USCC Dedicates Funding, Looking for Matches for DEIA Projects

The USCC Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Access Committee has some ambitious projects you will see unveiled over the next six months. The USCC Board of Directors has directed member funding to underwrite some of these, but others are a lift that require some matching grant funding and/or sponsorship.

USCC members have the opportunity to support our goal of an industry that is educating, training, and supporting composting employees and businesses that are outside our usual trajectories. (See full DEIA program here.)

This year’s projects needing matching funding and/or grants are as follows:

• A professional Benchmarking Study ($10,000) that would not only take (anonymously/aggregated) the demographics and DEIA pulse of members of USCC, but it would then provide back to each member a benchmarked assessment of how each company/organization is doing in comparison with others.  We are hoping to start this project in September. 
  
  
• Funds for frontline/marginalized community members in composting/community gardens/urban farming to attend COMPOST2024. We learned the financial lift is harder than we anticipated since last year’s fundraiser for conference tuition alone wasn’t enough help for most of applicants, so we are trying to raise funds for travel/lodging as well.

If you are interested in becoming a sponsor or know a donor who can help, see the sponsorship form here. Special thanks to a USCC Chapter, the North Carolina Composting Council, for stepping up with a $1,000 contribution as our first for this fundraiser.
 
For more information, click here or contact Gowri Sundaram, USCC’s DEIA Committee lead, or Linda Norris-Waldt, deputy director.