Mission & Culture

Redefine Alliance invests in businesses that reveal and reinforce the talent of people breaking through barriers to employment.

Our Culture

We approach problems with rigor, and we approach people with humility. After all, this work gets done not on the shoulders of any one individual, but on the aspiration and intention of all of us — including our staff, our partner entrepreneurs around the country, and, most importantly, the amazing people they employ.

Together we exist in service to a movement to redefine what talent looks like and to ensure that people are fully seen for the gifts they bring, not the barriers they face.

Here’s how:

Our Values

Our values comprise a bit of collaborative alchemy that goes something like this:

If you take a team of folks inspired by this mission…

Bring them together with humility and curiosity…

Foster a spirit of ‘your success is my success’…

And study the wins as much as the losses…

Then you build solutions that scale.

01

Inspiration

Doing this work is a privilege. We’re inspired by our social enterprise partners and the people they serve who are striving for a better life.

02

Mutuality

We work to foster a culture of inclusion and openness, approaching our jobs with humility and respect. We value and seek to learn from the lived experience of people served by social enterprises.

03

Teamwork

We work better together and achieve excellence by fostering a culture of collaboration — across Redefine Alliance teams, social enterprises, and partners.

04

Growth

We believe we can grow and continuously improve, as individuals and as an organization, applying the lessons learned from our successes as well as our failures.

05

Solutions

We’re creative problem solvers who look beyond traditional approaches to find more innovative, equitable solutions.

Our Values

When we zoom out, our values comprise a bit of culture math that goes something like this:

01

Inspiration

If you take a team of folks inspired by this mission

Doing this work is a privilege. We’re inspired by our social enterprise partners and the people they serve who are striving for a better life.

02

Mutuality

Come together with humility and curiosity

We work to foster a culture of inclusion and openness, approaching our jobs with humility and respect for our colleagues and partners. We value and seek to learn from the lived experience of people served by social enterprises.

03

Teamwork

Foster a spirit of ‘your success is my success’

We work better together and achieve excellence by fostering a culture of collaboration – across Redefine Alliance teams, social enterprises, and partners.

04

Growth

And study the wins as much as the losses

We believe we can grow and continuously improve, as individuals and as an organization, applying the lessons learned from our successes as well as our failures.

05

Solutions

Then you build solutions that scale.

We’re creative problem solvers who look beyond traditional approaches to find more innovative, equitable solutions.

I have found a workplace that keeps me learning in ways that are both interesting and impactful — all alongside bright and engaged colleagues from whom I learn every day.

I’m always so inspired by our ESE leaders’ dedication and strength. Working side by side with them to grow their organizations is an incredibly rewarding part of my job!

The passion of our social enterprises is incredible. And their employees’ commitment to change their lives — for themselves, their families, and their communities — motivates me every day.

Karen ChernVice President, Programs

Kristen GreenSenior Manager, Community

Yon Jimenez-MacusoTeam Lead, Data & Analytics

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Redefine breaks the cycle of exclusion by scaling employment social enterprises that help people overcoming significant barriers achieve economic power.

Advancing racial equity is essential to our mission. We do this by:

01 Designing our work for and with those facing the highest barriers. Employment social enterprises serve people most locked out of traditional employment — people who are disproportionately Black, Brown, and Indigenous.

02 Naming root causes. Barriers like mass incarceration, hiring discrimination, and generational poverty stem from deliberate policy choices that have harmed communities of color for generations.

03 Investing in leaders who reflect the communities they serve. We prioritize leaders who are guided by their experience of the barriers their employees face and models that will drive the greatest insights.

04 Focusing on what builds economic power. We identify practices that advance dignified work, wealth, and well-being for people historically excluded from the economy — helping the field close racial gaps in opportunity.

05 Building ecosystems that shift power to communities. Our place-based work supports regions affected by systemic disinvestment to create economic opportunity from within.

06 Fostering a workplace grounded in diversity of representation and thought. We do our best work when we come together as diverse individuals to unlock an ingenuity that we didn’t have individually. And we work to ensure a sense of belonging for all.

07 Equipping our team to design for equity at key decision points. We build a shared understanding of the inequities that drive the need for our work and convert that learning into action — helping our team spot the choice points — and make decisions that advance equity rather than replicate bias.

Our Diversity Data

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