Foundation leaders’ support for racial equity initiatives appears to be mostly holding steady despite a pair of Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) rulings in June 2023 overturning affirmative action at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.
More than 75% of foundation leaders are “staying the course” and have no plans to change their grantmaking practices because of those decisions. Of the fewer than 25% who are considering changes, some are limiting themselves to removing race-specific language from their grantmaking programs. An equal or greater number appear to be doubling down, according to a fall 2023 study by researchers at the Center for Effective Philanthropy in Cambridge, Massachusetts titled How Foundations Are Responding to the U.S. Supreme Court Affirmative Action Rulings.
“In the wake of the rulings, there was concern that the Supreme Court decisions could have a ‘chilling effect’ on philanthropic efforts that support racial equity,” wrote the authors. “We find that most foundations are having discussions about the rulings, but few are making changes.”
The finding comes despite a federal lawsuit filed in August 2023 seeking to expand the SCOTUS ban on race-based university admission policies to ban race-based grantmaking, which Independent Sector and the Council on Foundations in Washington, D.C. both defended in a joint amicus brief filed in December 2023.
Foundation leaders appear to be monitoring these developments with just more than half (53%) of respondents telling researchers they have internally discussed the SCOTUS ruling implications for their work or plan to do so soon. More than a third (37%) have held or are planning to hold discussions with their grantees, and nearly a third (29%) are concerned enough that they have consulted legal counsel.
Many respondents told researchers they’re comfortable with the understanding that the SCOTUS rulings impacting affirmative action at federally supported institutions of higher education do not apply to private grantmaking. Moreover, of those who are considering changes, approximately twice as many (6%) said they plan to increase support for programs targeting specific racial communities versus the 3% who have or plan to remove race-specific language.
The authors tempered these findings with the caveat that repercussions of the SCOTUS rulings are still playing out and responses might change over time. Additionally, the authors acknowledged the possible skewing of results due to the possibility that some who have shifted their grantmaking might have been less likely to respond.
A total of 280 foundation leaders responded to the survey, which was conducted from September through November 2023, for a response rate of 34%.
One unexplained finding was that foundations not led by a person of color were less likely to entertain discussions about the SCOTUS ruling implications, even when those foundations were explicitly committed to funding social justice work. “Remarkably, discussion with grantees are less prevalent among foundations that explictly fund social justice efforts but are led by non-POC leaders (38 percent) than among foundations that do not fund social justice but are led by a person of color (46 percent),” wrote the authors.
More broadly, at foundations led by a person of color, 75% had or planned to have internal discussions, 60% planned to have discussions with grantees, and 45% planned to have discussions with legal counsel. At foundations not led by a person of color, the respective percentages were 49% (internal discussions), 30% (grantee discussions) and 25% (legal discussions).
