Our Ethos
We understand that leadership changes bring both opportunity and risk; the shift can be exciting, the dynamics complex, and the stakes high. Our expertise lies at the intersection of those realities.
Promise54 offers comprehensive search support and a suite of a la carte recruiting services designed to support our client partners with executive transitions.Â
We blend broad, meaningful stakeholder engagement with a high-touch, tailored approach anchored in the belief that process matters…and investing in a better process leads to better outcomes.
Most organizations want a diverse senior leadership team. Yet most leadership teams today are largely white.
%
of Executive Team members are white
%
of CEOs are white
These numbers are not surprising when you consider that:
Only 3 in 10 organizations have recruits meet with staff with shared backgrounds
Only 4 in 10 organizations have an interviewer from an underrepresented group
Only 4 in 10 organizations have practices to eliminate selection bias
Only 6 in 10 organizations are doing active outreach to underrepresented groups when recruiting
Source: Promise54 Organization Profile DEI Survey
We do things differently, and it shows.
There is one question that we are most often asked, and so we track it carefully and update it here quarterly:Â what percent of the hires in your searches are leaders of color? The answer is 80%.
We’re proud of that metric, but we don’t think that’s the most important question to ask when choosing a search firm; it’s rooted in a false assumption that the best measure of a search firm’s commitment to diversity is the hire our clients make, and how many of those hires are leaders of color.Â
There’s another statistic by which we measure our own success at Promise54: the percentage of leaders of color in the finalist pools we assemble. That number is 70%, and we think it’s a better indicator of our work and our commitment to lead searches that significantly increase the opportunity for leaders of color to be considered and, ultimately, hired. We update this quarterly too, and we hope you’ll hold us to it.
%
of the leaders in our finalist pools are leaders of color
Leaders whose hire we’re proud to have supported in our last 10 searches
Marsha Gadsden
Executive Director
PAVE Academy Charter Schools
Carlos Beatos
Co-Director
Next Generation Learning Challenges
Elizabeth Clay Roy
Chief Executive Director
Generation Citizen
Monica Milligan
Chief Program Officer
Gradient Learning
Nancy Poon Lue
Senior Director
Valhalla Foundation
Erick Roa
Vice President of Talent
Making Waves Foundation
Leah Walker
Senior Vice President of Equity & Inclusion
Waterford UPSTART
Joyce Highhouse
Programme Officer
Oak Foundation
Donique Muhammad
Senior Vice President of Outreach
Waterford UPSTART
Recy B. Dunn
Chief Executive Officer
Ascend Public Charter Schools
Our unique pricing model enables us to be impartial advisors.
Traditionally, executive search pricing is linked to the compensation of the successful candidate, which can incentivize recruiters to recommend higher salaries and lead to unexpected fees.
Instead, we are focused on supporting you to attract the best candidates without unnecessary or unexpected costs. Therefore, we calculate – and cap – our fees based on the expected length of the engagement, the complexity of the project, and the Promise54 team members involved.
Our tools and approach are designed to promote equity.
Most interview processes are performative and steeped in outdated power dynamics between organizations and candidates. This doesn’t lead to an authentic mutual exploration.
Our job descriptions, performance tasks, referencing, interview format, and communications are all designed to mitigate bias and reduce the influence of white dominant cultural norms. We’re learning and incorporating new lessons with each search, and will bring our best emerging wisdom to our work with you.
