News & Analysis as of

Race Discrimination Grants

Ballard Spahr LLP

American Alliance for Equal Rights Files Complaints with the IRS Seeking Investigations into Tax-Exempt Foundations Based on...

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On April 1, 2025, the American Alliance for Equal Rights (“AAER”) filed complaints with the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) alleging three tax-exempt private foundations—the Gates Foundation, the Lagrant Foundation and the...more

Venable LLP

Race-Conscious Grantmaking Litigation Updates: What Nonprofits Need to Know

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The Fearless Foundation has agreed to shut down its grant program for Black women business owners, settling a lawsuit that has been closely watched by nonprofit grant makers....more

Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP

Fearless Fund Settles: Settlement Will Shape Law on Race-Based Grantmaking in Eleventh Circuit While Leaving Issue Unresolved...

Over the last year, we have monitored a lawsuit in Georgia that alleged a hedge fund (“Fearless Fund”) violated 42 U.S.C. § 1981—the federal prohibition on racial discrimination in contracting—by operating a grant contest...more

Littler

11th Circuit Finds Race and Gender-Based Grant Program Likely Unlawful

Littler on

On June 3, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit granted a preliminary injunction prohibiting a venture capital fund from awarding grants based on race and gender. In reversal of the district court, the...more

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

Federal Appeals Court Holds That Nonprofit Foundation’s Race-Based Grant Giving Contest Likely Violates Federal Law

The decision by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals imperils one strategy for remedying societal racial inequities and creates legal risk for many DEI initiatives. A panel of the Eleventh Circuit held that grant programs...more

Moore & Van Allen PLLC

What 2 Rulings On Standing Mean For DEI Litigation

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Two recent federal court decisions shed new light on the ongoing wave of challenges to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision one year ago in Students for Fair Admissions v....more

Baker Donelson

Court Blocks VC Firm from Issuing Grants to Black Women-Owned Businesses

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Recently, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (the Court) held in Am. All. for Equal Rts. v. Fearless Fund Mgmt., LLC (Fearless Fund) that the Fearless Strivers Grant Contest (the Contest), a startup...more

Poyner Spruill LLP

Eleventh Circuit Decision Generates Further Concern in Diversity Initiatives

Poyner Spruill LLP on

On Monday, June 3, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that a contest providing venture-capital funding to only Black women was substantially likely to violate section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of...more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

DEI Under Scrutiny, Part X: Eleventh Circuit Blocks Venture Capital Fund’s Grant Contest for Black Women-Owned Businesses

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit blocked a contest by a venture capital fund that provided grants and other benefits to black women-owned businesses, finding the contest is likely to unlawfully discriminate...more

Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP

Fearless Fund Decision May Impact Race-Based Grantmaking

On June 3, 2024, a divided three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled that an Atlanta hedge fund likely violated 42 U.S.C. § 1981—the federal prohibition on racial discrimination in...more

Mintz

Eleventh Circuit Rules Corporate Grant Contest for Black Women Is Racially Discriminatory and Violates U.S. Constitution

Mintz on

On Monday, June 3, 2024, the Eleventh Circuit of Appeals held that the “Fearless Strivers Grant Contest, an entrepreneurship funding competition open only to businesses owned by black women” was “substantially unlikely to...more

Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP

Court halts black-only grants program

Chief Justice Roberts did say, "eliminating race discrimination means eliminating all of it." The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled that a grant program -- which is available only to black females...more

Proskauer - Corporate Defense and Disputes

Ohio Federal Court Holds White Litigant Lacked Standing to Challenge Contest Providing Funding for Black-Owned Businesses

A federal District Court in Ohio recently ruled that a white litigant did not have standing to assert a discrimination claim against a contest that had provided grants to Black-owned businesses. The decision in Roberts v....more

Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP

Venture Capital Fund Sued on Allegations of Discrimination in Grantmaking

Following the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College regarding the consideration of race in undergraduate admissions, a new lawsuit has been filed...more

Foley & Lardner LLP

Five Things to Know Regarding American Alliance for Equal Rights v. Fearless Fund

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American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER) is suing Fearless Fund Management LLC (a black women-run company) for claims of racial discrimination and violations of Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 (Civil Rights...more

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP

Ban on Affirmative Action: Implications, Risks, and Strategies for the Charitable Sector

A pair of recent U.S. Supreme Court cases regarding college admissions standards has potentially wide-ranging implications for all nonprofit organizations that use race as a consideration in their programs. In Students for...more

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