Redoubling Efforts for Equity

In three decisions issued in the final days of its term, the Supreme Court of the United States has struck serious blows against the push for a more equitable and just American society. The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) will redouble our efforts to help funders – foundations, other grantmakers, and individual donors alike – combat inequities.  

It’s crucial that funders build on the momentum and change of recent years, which we have documented in our research on philanthropic practices. They can do so by engaging more deeply with questions related to how their practices help to close – and not exacerbate – gaps. 

We are a long, long way, yet, from being the society so many of us seek: one in which identity and circumstances of birth predict nothing about the barriers or challenges a person will face. 

The stark realities, and the available data, illustrate the absurdity of what Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in dissent, called the “superficial rule of colorblindness as a constitutional principle in an endemically segregated society where race has always mattered and continues to matter.” Or, as Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson put it, “deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.”  

Now is not the time to tap the brakes on efforts that focus on equity. It is, instead, a time for renewed commitment, even if that entails institutional and personal risk – and it will. 

Phil Buchanan
He/Him
President
Center for Effective Philanthropy