Five Years Later: Assessing Open to All’s Impact and Looking Ahead

In 2017, Open to All launched a public education campaign addressing the broad harms in the event of a loss in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, a Supreme Court case involving a Colorado bakery that refused service to a same-sex couple, directly violating the state’s nondiscrimination law. A broad loss in the case could have resulted in businesses earning a constitutionally protected license to discriminate against a wide range of patrons. Although SCOTUS ultimately ruled that Colorado’s nondiscrimination law failed to violate the baker’s freedom of religion, we still do not have universal protections against discrimination in our country.

Five years later, Open to All has expanded into a greater program uniting businesses large and small to publicly and visibly declare that they support nondiscrimination. As a nation, we decided long ago that when a business opens its doors to the public, it should be open to all. Our coalition of over 80 corporate sponsors, 200 nonprofit partners, and 690,000 small businesses strives to safeguard this principle.

Open to All’s Inaugural Impact Report dives deeper into this work, highlighting Open to All’s growth, interactive programming, resources, and initiatives. The report reflects research, analysis, and interviews with key partners, offering a holistic overview of the major trends and challenges within the realm of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

According to survey respondents, 52% of partners joined the coalition to share and learn best practices from other businesses, researchers, and Open to All resources. 17% of respondents indicated that they joined to drive change in experiences for both employees and customers. 24% wanted to make a collective impact at the industry level more broadly.

Our program has seen rapid growth in small business engagement and corporate sponsorship since its inception in 2017. Over 694,000 small businesses have declared themselves Open to All on Yelp, which is nearly 14% of all businesses listed on Yelp. Over the last five years, more than 70 large brands, ranging from Ben & Jerry’s to REI to Sephora, have joined Open to All’s corporate membership program.

Since the launch of Open to All, corporations, retailers, small businesses, and nonprofits alike have come together to proudly pledge that everyone should be welcome regardless of race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, immigration status, religion, or disability. At the core of changing our country, our network of formidable nonprofit leaders and corporate partners develops innovative resources, trainings, and ongoing programming to best serve the populations in our pledge.

The Impact Report is a testament to Open to All and our partners’ commitment to building a stronger country where everyone feels safe, respected, and accepted as they live, shop, and work. The complete 19-page report can be downloaded from Open to All’s website at opentoall.com/impact-report.

Never before have so many businesses and nonprofits joined together to send a single, unified message that everyone should be welcome, valued, and respected. If you’d like to contribute to generating industry-wide impact, join the hundreds of thousands of members of the Open to All coalition.