The Data & Marketing Association (DMA) has entered into a partnership with not-for-profit organisation Race Equality Matters, as it seeks to promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

The DMA will fund and support Race Equality Matters’ campaign to empower ethnic minority employees and help the organisation to provide insight, tools, and resources to drive change. The trade body will also be involved in ‘The Big Promise’, where organisations make a public and measurable commitment to create a positive change, and will hold a series of ‘Safe Space’ discussions to drive dialogue between ethnic minority employees and senior leaders.

“The DMA is committed to creating meaningful change to achieve racial equality in the data and marketing industry and society more broadly. A key motivation behind this partnership is to help continue our work in ensuring that the creative, data and tech industries are both accessible and inclusive from the classroom through to the boardroom,” said Rachel Aldighieri, Managing Director at DMA. “Diversity and inclusion are key tenets of intelligent marketing that puts people first. In order for our industry to better serve the customer, it is vital that the workforce is truly representative of them – something that’s front and central to the DMA ethos.”

Race Equality Matters was founded four months ago by Green Park and The Collaboratory in response to the Black Lives Matter Movement and the DMA is the latest of UK firm to pledge its support, following in the footsteps of the likes of BT, Kick It Out, and Diversity UK.

The organisations will come together to fund resources and activities throughout the UK’s first Race Equality Week, which will be held between 1 and 7 February 2021. The week aims to unite UK firms and individuals to address issues surrounding diversity and inclusion in the professional world.

“Following the Black Lives Matter protests and the disparity of impact the COVID pandemic has had on ethnic minority communities, the UK is beginning to face truths about its relationship with race. With organisations and individuals more open to have honest conversations, we have a real opportunity to turn this moment into meaningful change for the future of the workplace and wider society,” said Raj Tulsiani, CEO and Co-founder of Green Park.

“We are grateful to have Data & Marketing Association’s support and look forward to collaborating through Race Equality Matters to empower ethnic minority employees and provide organisations, networks and individuals with the insight, tools and resource to drive effective action for sustainable change.”