Our ten actions toward racial equity
Our firm’s efforts to advance racial equity build on the foundation of our client service, our research, our work in communities, and our drive to build a great firm for exceptional people. Our 10 actions are the way we focus these critical efforts.
See our progress against each action.
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Doubling our Black leadership
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Day of service dedicated to racial justice
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Connected Leaders Academy
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Pro bono efforts
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Supplier diversity
Charitable giving
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Generation
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McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility
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Equity and inclusion learning journey
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Expert review of people processes
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Our global McKinsey Black Network (MBN)* spans every region across our firm, and we have made tremendous progress against our aspiration, through talent strategies such as enhancing our candidate attraction and retention offerings and expanding our search beyond traditional talent sources. We have made significant progress in other regions, for example the number of MBN colleagues in Latin America has grown sixfold, and we’ve nearly doubled our Black leadership globally. We will continue to apply our learnings to attract, retain, and advance distinctive people from a variety of paths across the globe.
*MBN aims to attract exceptional global Black talent and effect positive change for Black communities across the globe. MBN fosters a culture of inclusion and belonging where MBN members are inspired, have a world-class professional experience, and are set up for long-term success. Like all Firm affinity networks, any colleague may join MBN.
Our MBN professional development team, which supports retention efforts, has grown by 300%. A dedicated recruiting team is now focused on tripling the number of MBN colleagues in underrepresented cities globally.
We are bringing these efforts to other underrepresented communities, including an initiative to attract more Hispanic and Latino talent — and support current colleagues in achieving parity in advancement rates.
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Aspire to double our Black leadership and hiring of Black colleagues globally
McKinsey Black Network
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In 2020, aiming to deepen our colleagues’ understanding of racial justice and inclusive behaviors within our work and communities, we initiated a learning journey. This included several programs, such as the voluntary Equity & Inclusion digital module, which was completed by over 20,000 colleagues globally. This program has since evolved to embed inclusion capability building across our firm-wide learning journey for every McKinsey colleague, creating a new generation of inclusive leaders across the firm.
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Firmwide equity and inclusion learning journey
In November of 2020, we hosted our first annual firmwide day of service, where colleagues in each of our 154 global locations volunteered on efforts to advance racial equity as well as other issues impacting local communities. Based on the success of that event, we continue to hold an annual day of service to bridge investment of our people and capabilities to the local communities in which we work.
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Firmwide day of service dedicated to racial justice
Bring to bear the best available expertise to help us ensure our processes are free from bias and to support the attraction, development, advancement, and retention of colleagues from diverse backgrounds.
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Expert review of people processes
Black Leadership Academy
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Create a dedicated McKinsey Academy leadership program and make it available at no cost to our clients.
Connected Leaders Academy (CLA) is an award-winning leadership development program offered at no-cost to organizations. CLA programs provide participants an opportunity to connect identity, authenticity, and leadership, allowing them to reflect on the elements that they find most resonant. CLA offers a portfolio of tenure-specific programs to support learners at different inflection points in their career. We welcome any participant who our clients select to participate in the CLA programs.
To date, more than 1,400 organizations have elected to offer this supplemental leadership development content to over 108,000 participants. For these organizations, CLA programs—which have a 98 percent recommendation rate—are a cornerstone of enterprise-wide leadership development.
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Connected Leaders Academy (CLA)
Connected Leaders Academy
Executive Leadership Program
McKinsey Academy
Enrollment for Connected Leaders Academy
McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility
Learn more
The McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility is a research institute and think tank dedicated to advancing racial equity and inclusive growth in the United States and globally. Our mission is to help private-, public-, and social-sector leaders take informed action to accelerate Black economic progress by providing in-depth research, convening with stakeholders, and translating research into practical assets and capabilities to create real-world impact.
Since 2019, we’ve published more than 60 reports to help drive key conversations and action in society. This work has extended into Europe with projects and ongoing flagship research focusing on ethnic inclusion in the workplace and expanding the research across intersections of identity.
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McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility
McKinsey Supplier Diversity Program
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With sustainable and inclusive growth at the core of our business strategy, we expanded procurement beyond traditional sources and surpassed our aspirations in 2022. We continue to embed this approach in our ongoing supplier programs.
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Supplier diversity
Generation
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Generation, an independent nonprofit founded by McKinsey, actively provides training and opportunities for adult learners to find new and meaningful career pathways. In the United States, Generation helps underserved graduates find internship placements with other organizations so they can gain work experience as a bridge to higher-wage, high-growth job opportunities. With our support of a $2 million donation towards an external technology internship program for unemployed, underserved learners, and a commitment to doubling support, the program successfully placed 365 learners into internships, achieving a 95 percent placement rate at 180 days post-cohort.
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Generation
Our pro bono commitment for Black communities
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As of December 2024, we have completed pro bono work valued at $86 million, progressing towards our $200 million commitment. Primary areas of partnership have included education, wealth creation, and health and well-being, and we will continue to build out our pro bono contributions in these thematic areas to advance racial equity and economic empowerment among Black communities globally.
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Pro bono efforts
Action 9 Fireside Chat Series
In 2020, we completed our one-time donation of $5 million to nonprofit organizations. To choose the recipients of our $5 million pledge, we organized regional townhalls and charitable giving summits that allowed McKinsey Black Network colleagues to select a global portfolio of over 35 gift recipients based on the scale of their impact potential. Selected recipients included a diverse group of local, national, and international organizations that support Black communities across a wide range of issues.
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Charitable giving
View the recipients
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20,000
Colleagues participated globally
Global locations with volunteers
154
Anti-bias trainings completed
5,000+
Select a tile to begin.
Engage our 32,000 colleagues in an equity and inclusion program in addition to our existing training on bias.
Create a firmwide day of service dedicated to understanding racial justice and global allyship.
In 2021, we expanded our anti-bias training content for all colleagues involved in evaluations, embedded trained bias observers in rating and calibration discussions, and shared resources for mitigating potential biases in interviews with assessors across the world. Since this expansion, our evaluators have completed more than 5,000 training sessions, and we have worked to embed these approaches consistently across our people process.
To date, 1,300+ organizations have elected to offer this supplemental leadership development content to over 82,000 participants. For these organizations, CLA programs — which have a 98% recommendation rate — are a cornerstone of enterprise-wide leadership development.
Building upon the McKinsey Global Institute and our related long-standing research on racial inequities, we founded the Black Economic Institute to translate insights into practical tools to enable our clients to advance Black economic empowerment and racial equity in the United States and beyond.
Donate a total of $5 million in cash in 2020 to nonprofits working to create educational opportunities and combat racism. The majority of this gift will be directed to organizations to be selected by our McKinsey Black Network colleagues.
Contribute $2 million in cash to Generation to launch new programs to support training and placement of underserved adult learners in small- and medium-sized Black-owned businesses. Globally, we will double our support for Generation to train and place 40,000 learners in 14 countries, predominantly from underserved groups.
Aspire to double our spending with diverse suppliers within three years.
Commit $200 million over the next ten years in a pro bono work globally to advance racial equity and economic empowerment among Black communities.
Strive to enhance Black representation in leadership and boost the number of Black colleagues throughout all regions.
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Generation, an independent nonprofit founded by McKinsey, actively provides training and opportunities for adult learners to find new and meaningful career pathways. Generation helps underserved graduates find internship placements with other organizations so they can gain work experience as a bridge to higher-wage, high-growth job opportunities. With our support of a $2 million donation towards an external technology internship program for unemployed, underserved learners, and a commitment to doubling support, the program successfully placed 365 learners into internships, achieving a 95 percent placement rate at 180 days post-cohort.
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Photo: McKinsey employees assist students with resume development as part of a volunteer day of service.
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McKinsey Black Network (MBN)