NPOs Must Resist Or Be Destroyed By New Authoritarianism

Elections do have consequences. One of them shouldn’t be erasing 70 years of hard-won social progress. However, this is exactly what the federal government’s assault on DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion – has done. These orders during the past four weeks are just a prelude:

• The Justice Department was ordered to pause all civil rights cases;
• The military was directed to end DEI programs;
• Federal equal employment policies were revoked;
• Affirmative action in federal contracting was revoked; and,
• DEI programs at federal agencies were ended and employees were placed on leave pending termination.

These actions and the President’s unfounded claims that DEI is responsible for the tragic aviation collision over the Potomac River and military unreadiness makes clear that racism and white supremacist views now undergird federal public policy. Those are strong words but the evidence is overwhelming and it’s important to correctly name and define the problem to find the right solution.

It’s not illegal to fund programs providing equal opportunities for African Americans and other DEI communities. And yet, many foundation and nonprofit champions of DEI values and programs have responded to these events with deafening silence while feverishly removing any reference to DEI from their websites, grant guidelines and program priorities. Such actions betray the nonprofit sector’s higher purpose.

The nonprofit sector’s primary role isn’t testing new ideas or partnering with the government to provide services. It’s to give voice, space and permission for citizens to organize and disagree with their government. The nonprofit sector is the glue holding democracy together, allowing citizens to gather (right of assembly) and say (freedom of speech) what they believe (freedom of religion).

It’s understandable to fear government retaliation, social media attacks and physical threats. I know what it’s like to be afraid for the safety of oneself, family and staff.  While advocating for immigrant rights at The Minneapolis Foundation, we received weeks of nonstop vile phone calls and emails that scared the board and staff. I also received death threats that led me to get a concealed weapons permit. While working on immigration advocacy at Silicon Valley Community Foundation, my home and the office received several bomb threats.

Today’s threats are far greater than those I faced, and the stakes much higher. Still, nonprofit leaders must respond by managing their fears, regaining their voices and acting with resolve to continue their commitment to DEI.

DEI’s goal has always been to allow every citizen to pursue opportunities that were historically only available to white men. It was built upon the civil rights sacrifices and triumphs of African Americans securing their rights and freedoms from which all other DEI communities have benefited. It is a perverse Jedi mind trick to falsely suggest that efforts to encourage equality perpetuate discrimination. DEI’s only problem is the evidence it works.

Authoritarianism is defined as “the use of strong central power to preserve the political status quo, and reductions in democracy, separation of powers and the rule of law.” The use of executive orders to circumvent the legislative process, President Donald Trump’s dictator for a day comments, the firing of agency inspector generals and banning press from White House briefings are early signs of authoritarianism.  Authoritarianism grows when people and institutions are cowed into silence and compliance.

If a second Jim Crow era is to be avoided, leaders at foundations and nonprofits must not preemptively comply with government intimidation efforts by renouncing their organizational DEI values and ending programs. Even those who disagree with DEI should defend the rights of those who do. Failure to do so will inevitably lead to a time when no dissent is tolerated, destroying the nonprofit sector’s very purpose.

For decades, I have called on foundations to engage in advocacy and lobbying.  At The Minneapolis Foundation, we led coalitions that successfully lobbied to forestall statewide budget cuts impacting the poor and established all-day kindergarten. At Silicon Valley Community Foundation, we helped pass state legislation that stopped high school seniors from being required to repeat math classes they had passed and required insurers to equally value the lives of every citizen regardless of gender and race. The case for foundations leaders is to engage in advocacy and lobbying in self-defense of DEI efforts could not be clearer.

History tells us that mass protest led by grassroots organizations is the only solution that has prevailed against repressive governments without armed conflict. This is because grassroots leaders are less likely to prioritize personal financial interests above all else as we have seen with many Silicon Valley tech leaders, corporate titans and mainstream media moguls.

Foundations leaders must act before they lose the right to act at all. They must talk less about trust philanthropy and do it by making major, multi-year, general support gifts to grassroots organizations. Foundations will be unable to hide their DEI activities or openly take on a hostile government over time. It isn’t hard envisioning a not-too-distant future where DEI-serving nonprofits are banned or funding them is illegal; or gifts to DEI organizations are non-deductible for tax purposes; or that charitable gifts can only support direct services, making advocacy funding illegal.

There are 7 things that foundations leaders can do now.

1. Create state and national DEI legal defense funds to protect DEI policies and programs.
2. Document and disseminate the impacts of removing DEI programs in real time using digestible formats.
3. Support independent influencers on various social media channels, e.g., YouTube, Tik Tok and Instagram to provide voice and awareness about how the elimination of DEI programs is affecting various communities.
4. Support grassroots organizations that can develop mass protest movements if the checks and balances of American democracy fail.
5. Develop the fundraising capacity of grassroots organizations to sustain their own protest efforts.
6. Consider focusing media and community organizing efforts in blue states where state and local governments may provide grantees with additional protections.
7. Follow the MacArthur Foundation’s example of increasing payout, however, go further by distributing the last four years of the foundation’s accumulated market gain on its endowment to meet the urgency of this moment. There might not be an opportunity to spend it later.

I am reminded of a conversation that several nonprofit leaders were privileged to have with Bishop Desmond Tutu. In describing the struggle against South African Apartheid, he told us that God only has us to create the change we desire. The road ahead will be long, difficult and require personal sacrifice. It begins with foundation and nonprofit leaders voicing their institution’s values and doing everything they can to ensure that America’s dream of equal opportunity remains available to all.

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Emmett D. Carson, PhD, was founding CEO of Silicon Valley Community Foundation, former CEO of The Minneapolis Foundation, and past board chair of the Council on Foundations and the Association of Black Foundation Executives.