I am proud to share that Flywire, along with more than 60 companies in Massachusetts, has joined the Tech Compact for Social Justice. Spearheaded by MassTLC, the Compact challenges tech companies in Massachusetts to double the percentage of Black and Latinx employees in Massachusetts companies by 2030. It also calls upon companies to take a critical look inside their own organizations and commit to making changes towards a more diverse, equitable and inclusive tech industry.
We are also proud to be joining the Fintech Equality Coalition, which was united by the urgent mission to make racial equality a right for everyone. The Fintech Equality Coalition is working toward action-oriented goals to enhance access to financial services, as well as jobs and career advancement, for underrepresented groups—particularly the Black community.
The past months have challenged us all to take a close look at what we can do individually and as groups to ensure that we actively, vs passively, seek the end to racism & discrimination. While there are no simple answers, we all realize we must do better. As a CEO, I have a duty and obligation to ensure that my company, Flywire, leads by example and continues to push ourselves and our communities globally towards a more equitable future. The Tech industry should reflect the diverse people we serve & while I recognize we still have work to do, I am proud of the work our FlyMates (our employees) have been doing to support each other around the globe to establish a supportive, equitable & inclusive culture.
Ultimately our actions are more important than words, so I’d like to share where we are on our own Flywire journey:
Building a Diverse Culture Through Global Collaboration: One of our core Flywire values is global collaboration. With more than 450 employees representing more than 34 nationalities, this goes far beyond having FlyMates distributed across the globe. Bringing together a group of individuals across different cultures, races, religions, experiences and more is what makes us a stronger team. We seek to understand and embrace everyone’s uniqueness. It is when we celebrate our differences and perspectives that true innovation happens. At Flywire, we commit to building a more diverse employee base and have put steps in place to ensure our talent acquisition strategy seeks out diverse candidates particularly Black and Latinx, across our global organization in individual contributor, management and leadership positions.
Employee Resource Groups: In 2019, we launched FlyMates First, a group of 28 FlyMates focused on diversity, equity and inclusion. This group’s mission is to create and maintain a safe, inclusive, and equitable environment for all employees. FlyMates First aims to sustain visibility, equity and community throughout Flywire for all our FlyMates. As part of FlyMates First we have established additional employee resource groups including FlywirePride and Women of Flywire. In the last several months FlyMates First has also hosted open forums such as “Driving Impactful Change in a World Where Black Lives Matter,” and “Discrimination in the Face of COVID-19,” which focused on our Asian communities. These forums have allowed FlyMates to share and learn from each other and speak openly about how Flywire can be part of the change. Women of Flywire has partnered with Brown Kids Read to encourage parents within Flywire to help their children think about racial privilege and bias.
FlyMates First has also introduced a monthly Ally training program. This training teaches FlyMates about the basics of being an ally, recognizing discrimination in all of its forms, and pushing the attendees to find ways that they can improve their personal allyship, as well as ways the company can better serve oppressed communities. This training is open to everyone at Flywire and we will continue to push forward here and support and encourage the great work of FlyMates First.
Flywire Foundation: Earlier this year, we officially launched the Flywire Charitable Foundation. This organization enables our ability to support the global community we serve with actionable programs & contributions to global & local groups. Our inaugural program will grant a total of four scholarships this year, with two scholarships at $4,500 each to students studying global medicine, and two scholarships at $4,500 each for students studying social justice. The response to this program exceeded our expectations and I am excited to report that we had over 800 students from 40 different countries apply over the past months! Our team is excited to announce the four winners over the coming weeks.
Global Volunteerism: Flywire has always had an active role in giving back to our communities and taking action to support charitable programs & events such as School the World, but we are eager to see what our FlyMates can accomplish if they had more opportunities to give back! Therefore we also announced “FlyBetter Days” which provides two additional paid days off for a FlyMate to use to support their local communities or causes that matter to them. I have been so encouraged to see how our FlyMates have been giving their time, from donating plasma for COVID-19 to volunteering to help children and more.
Together, we have a lot of work to do, but we are excited to stand with so many great companies in being an active advocate for change & I look forward to helping to build a more diverse, equitable and inclusive future for all.
For more information on the Mass TLC Tech Compact for Social Justice visit https://www.masstlc.org/wecommit/.