Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging at Stocksy

3D render of various geometric shapes depicting a balance concept.
Sibila and Pavel

Territory Acknowledgement

Stocksy United acknowledges that our co-op was founded on the traditional unceded territories of the peoples of Treaty 7, which include the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, the Piikani, and the Kainai First Nations), the Tsuut’ina First Nation, the Stoney Nakoda (including Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Goodstoney First Nations), and the Otipemisiwak Métis Government of the Métis Nation within Alberta District 6.

Stocksy is currently headquartered on the traditional unceded territories of the Lək̓ʷəŋən peoples (also known as the Xwsepsum [Esquimalt] and Songhees First Nations) and the W̱SÁNEĆ peoples (represented by the W̱JOȽEȽP [Tsartlip], SȾÁUTW̱ [Tsawout], BOḰEĆEN [Pauquachin], W̱SIḴEM [Tseycum], and MÁLEXEȽ (Malahat) Nations in Victoria, BC. With co-op members across 87 countries, we also recognize our role as a global community in a multitude of ancestral nations.

We embrace the responsibility as a global platform, community, and collection to challenge both ourselves and others to examine our perpetuation of colonialism and systems of oppression as a critical part of social and environmental progress.

We want to understand where our community of members are joining the co-op from and encourage each co-owner to research and reflect on the history of the lands they occupy. Visit native-land.ca to learn more.

Created with guidance from: The Lands We Walk

Why DEIB is Integral

Stocksy’s existence as an artist-led creative media co-op is fundamentally tied to the principles of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

A collection of cutting-edge, human-made, authentic media from around the world cannot continue to grow unless we continually improve our DEIB practices. Our success relies on welcoming and supporting our artists, promoting marginalized people and stories, investing in challenging creative projects, sharing experience and education, and giving organizational power to creators. We see the potential for how representative and authentic the collection can be, and these principles guide our progress.

We want each one of our members to be set up to do their best work here, be it building meaningful and impactful relationships, feeling safe to share their perspectives, or developing a sense of pride and purpose in their work. This focus drives innovation. It allows us to harness a broader range of perspectives, improves our ability to manage biases in ideation, analysis, and decision-making, and increases workforce engagement and wellbeing. Ultimately, diverse teams consistently outperform homogeneous teams, yielding a win-win scenario where our members feel a sense of safety and belonging, and the business becomes more effective.

One More Time: Why Diversity Leads To Better Team Performance

Why Diverse Teams Outperform Homogeneous Teams

Why Diverse Teams Are Smarter

 

Our Purpose as a Committee

We provide guidance and support for the co-op toward the aim of empowering all members to act along the principles of DEIB throughout all facets of our work.

This includes:

  • Recommendations on new or existing DEIB initiatives
  • Advice on embracing DEIB perspectives within specific projects and processes
  • Coordinating ongoing educational opportunities
  • Providing space for feedback to support continual innovation
  • Building a thriving, diverse membership and an environment where variety of thought and experience is seen as critical to the success of our business 

Diversity defined:

Embracing the unique dimensions and traits we possess as individuals, which help to provide variety of thought and experience in everything we do. Diversity can stem from different ethnic, cultural, social, and economic backgrounds, as well as from different genders, sexual orientations, age, religious views, and physical and mental abilities. Understanding that summing these differences creates better environments, practices, products, and futures.

Equity defined:

Ensuring our workplace environment and the work we create provides equal possible outcomes for every individual. Equity often requires unique, tailored accommodation in an attempt to achieve this goal.

Inclusion defined:

Building and supporting an environment where all individuals can fully participate, collaborate, and be heard as their true, authentic selves.

Belonging defined:

The emotional state we strive to cultivate through our collective efforts in diversity, equity, and inclusion is one where individuals feel genuinely welcome and connected within the organization—just as they are.

Current Committee Action

Goals

Better understand diversity gaps within the co-op membership and collection

Learn where to more equitably focus our efforts to maximize impact

Create more opportunities for casual social interaction

Support staff wellness

Tactics

Conduct an anonymized census of our membership
IN PROGRESS

Establish an ongoing, repeatable mentorship program

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Schedule working social times for all staff

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Create a directory of suggested education and wellness resources

Past Work

Education, Articles, and Guides

Programs and Sessions

  • Mentorship pilot program with support from the Women’s Economic Council and BC Coop Association we share, and connecting people across teams
  • Staff-wide “IDEAthon” session focused on belonging, facilitated by Sunflower Co-op
    • Learning first-hand how to make the most of our time at Stocksy 
    • Delivering recommendations report to leadership for execution
  • Contributor referral program welcoming more community involvement in artist recruitment
  • Artist grant program (Grantsy) to support Stocksy contributors in the creative production of new work
  • Free workshops with Authority Collective focused on inclusive media
  • North Star initiative surveying all staff to seek alignment on the future of our work
  • Mentorship for new media distribution platform co-op AfricanFuturistsArts, through Co-operatives UK UnFound Accelerator program

Policy and Practices

  • Revamped our talent acquisition strategy to enhance demographic data collection and targeting
  • Improved company recruitment practices, and updated interview processes
  • Improved how we evaluate and offer equal opportunities to creators from traditionally underrepresented communities in recruiting efforts/talent acquisition
  • Extended education allowance/funding support for colonial/Indigenous history training
  • Hired a metadata specialist to help with language barriers and keyword issues
  • Audited our active partnerships and ceased unaligned collaborations
  • Advising on co-op governance events (Annual General Meeting and Board Director elections)

Content Policy

Partnership Policy

Donations

We select charities and non-profit organizations that align with Stocksy’s advocacy strategy for Stocksy’s annual team donation fund. Since 2020, these have included:

Our advocacy strategy in the selection of these states we:

  • Stand with and for artists globally
  • Are a vocal supporter for fair value of artistic creation
  • Are protector of artists’ intellectual property rights
  • Place a premium on human community experience

Co-op Principles in Practice

Cooperatives champion a world of equity, sharing, and collaboration through people-first and equity-based practices. The internationally recognized co-op principles are values-driven guidelines that define how cooperatives operate. At Stocksy, we put these principles into practice as we strive to build a more inclusive and equitable space in the world.

  1. Voluntary and open membership
    • Our membership is open to all who are able to contribute— without gender, social, racial, political or religious discrimination.
  2. Democratic member control
    • Each Stocksy member has a voice (and vote) and valued position in the co-op. We aim to foster a culture of free and open discussion, where members can deliberate and consult on key co-op issues. 
  3. Members economic participation
    • At Stocksy, we believe that economic participation shouldn’t be a barrier to new members. That’s why our membership shares cost just $1 USD to ensure everyone can access our services and benefits (royalties and patronage payments) when joining.
  4. Autonomy and independence
    • As an autonomous body, we collectively seek out business engagements and partnerships that protect the rights of our artists. We employ strong financial and risk management controls to maintain our autonomy.
  5. Education, training, and information
    • We are deeply committed to the intellectual and creative growth of Stocksy’s membership through the availability of training and educational resources, mentorship, artist grants, and offering transparent reporting to the community to better support their informed ability to drive our co-op.
  6. Cooperation among cooperatives
    • Stocksy remains a leader and participant in global cooperative communities, engaging and combining forces to better serve and strengthen our community and the global cooperative movement.
  7. Concern for community
    • As a global cooperative serving almost 2,000 members in over 80 countries worldwide, we are keenly aware of the global impact of our business. We seek to continually examine our membership benefits to prioritize sustainable growth, better collaboration, and enhance community engagement.