Our commitment to Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion…
At Ktisis Capital, our commitment to Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) is core to who we are. Our firm exists to mobilize resources for justice - racial, social, economic, environmental and more.
We lead with a commitment to justice in the way that we provide services, in how we engage with our staff and partners, and fundamentally how we aspire to move through this world. We believe that it is our duty to advance access to opportunities to those most marginalized by historic and current systems and structures of oppression which disproportionately impact Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC); women; LGBTQ peoples; and ethnic and cultural minorities.
Our commitment to advancing Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion takes many forms. We have a commitment to building a diverse team within Ktisis Capital and to ensure a diverse range of stakeholders and voices constantly informs our work, bringing in a wide and varied range of perspectives and experiences. Beyond diversity, we are committed to the pursuit of equity, ensuring that everyone we work with and ultimately everyone served and engaged by the work we support has the resources, access, networks, and support they need to survive and thrive based on where they come from and where they want to go, rather than any aspect of their identity that has or may marginalize them. Building on those commitments to diversity and equity, we strive at Ktisis to be an inclusive organization that fosters a sense of belonging by centering, valuing, and amplifying the voices, perspectives, and styles of those who experience more barriers based on their identities. Finally, we are committed to the pursuit of justice, proactively working for access to wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society not defined by personal identity and proactively redressing historic marginalization.
Internally, we seek to model our commitment to JEDI principles beginning with our own management and hiring practices. We are not just an equal opportunity employer. Rather, we actively seek to build a team with a wide range of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills committed to working toward a just and equitable world for all. We strive to be intentional in practices that are inclusive of the many diverse and intersecting identities we all carry with us including but not limited to ethnic, racial, cultural, gender, age, class, veteran status, religious, national origin, disability, family status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, HIV status, incarceration or conviction history, and socio-economic diversity.
We recognize that as we continue our work to live into our commitment to Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, our work is informed by our own privileges and biases. We acknowledge that this work is ever evolving and our efforts are never complete.
JEDI in practice at Ktisis Capital…
While our commitment to JEDI principles infuses all our work, there are specific policies and practices where that is translated into concrete action. Some of these include:
Hiring & Human Resource
Ktisis Capital prides itself on hiring a team of dedicated and innovative leaders with a passion and commitment to justice in all its forms. We firmly believe that convening a team from varied backgrounds who hold diverse and intersecting identities is not only representative of the world but lends a unique set of perspectives to the way that we approach our work with clients.
Human Rights Policy
At Ktisis Capital, we are committed to respecting human rights as identified by the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles of Rights at Work.
The Ktisis Capital Human Rights Policy applies to all company operations, its employees, and, where applicable, to our upstream and downstream supply chain through partners, suppliers, and contractors. In partnerships where Ktisis Capital does not hold sole responsibility, the leaders of those businesses, organizations, and/or contractors are strongly encouraged to adopt similar policies and apply similar standards. If a human rights issue arises in those partnerships, Ktisis Capital will employ its full effort to work with those partners to remedy the issue and remediate any negative impacts that may have resulted from the activity.
Ktisis Capital adheres to the laws and regulations in each country in which it operates. If those laws and regulations conflict with internationally recognized human rights, the company will follow processes that solicit the honoring of international human rights.
Our approach to human rights begins with an understanding of how our work, products, and activities affect, either positively or negatively, stakeholders in Ktisis’ work. We strive to ensure that all stakeholders’ rights are respected and advanced through our business activities.
We respect the sovereignty of Indigenous peoples and acknowledge the important relationship they hold with the land, waters, and environment. We respect their cultural foundations and traditional ways. Wherever we interact with Indigenous peoples, we seek to learn and understand the social, cultural, and environmental impacts of our actions, so that we can minimize and remediate any negative influences of those actions.
In addition to respecting human rights, Ktisis Capital actively pursues opportunities to support human rights through our client engagements, corporate activities, and the encouragement of personal activities of our employees where they can make a positive impact.
JEDI & Human Rights commitments in action…
Detailed policies and provisions reflecting our commitments to advancing Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and advancing Human Rights are integrated across many aspects of Ktisis Capital. These policies and provisions include:
Working conditions, including hours of work, holidays, paid paternity leave, and vacation allowances
Compensation and employee benefits
Equal Employment Opportunity
Freedom of association and collective bargaining
Sexual, non-discrimination, and other unlawful harassment
Standards of conduct and adherence to core values
Vendor and supplier diversity
While accountability to these types of policies are often handled internally, in service of transparency and living into these commitments, we offer the summary of our internal accountability processes here. Ultimate oversight for Ktisis’ execution on its JEDI and human rights commitments rests with our founder and principal, Dr. Jason Franklin. Operational oversight of human rights is the responsibility of all employees of the company. If any employee believes that the Human Rights Policy has been or is actively being violated, they are asked to report this concern to Dr. Franklin. If it is believed that Dr. Franklin is the one responsible for the policy violation, the employee is asked to raise their concern to Anna Baeten, Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director. All concerns will be reviewed and investigated with the utmost care, and, if necessary, a solution will be presented to both the employee who submitted the notice, as well as the company-at-large.
As part of our ongoing commitment to respecting and actively advancing human rights, Ktisis Capital performs an annual risk and impact assessment of all company activities and on-going risk and impact assessments of all client work. Ktisis also performs regular reviews of company practices and policies to ensure their adherence to the latest JEDI best practices, the International Bill of Human Rights, and the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles of Rights at Work.