Think your commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion will win you support from activists? Earn you favorable reviews in the media?Like schools, businesses and hospitals, charities in the U.S. and around the world today have embraced racial preferences. Philanthropies pledge support for DEI and sponsor racial affinity groups.
Kellogg’s board has already committed the organization “to be an effective anti-racist organization.” For some critics of charities, though, it’s still not enough. Some of these charities, such as Kellogg, have changed their organizations’ focus from their founders’ original intent to radical causes at least a decade ago. And yet publications such as Inside Philanthropy still run commentary charging that “philanthropy is falling short in its effort to support BIPOC-led [Black, Indigenous, and people of color] and BIPOC-serving organizations.”
Will Keith Kellogg was a successful industrialist when he founded the Kellogg Foundation to help provide medical care for children with special needs. Sebastian Kresge founded Kmart before starting his namesake foundation. Henry Ford, Andrew Mellon, Howard Hughes and others all succeeded in America’s free market system and were then inspired to help those less fortunate than themselves.