Civil rights groups call on Fortune 1000 companies to stop 'abandoning DEI'

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

The call to action comes after businesses including Ford, Tractor Supply, and Brown-Forman announced plans to change or entirely end internal DEI initiatives.

"Abandoning DEI will have long-term consequences on business success," the authors of the letter wrote. "Ultimately shirking fiduciary responsibility to employees, consumers, and shareholders."

"These shortsighted decisions make our workplaces less safe and less inclusive for hard-working Americans," the letter adds.

A range of corporations have curbed their DEI efforts, which picked up in 2020 after a national reckoning over racial injustice sparked by the police killing of George Floyd. Legal experts saw the Supreme Court's June 2023 ruling on affirmative action in higher education as a roadmap for targeting private corporations prioritizing employee, supplier and consumer diversity. While some right-wing activists have claimed credit for pressuring companies on social media into making the changes in recent weeks, several corporations have said changes have been in the works since March.

Rural retailer Tractor Supply started a trend specifically by severing ties with LGBTQ+ advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign, also known as HRC, which is among the letter's signatories.

Several companies, including Molson Coors, Harley-Davidson, Ford and Lowe's all followed suit. They said they will no longer provide data to the nonprofit's Corporate Equality Index, a traditionally respected barometer for which companies best meet the needs of the LGBTQ+ community.

HRC President Kelley Robinson told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Sept. 12 that there's a strong business case for diversity in the workplace.

"Consumers are two times more likely to want to buy from brands that support the community," said Robinson. "This is bottom line the best thing to do for businesses, and that's why I think that we're seeing so much energy from employees, from consumers and from shareholders starting to push back on these decisions."

She emphasized that LGBTQ+ consumers have $1.4 trillion of buying power, as reported by the LGBT Chamber of Commerce. Robinson called moving away from DEI the "wrong decision for business."

The HRC responded to the companies that rolled back DEI commitments by cutting their Corporate Equality Index scores by 25 points.

On a 100-point scale, that deduction brings Brown-Forman, Lowe's, Ford and Molson Coors from a perfect score of 100 to 75. Tractor Supply & John Deere fall from 95 to 70. And Harley-Davidson's Corporate Equality Index score drops from 45 to 20.

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

In the letter to the Fortune 1000 companies, the civil rights groups argued pulling back from DEI not only hurts their standing with consumers, but also risks their ability to keep the most talented workforce possible.

"Businesses that fail to include women, people of color, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ people neglect their financial duty to recruit and retain top talent," the letter read.

"We call on business leaders to speak out publicly, defending decades long, pro-business decisions to support inclusion."

The full text of the letter and list of signatories is below.

Diversity, equity and inclusion programs, policies, and practices make business-sense and they're broadly popular among the public, consumers, and employees. But a small, well-funded, and extreme group of right-wing activists is attempting to pressure companies into abandoning their DEI programs. 

Recently, some CEOs have caved and announced their company's divestment from diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.  

These capitulations weaken businesses and the American economy more broadly. And, these shortsighted decisions make our workplaces less safe and less inclusive for hard-working Americans. Meanwhile this exposes businesses to legal risk by increasing the likelihood of bias and discrimination within organizations.

Abandoning DEI will have long-term consequences on business success -- ultimately shirking fiduciary responsibility to employees, consumers, and shareholders.  Businesses that fail to include women, people of color, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ people neglect their financial duty to recruit and retain top talent from across the full talent pool and limit their company's performance overall. 

A survey of 1,039 companies with at least $15 billion in annual revenue showed that companies at the top quartile for both gender and ethnic diversity are 12% more likely to outperform all other companies. There is also a penalty for lagging on diversity which has only gotten larger with time. Companies in the bottom quartile of executive diversity on gender and ethnicity underperform all other companies by 27%. (Diversity Wins: How Inclusion Matters, McKinsey & Company 2020 report) 

Critically, these decisions are not supported by your employees. According to an Edelman survey in 2024, 60% percent of people say an inclusive work culture with a well-supported diversity program is critical to attracting and retaining them as an employee -- that's up 9 points from 2022.  In addition, according to Pew, only 16 percent of employees think focusing on DEI "is a bad thing."

Furthermore, divestment from DEI will alienate diverse consumer segments including women, people of color, people with disabilities, and the LGBTQ+ community. Women control an estimated two-thirds of global consumer spending and are projected to control two-thirds of all consumer wealth within the next decade, with estimates ranging from $12 trillion to $40 trillion. Today, Black consumers hold $1.7 trillion in purchasing power and the LGBTQ+ community wields $1.4 trillion in spending power.

Future-proofing businesses also means recognizing the increasing diversity of consumers and employees. One-in-four GenZers are Hispanic, 14% are Black, 6% are Asian, 5% are some other race or multiple races, and 30% are LGBTQ+ identified. Our nation's disabled population continues to grow: recent CDC data showed the number of disabled adults in the United States grew,  from 61 million in 2018 to 70 million in 2024, or more than 1 in 4 Americans (28.7%). This immense financial influence by populations often served by DEI programs are seen across various sectors, from consumer goods to financial services, demonstrating that DEI is a critical driver of business.

Put simply, hastily abandoning efforts that ensure fair, safe, and inclusive work environments is bad for business,  unpopular and unwise.  As business leaders who helped to build DEI programs, you know it's good business, and we have the receipts that show it.  

At this moment, we call on business leaders and corporate board members to lead.  

When values of diversity, equity and inclusion are tested by politically motivated, anti-business forces, CEOs and corporate board members must defend them unequivocally. To be clear, women workers, people of color and disabled workers aren't making political statements when they show up to work and ask for equal policies, benefits and treatment. By abandoning best practice programs to support these workers, you not only capitulate to political forces and disregard what's good for your bottom line, but you introduce risks of discrimination and bias to your employees and your company.

We welcome your partnership and understand the safety risks posed by bad actors are serious -- these are threats that impact us all. Backing down from long-standing commitments only serves to empower those who threaten your workers and customers. We call on business leaders to speak out publicly, defending decades long, pro-business decisions to support inclusion. Your trusted voices together will future proof the business community against anti-business, politically motivated extremists.