Dynamic Advancements for nonprofit and Cultural Equity

5th Element Dynamic Advancements for Nonprofit and Cultural Equity (5th Element D.A.N.C.E.) is our for-profit partner that helps youth-serving nonprofits and schools that are already committed to equity move from talk to walk with equity practices.

services & Offerings

Equity Systems Snapshot (Start Here!!)

A short self-assessment (10–15 minutes) covering five domains: Curriculum & Programming, Hiring & Retention, Decision-Making & Power, Community & Family Voice, and Staff Culture.

Equity Systems Consultation

A 60–90 minute conversation to walk through your Snapshot results. We'll dig into the "why" behind your scores, including where implicit bias may be shaping outcomes you haven't yet connected to bias.

Founding Partner Pilot Engagement

A hands-on, systems-level partnership with your leadership team, built around whichever domains your Snapshot revealed as priorities. These monthly leadership team sessions, embedded coaching between sessions, and a shared set of pre/post assessment data, may include:

  • auditing and strengthening culturally sustaining practice in your curriculum or programming, grounded in youth developmental needs and family/cultural context

  • reviewing hiring and advancement practices, and building retention policy that addresses why staff (especially staff of color) leave

  • examining youth behavior policy through a restorative lens, and assessing whether your board or advisory structures reflect the community you serve

  • building or strengthening restorative practices that include families and community, not just youth and staff, including support for families navigating conflict

  • implicit bias work that addresses its impact on staff relationships and burnout, especially for staff carrying equity work

Organizational Sustainability & Change Leadership

Helping organizations navigate their hardest structural moments with equity intact, which may include:

  • for departing directors, department heads, or founders, protecting institutional knowledge and community trust through the handoff

  • equity-centered planning processes that translate values into an actual multi-year plan, not just a mission statement

  • when closure is the right decision, planning a wind-down that honors staff, protects community relationships, and manages the transition responsibly

  • building or strengthening your organization's ability to track outcomes by race, language, and income, rather than relying on aggregate numbers that can hide disparities

  • leading staff, board, or funder conversations through real tension or resistance to equity commitments, not around it

Sustaining Partnership

For organizations that complete the pilot and want continued support embedding the work into policy, hiring cycles, and leadership practice. Structured as periodic strategy sessions, on-call coaching for leadership, and light-touch check-ins to keep systems work from quietly reverting once the initial engagement ends.

Add-On: Focused Sessions

For organizations not ready for a full pilot but wanting to start somewhere specific:

  • Implicit bias and its impact on youth, staff, or family/community (can be scoped to any of these three)

  • Restorative practices training for staff, families, or both together

  • Youth developmental needs, with attention to cultural and family context

  • Culturally sustaining curriculum or programming review

  • Strategic planning facilitation

  • Leadership transition planning

  • Equity-disaggregated data practice

  • Difficult conversations facilitation (staff, board, or funder)

For more information or to complete the Equity Systems Snapshot, please fill out the form on our “Contact Us” page.