Left-Wing Nonprofits Seek to Avoid DEI Discrimination Lawsuits

Meghan Blonder of the Washington Free Beacon highlights interesting discussions among left-of-center activists.

Nonprofit leaders devoted to DEI led a discussion on Tuesday about how to continue making race-based decisions while staying “under the radar” and avoiding anti-discrimination lawsuits, even after the 2023 Supreme Court ruling outlawed affirmative action.

Hosted by Fluxx, a grants management platform whose clients include the left-wing Ford and MacArthur foundations, the webinar was advertised as a discussion of “recent efforts to stymie diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in the United States.”

Representatives from the left-wing philanthropies Hello Alice and the Kresge Foundation instructed participants how to dodge discrimination lawsuits best—not by adhering to the law but rather, according to Hello Alice grants director LaToya Ratlieff, by making “little tweaks in the language” on websites and marketing materials. By way of example, she said that instead of describing a grant “as only open to black entrepreneurs,” Hello Alice now indicates that “preference will be given to black entrepreneurs.”

“Little tweaks in the language like that also helped us,” Ratlieff said. “But most importantly, it kept us under the radar because you can’t get a lawsuit for giving ‘preference.’”

“You can’t, hopefully, get under attack for giving that preference,” she added.

Hello Alice’s website states that its mission is an “obsession” to ensure that entrepreneurs in the “New Majority,” which it describes as “female, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, military connected or founders who have disabilities,” have resources to launch small businesses.

Clients of Fluxx, which did not return a request for comment, include major liberal groups such as the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, Planned Parenthood, and the ACLU. Arabella Advisors, a left-wing dark money behemoth that draws money from George Soros, is also a consulting partner.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that Harvard University and the University of North Carolina could no longer use race as a basis for admissions. While the ruling only applied to academia, other sectors have begun to rein in or alter their DEI programs out of legal concern.