New Boardroom Diversity Initiative
The Fourth Floor, the market network for women founders, board candidates and investors, today announced the soft launch of their Pay It Forward Initiative.
The Pay It Forward Initiative incentivizes companies to think about boards differently by providing an easy way to bring diversity into the boardroom, empower women executives to initiate or advance for-profit board careers and save money on recruiting costs.
“The partners joining us in this initiative have signed a pledge stating their commitment to close the gender, wealth and funding gaps by diversifying boardrooms and cap tables, and we couldn’t be more excited to see the strong corporate response to such an important mission,” said The Fourth Floor founder Breen Sullivan. “We knew there was potential to drive systemic change on a much larger scale and make a dent in the
gender wealth and funding gap if we could incentivize the entire business community-male-led companies included- to commit to tangible steps that would make diversity at the board level a reality and ensure a steady stream of board opportunities and qualifiedcandidates.”
The Fourth Floor is actively accepting partnership pledges through the Pay It Forward partnership (for all companies who are seeking to diversify their boards and support the
women executives) and the Greater Impact partnership (for innovation labs,accelerators and funds, B2B and professional service firms, NGOs, communities and government agencies who are invested in leveling the playing field for women, including founders who need access to funding).
Recent moves by NASDAQ (diversify or delist), the Securities and Exchange Commission and players like Goldman Sachs, not to mention the legislation in California requiring board diversity, make it clear we need an efficient, transparent ‘Market
Network’ for diverse board candidates sooner rather than later. The Pay It Forward Initiative has potential to spearhead this transformation by enlisting thousands of companies between now and 2025 to take a pledge and accelerate the change that is already in the air.
“After committing to invest time and money in creating opportunities for advancement within their own companies or client and portfolio companies, Pay It Forward and Greater Impact partners earn a seal to display as a symbol of their commitment to diversity and equality,” said de Haen. “They also earn credits for each board career they help initiative or advance, which helps us reach our goal of initiating or advancing 75,000 board careers by the end of 2025. Think Good Housekeeping seal meets carbon
offset credits for DE&I.”
To take the pledge to close the gender wealth and funding gap by diversifying boardrooms and cap tables, sign your company up as a Pay It Forward or Greater Impact Partner here: https://thefourthfloor.co/pay-it-forward-initiative
Partners and supporters include: The Innovation Space, NYSERDA, Boardwise,Stella, Ad Astra, Corporate Counsel Business Journal, PEWIN, Bright Power, Trulieve,
AHP Servicing, Archetype, and many more. The Fourth Floor estimates it has alreadyaggregated 470 company partners which means launching with a minimum of close to
1500 board careers.
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