Raymond Moore manages partnerships with organizations that share FINCA’s values. In this interview, Raymond sheds light on his personal experience and FINCA’s efforts to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion.

What inspires you about working with FINCA?

FINCA is a diverse workplace with more than three decades of experience. I have been motivated by our mission to protect vulnerable communities worldwide by creating a transformational social impact to help our fellow humans to achieve a better standard of living. Additionally, FINCA’s leadership has prioritized diversity, equity, and inclusion and that is important because a diverse workplace helps to increase productivity and the ability to solve real life issues. I believe this conversation should be introduced in a nonprofit workspace where our complete bottom line focuses on change for the better.

From your experience at FINCA, how is the organization building awareness about historical injustices that continue to impact communities of color?

In response to the atrocities against the black community in 2020, with the murders of Ahmad Arbury, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, FINCA’s President, Rupert Scofield, released a statement in support of the African American community. Additionally, he listened to my idea of putting together a 4-part series to explain the history of systemic racism in America. I launched this program because I care about the lives of my African American people.

Furthermore, FINCA has committed to a formalized DEI strategy in response to leadership support. As a civil rights leader and a champion for minority communities, the series opened the floor for discussion surrounding the wicked ways of the past and how we, as change-makers, can navigate the course for our children in the future.

On a personal level, can you shed some light on what made you believe in the importance of alleviating global poverty?

I remain passionate about making the world a safer place based on my personal history and legacy. For starters, I was adopted when I was a baby and never met my biological parents. My adopted parents are from the southern states of Georgia and South Carolina. I was born in Brooklyn, NY and my adopted parents raised me and my adopted siblings in the church. To take on seven new lives for at least 18 years is selfless. Who knows where we would have ended up, there is a chance it could have been living in poverty.

I’ve worked to find out information on my biological parents for most of my adult life. My wife recently purchased me a DNA kit to learn about my ancestry. I found out that I am 87.5% Sub-Saharan African, 10.8% European, and 1.5% East Asian and Indigenous American. The results were undoubtedly mind-blowing, but not surprising. It made me realize that down the history line, many of us are inextricably linked.

Knowing this allows me to know that the decisions we make daily affects the lives of those we probably will never see. On the other side the life you invest into can possibly save yours one day. This is why I work so hard to find funding and create programming to bring about awareness to help this cause.

As an African American working at FINCA, what role can you play in trying to bridge the cultural awareness gap about the struggles of your community?

I plan to launch several programs to begin dialogue addressing some of the key issues that keep African Americans at the bottom.  For generations, the odds have been against us. We had to be 200% to walk through the same doors that our 100% should have afforded us. I look for these programs to continue dialogue on how we all could finally experience what the Declaration of Independence was referring to as all men are created equal. Among these rights, we are entitled to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Our lives are not that happy when we have to continuously worry about those who were placed to protect us are the same people who neglect and distress us.  I look for us as a nation to grow past the fears and stereotypes placed on people that bring a different seasoning to the stew. Let’s continue to raise our frequencies as a people to support organizations like FINCA to empower those who wish to bring about change in this world.