Philanthropy Should Redirect Anger at the Supreme Court Toward Solving Underlying Social Problems

From Leslie Lenkowsky, writing in the Chronicle of Philanthropy July 17, 2023:

Philanthropy would have a greater impact by focusing its ire on the social and economic problems underlying these cases than on what’s happening at the Supreme Court.

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This leaves an obvious opening for philanthropic support. Some grant makers, such as Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, are already working with colleges and universities to develop race-neutral admissions policies focused on talent and socioeconomic status. Lawyers for Civil Rights, a Boston nonprofit, recently filed a suit challenging what some view as another form of discrimination — Harvard’s use of legacy admissions. Efforts to eliminate the reliance on standardized tests — once promoted by philanthropy, but now often viewed as putting people of color at a disadvantage — are far along, with as many as 1,700 colleges claiming to use more holistic admissions policies. But colleges and universities will need to be careful to avoid introducing impermissible criteria, such as race or religion, into their more flexible ways of recruiting and screening applicants.

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Given this reality, the Supreme Court ruling should push more philanthropies to give to HBCUs. While some notable foundation initiatives aim to support these schools, such as an effort launched in 2019 by the Carnegie Corporation, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation, overall funding for HBCUs remains low. A recent survey by the philanthropy research group Candid revealed that Ivy League colleges received 178 times more foundation support than HBCUs from 2002 to 2019.

darryll k. jones