What it means
Policies around operational infrastructure are often implemented because it’s how things have always been done, which can easily reify white supremacy culture. Institutions can lose sight of what is required legally vs. what is discretionary practice and implement what are at best arbitrary and at worst harmful policies. Praxis has internal and external experts who know the laws and regulations that apply to our work backwards and forwards. Recognizing the legal requirements, our goal is always to set financial and other policies that best serve our fiscally-sponsored projects’ operational and mission-focused needs.
In practice
With feedback from our fiscally-sponsored projects, we implemented financial policies and processes that are written in clear language, less reliant on technical terms or jargon, and more transparent. We continue to assess, seek feedback on, and evolve our policies. Compliance with the regulations that pertain to our work is always the baseline of our policies. Though we reassess them regularly, we also do not make substantial changes to our core policies more often than annually, to give projects the stability they need.