Lincoln Invests to Preserve the Past and Advance the Future with The HistoryMakers and UNCF
February 23 2021 - 1:54PM
Business Wire
Company further supports Black communities through partnerships
with The HistoryMakers to preserve African American historical
records and UNCF to establish a future talent pipeline of
high-achieving African American students for the financial services
industry
As part of its action plan to advance racial equity, Lincoln
Financial Group (NYSE: LNC) today announced partnerships with The
HistoryMakers and UNCF to further support Black communities through
the preservation of African American historical records and
creation of a future talent pipeline of high-achieving African
American students.
The HistoryMakers, a one-of-a-kind collection housed permanently
at the Library of Congress, provides unprecedented and
irreplaceable physical and online records that educate on the
struggles, determination, contributions and achievements of African
American lives through unique first-person testimonies. As part of
its $1-million contribution, Lincoln sponsored The HistoryMakers
20@2020: 20 Days and 20 Nights, a virtual convening of some of the
nation’s top African American thought leadership, and will also
provide its employees access to the digital archives to continue
crucial conversations about race throughout the organization and
further advance cultural understanding.
With an aspiration to increase minority workforce opportunities,
Lincoln and UNCF will create a postsecondary program for UNCF
scholars that provides internships, scholarship assistance and
early-career readiness support to help prepare students for
rewarding careers in the insurance and asset management industries.
The program will serve as a strong talent pipeline for the
industry, and Lincoln will successfully recruit students from this
program into the company’s Internship Development Program and other
potential early-career opportunities.
“We believe that working to advance racial equity is our
responsibility as an organization,” said Dennis R. Glass, president
and chief executive officer at Lincoln Financial. “Last year, we
put our plans in place and immediately began taking action –
thoughtful, strategic action that will set the foundation for
long-term results. We are committed to driving change, we know we
have more work to do, and we are accountable for it.”
Lincoln has organized its plans to support racial justice and
equity around eight key action areas, and the following shares
progress made in each focus area:
- Implement sustainable and integrated practices to increase
Black populations at Lincoln. In the last five months, Lincoln
has added dedicated, diversity-focused recruiters and began
broadening its reach and talent pipeline by elevating established
partnerships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities and
identifying new diverse channels and community partners.
- Focus on retaining, developing and increasing minority
leadership, growing minority representation at the officer level by
50% over the course of three years. This year, Lincoln is
launching several new development practices, programs and events
aimed at increasing and supporting minority leadership, starting
with the inaugural Tidwell Leadership Summit in March. Named
for late Lincoln National Corporation Board Member Isaiah Tidwell,
an exceptional business leader and champion of diversity and
inclusion, this internal event is modeled on Lincoln’s successful
Women’s Leadership Summit, a two-day internal event where leaders
convene to gain insights from each other as well as internal and
external speakers.
- Explore formally tying leadership compensation to company
diversity and inclusion objectives, embedding and expanding an
expectation to meet diversity objectives in all aspects of leaders’
behaviors. Lincoln has engaged with an outside consultant to help
define this framework, which the company plans to implement this
year.
- Expand the Diversity & Inclusion function across
Lincoln. This January, Lincoln welcomed Brandy Smith to the
Diversity & Inclusion team as VP, Workplace Diversity and
Counsel. Smith is working with Lincoln’s Chief Diversity Officer
Allison Green Johnson to drive the implementation of
enterprise-wide workplace diversity efforts. In addition to Smith’s
role, the Diversity & Inclusion team will expand by 100% in the
coming months.
- Continue to grow Lincoln’s professional network of Black
financial advisors and planners. The company launched an
African American Financial Professionals Network and will host
their kickoff meeting this spring, modeled on Lincoln’s successful
WISE (Women Inspiring, Supporting and Educating) Network of
financial advisors, an initiative designed to better support the
needs of Lincoln’s female financial advisors and their clients.
Building on the WISE Network’s model, the African American
Financial Professionals Network will support advisor recruiting and
development efforts and help define new strategies for supporting
multicultural clients.
- Continue conversations about race across the
organization. In May 2020, Lincoln launched a crucial
conversations series focused on discussing race in the workplace.
These sessions have continued to thrive in forums large and small,
with the support of a variety of tools and conversation resource
guides the company has created for managers. Feedback from these
conversations resulted in several direct actions including the
company’s African American Business Resource Group establishing a
mentor program among senior leaders and members.
- Contribute $1-million to The HistoryMakers, the nation’s
largest African American oral history video archive, over a period
of time. With this important partnership, Lincoln is committed
to helping combat racism and bias in today’s society by preserving
the history of the Black experience and its relationship to
American culture and progress. Lincoln sponsored The HistoryMakers
20@2020: 20 Days and 20 Nights virtual event and will also provide
its employees access to digital archives to continue crucial
conversations about race throughout the organization and further
advance cultural understanding.
- Leverage the Lincoln Financial Foundation and community
partnerships to further support Black communities, by giving to
nonprofits with demonstrated success in advancing Black
communities, and by engaging with leading philanthropic membership
organizations that focus on equity-based grantmaking, such as the
Association of Black Foundation Executives (ABFE). Lincoln will
partake in ABFE’s Responsive Philanthropy in Black Communities
(RPBC) program, which is designed to promote effective and
responsive philanthropy in Black communities and increase the
capacity of all philanthropy to do their work more effectively.
Additionally, Lincoln formed a partnership with UNCF to cultivate a
talent pipeline of high-achieving Black students in its communities
who can be successfully recruited into the company’s Internship
Development Program and other potential early-career
opportunities.
“Diversity, inclusion, belonging and equity are intrinsic to the
special culture we have here at Lincoln. We’re proud of the work we
have done, but we know we’re just getting started,” said Lisa M.
Buckingham, chief people, place and brand officer. “We will
continue to learn and grow on this journey together with all of our
employees, our clients, partners and communities.”
Throughout 2021, Lincoln will share more information about each
of its eight diversity action areas and progress made on its
newsroom.
About Lincoln Financial Group
Lincoln Financial Group provides advice and solutions that help
people take charge of their financial lives with confidence and
optimism. Today, more than 17 million customers trust our
retirement, insurance and wealth protection expertise to help
address their lifestyle, savings and income goals, and guard
against long-term care expenses. Headquartered in Radnor,
Pennsylvania, Lincoln Financial Group is the marketing name for
Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE:LNC) and its affiliates. The
company had $303 billion in end-of-period account values as of
December 31, 2020. Lincoln Financial Group is a committed corporate
citizen included on major sustainability indices including the Dow
Jones Sustainability Index North America and FTSE4Good. Dedicated
to diversity and inclusion, we earned perfect 100 percent scores on
the Corporate Equality Index and the Disability Equality Index, and
rank among Forbes’ World’s Best Employers, Best Large Employers,
Best Employers for Diversity, and Best Employers for Women, and
Newsweek’s Most Responsible Companies. Learn more at:
www.LincolnFinancial.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,
and Instagram. Sign up for email alerts at
http://newsroom.lfg.com.
LCN-3455418-021721
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Amy Ponticello Amy.Ponticello@LFG.com 484-269-7151
Jen McCullough Jennifer.McCullough@LFG.com 484-678-1064
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