WPP programmes to advance racial equity

Graphic background with blue and orange circles with the words "Bold, audacious and creative. Initiatives to advance racial equity in the world with WPP"

On 17 June 2020, as part of a wider set of commitments and actions to help combat racial injustice and support Black and ethnically marginalised talent, WPP pledged to invest $30 million over a three-year period to fund inclusion programmes and to support external organisations.

As part of this drive, we invited our global network of agencies to apply to receive resources to create and run innovative and impactful programmes to advance racial equity in June 2021.

All first-round applications were independently assessed by peers from relevant markets against a rigorous set of criteria. Proposals with the highest aggregated scores were then reviewed by the Commissioning Council. Members included Mark Read, CEO, WPP; Stacey Ryan-Cornelius, Global CFO, Ogilvy; Diego Machado, Global CCO, AKQA; Tanya Joseph, Senior Consultant, H+K Strategies; Stacie Graham, Global Racial Equity Program Director, WPP and Judy Jackson, Global Head of Culture and Engagement, WPP.

Based on the ideas and initiatives that were felt to align most closely with WPP’s purpose – to use the power of creativity to build better futures for our people, planet, clients and communities – and hold the greatest potential to effect change, here are the details of the WPP agencies and projects which have been successful:

	AKQA: SOMA+ Find out more
	GroupM: Life Through the Eyes of the UK Black Community Find out more
	GroupM: Colorintech Find out more
	VMLY&R, UWG, GTB: Detroit Experience Studio Find out more
	Disability Recruitment for WPP IT Find out more
	WPP Roots, Ogilvy and GroupM: Effectively Engaging BAME Consumers Find out more
	WPP: Veterans to Project Managers Find out more
	Wunderman Thompson Brazil: Racial Equity Week and Black Acceleration Program Find out more
	Wunderman Thompson Health: Health4Equity Find out more