Civil rights groups urge Fortune 1000 to protect DEI

Twenty civil rights groups sent a letter to Fortune 1000 companies on Thursday calling on them to recommit to diversity, equity and inclusion after several major companies scaled back their efforts.

Businesses calling for action include Ford, tractor supply, Brown-Forman Announcing changes in plans or ending them altogether DEI internal initiatives.

“Abandoning DEI will have long-term consequences for business success,” the letter’s authors wrote. “Ultimately, it evades its fiduciary responsibilities to employees, consumers, and shareholders.”

“These short-sighted decisions make our workplaces less safe and less inclusive for hard-working Americans,” the letter added.

A series of companies have curbed their DEI efforts, which picked up in 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd sparked a nationwide reckoning with racial injustice. Legal experts view last year’s Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action as a road map for private companies that prioritize diversity among employees, suppliers and consumers. While some right-wing activists claim to have pressured businesses on social media to make changes in recent weeks, some companies say they have been making changes since March.

Rural retailer Tractor Supply is starting a trend by cutting ties with LGBTQ+ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, also known as HRC, which was one of the signatories of the letter.

Companies including Molson Coors harley davidsonFord and Lowe’s Everyone followed suit. They said they would no longer provide data to the nonprofit’s Corporate Equality Index, the traditionally respected barometer of how companies best meet the needs of the LGBTQ+ community.

HRC President Kellyley Robinson told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” last week that there is a strong business case for diversity in the workplace.

“Consumers are twice as likely to want to buy from brands that support their communities,” Robinson said. “That’s the best thing for business, which is why I think we’re seeing that from employees, consumers and shareholders There’s so much energy starting to push back against these decisions.”

She emphasized that LGBTQ+ consumers have $1.4 trillion in purchasing power, according to a report by the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce. Robinson called abandoning DEI “a bad decision for companies.”

HRC responds to companies that rescind their DEI commitments by lowering their Corporate Equality Index scores by 25 points.

This deduction reduces Brown-Forman, Lowe’s, Ford and Molson Coors from 100 points to 75 points on a 100-point scale. harley davidson‘s Corporate Equality Index score dropped from 45 to 20.

The companies mentioned in this article did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In a letter to Fortune 1000 companies, the civil rights groups argued that withdrawing from DEI would not only harm their standing with consumers but also jeopardize their ability to retain their most talented workforce.

“Businesses that fail to include women, people of color, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ people are neglecting their financial responsibility to recruit and retain top talent,” the letter reads.

“We call on business leaders to speak out and defend decades of pro-business policymaking that has supported inclusion.”

The full text of the letter and the list of signatories are as follows.

Diversity, equity and inclusion programs, policies and practices make business sense and are well-received by the public, consumers and employees. But a small group of well-funded far-right activists are trying to pressure companies to abandon DEI programs.

Recently, some CEOs have caved and announced that their companies are abandoning diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

These capitulations cripple businesses and the U.S. economy more broadly. And, these shortsighted decisions make our workplaces less safe and less inclusive for hardworking Americans. At the same time, this increases the likelihood of bias and discrimination within the organization, thereby exposing the business to legal risks.

Abandoning DEI will have long-term consequences for a business’s success—ultimately evading fiduciary responsibilities to employees, consumers, and shareholders. Businesses that fail to include women, people of color, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ people are neglecting their financial responsibility to recruit and retain top talent from across the talent pool, limiting the company’s overall performance.

A survey of 1,039 companies with annual revenue of at least $15 billion showed that companies in the top quartile for gender and racial diversity were 12% more likely to outperform all other companies. Diversity lag also comes with a penalty that only gets bigger over time. Companies that ranked at the bottom for executive diversity in terms of gender and race performed 27% worse than all other companies. (Diversity Wins: How Inclusion Matters, McKinsey & Company 2020 Report)

Importantly, these decisions are not supported by your employees. According to a 2024 Edelman survey, 60% say an inclusive work culture and well-supported diversity programs are critical to attracting and retaining them as employees, up from 2022 9 percentage points.

Additionally, divesting from DEI will alienate diverse consumer groups, including women, people of color, people with disabilities, and the LGBTQ+ community. It is estimated that women control two-thirds of global consumer spending and are expected to control two-thirds of consumer wealth within the next decade, with estimates ranging from $12 trillion to $40 trillion. Today, black consumers have $1.7 trillion in purchasing power, and LGBTQ+ people have $1.4 trillion in purchasing power.

Future-proofing your business also means recognizing the increasing diversity of consumers and employees. A quarter of Gen Z is Hispanic, 14% are Black, 6% are Asian, 5% are of another race or races, and 30% are LGBTQ+. Our nation’s population with disabilities continues to grow: Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that the number of U.S. adults with disabilities will increase from 61 million in 2018 to 70 million in 2024, or more than one in four U.S. adults people (28.7%). The outsized financial impact of the people DEI programs serve spans everything from consumer products to financial services, demonstrating that DEI is a key driver of business.

Simply put, hastily abandoning efforts to ensure fair, safe and inclusive workplaces is bad for business, unpopular and unwise. As a business leader who has helped build DEI programs, you know this is good business, and we have the receipts to prove it.

At this time, we call on business leaders and corporate board members to provide leadership.

When the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion are tested by politically motivated anti-business forces, CEOs and corporate board members must unequivocally defend these values. To be clear, women workers, people of color, and workers with disabilities are not making a political statement when they go to work and demand equal policies, benefits, and treatment. By abandoning best practice programs that support these workers, you are not only succumbing to political forces and ignoring what is good for your bottom line, but you are also creating a risk of discrimination and bias for your employees and your company.

We welcome your partnership and understand that the security risks posed by bad actors are serious—these threats affect us all. Abandoning long-term commitments only allows those who threaten your employees and customers to succeed. We call on business leaders to speak out and defend decades of pro-business decisions that have supported inclusion. Your trusted voices will future proof the business community against anti-business, politically motivated extremists.