team members to social media coordinators and beyond. Baker said, “They all can share what is working and what is not working in advancing equity.”
The ODA’s goals are to:
- Support the development of authentic relationships by helping brands and historically underrepresented groups connect. Through these relationships, brands can share what they have been doing and ask questions without judgment.
- Create the framework for an industry-wide equity assessment. Standardized metrics help brands know what to track and unite them around shared goals. Plus, this data will serve as a tool for accountability.
- Create authentic storytelling models led by members of underrepresented communities. ODA will work with community advisors to build an industry guide for authentic storytelling, ambassador relationships, partnerships, and marketing campaigns.
In 2024, ODA also would host an in-person gathering of CEOs and other leaders from its member companies to begin the collaborative work. Members will work together to develop programming. They plan to utilize the resource hub and job board through the In Solidarity site. Collecting demographics from all members will be part of members’ commitment to ODA.
The board invites brands and nonprofits to sign on as new members and commit to paying membership dues in early 2024. The dues range from $1,000 to $10,000 and are determined by the revenue of the brand. Membership dues will pay for staff time to run ODA, events, and operations. The goal is to secure a minimum of $150,000 in new member commitments by the end of 2023. The organization is partnering with the Social Good Fund, its fiscal sponsor. Businesses can click here to apply.
To learn more visit www.insolidarityproject.com/oda and to join, email: OutdoorDiversityAlliance@gmail.com.
