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Any of nearly 350 private and community foundations could be the subject of federal investigations of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs ordered by President Donald Trump.
In January, Trump directed federal agencies to investigate DEI practices in the private sector. His executive order targeted foundations solely based on their size — those with assets of $500 million or more — along with businesses, associations, and other large nonprofits. The administration has offered no further details and did not point to any individual grant makers.
Using charity tax information from CauseIQ, which collects nonprofit data, the Chronicle identified 277 private grant makers and 69 community foundations with $500 million or more in assets. Collectively, these philanthropies hold $900 billion in assets and account for roughly 55 percent of all grant dollars awarded.
They include many of the nation’s oldest legacy grant makers — the Ford, MacArthur, and Rockefeller foundations among them — as well as the philanthropies of billionaires such as Michael Bloomberg, Bill Gates, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, and Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna.
Community foundations that could be targeted include those serving Silicon Valley, North Carolina, Oregon, and other areas as well as cities like Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, and New York.
The family grant maker of Elon Musk, head of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, had $536 million in assets at the end of 2023, according to CauseIQ. (The figure reflects book value, or the value of the assets at the time of purchase. The fair market value for the foundation’s assets is $9.5 billion.)
Many philanthropies have said they remain committed to their DEI programs, which often include grant making to nonprofits that support women, people with disabilities, LGBTQ people, people of color, and low-income people. Jim Canales, the outgoing president of the $2.8 billion Barr Foundation, told the Chronicle earlier: “We remain anchored in the values of this foundation. And one of them happens to be centering racial equity in our work.”
The nearly $9 billion John D. and Catherine T. Macarthur Foundation has announced that it will increase its giving over the next two years in response to what it calls a “crisis” prompted by the Trump administration’s cuts in federal spending. The Freedom Together Foundation, formerly called the JPB Foundation, has said it will increase its grant making to 10 percent of its endowment. Its assets stood at $2.8 billion at the end of 2023, according to CauseIQ.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, however, has backtracked on its previous support of DEI efforts. On February 18, in a letter to staff, it announced that it would discontinue funding social advocacy work and reassign DEI staff.
A decision from the U.S. District Court for the State of Maryland, issued February 21, put on hold part of the Trump order but left in place the provision for investigations.
