Our Vision
This is what we say when we have the time for a robust conversation:
Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation envisions a hospitality industry in which employees are not costs to be minimized but essential partners in creating prosperity for all. There will be a transformation of the hospitality industry when it builds businesses based on a foundation of equity, respect and sustainable wages (that allow all workers to pay their living expenses and save for the future) – workplaces where people of every gender, race and immigration status are nurtured and have viable career paths toward greater fulfillment, where there is compassion and support for people experiencing mental health and substance use disorders, and where workers are free of harassment and sexual violence.
This is what we say when have only a quick moment to get our point across:
Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation envisions a transformed hospitality industry – in which workers come together to assert their own power to create fully equitable workplaces with sustainable pay, fruitful career paths and support for people’s mental health challenges – so that restaurant businesses and workers thrive together.
Our Mission
This is what we say when we have the time for a robust conversation:
Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation raises and distributes funds to grow the power of workers in public discourse and workplace policies on wages, equity and health by engaging in:
Community-Building & Advocacy We bring restaurant workers together around shared goals to generate solutions. We build networks of workers, nonprofits, and restaurants working together to change our industry’s practices. We create communications mechanisms for people and organizations in the movement to work together for sustainable wages; race, gender, and immigrant equity; and every worker’s right to quality mental health care and substance use management.
Grantmaking & Network-Building We learn from and deploy funds to similarly aligned organizations across the United States. While our primary focus is on long-term structural change in the industry, when crisis calls for action, we raise funds and direct resources to emergency financial assistance and crisis services for restaurant workers.
Impact Investing We use a portion of the funds we raise to invest capital that supports and grows restaurant businesses that are improving conditions for workers. We are growing a fund that will use a mix of investment strategies – direct loans to pro-worker businesses, ethically screened investment funds and shareholder advocacy – to move the hospitality industry toward a future that is prosperous for workers and owners alike.
This is what we say when have only a quick moment to get our point across:
Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation raises and distributes funds to help workers get more engaged in the issues that affect their daily lives by: (1) creating opportunities for workers to come together and speak out; (2) making grants to – and building the network of – nonprofit organizations serving restaurant workers; and (3) investing capital to support and grow restaurant businesses that are improving conditions for workers.