Civil rights groups urge Fortune 1000 companies to protect DEI

Twenty civil rights organizations 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.

The call to action comes after companies like Ford, Supply of tractors, Brown-Forman announced plans to change or end altogether internal DEI initiatives.

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

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

Several corporations have slowed their DEI efforts, which had intensified in 2020 following a national reckoning over racial injustice sparked by the police killing of George Floyd. Legal experts viewed the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action last year as a roadmap to target private corporations that prioritize employee, supplier and consumer diversity. While some right-wing activists have taken credit for pressuring companies on social media to make 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 cutting ties with LGBTQ+ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, also known as HRC, which is among the signatories of the letter..

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

Last week, HRC President Kelley Robinson told CNBC's “Squawk Box” 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 the community,” Robinson said. “Ultimately, this is the best thing companies can do, and that's why I think we're seeing so much energy from employees, consumers and shareholders who are starting to push back against these decisions.”

She stressed that LGBTQ+ consumers have $1.4 trillion in purchasing power, as reported by the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce. Robinson said moving away from DEI was the “wrong decision for businesses.”

HRC responded to companies that failed to meet their DEI commitments by reducing their scores on the Corporate Equality Index by 25 points.

On a 100-point scale, that deduction drops Brown-Forman, Lowe's, Ford and Molson Coors from a perfect score of 100 to 75. Tractor Supply and 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 Fortune 1000 companies, the civil rights groups argued that retreating from DEI not only damages their reputation with consumers, but also jeopardizes their ability to retain the most talented workforce possible.

“Companies 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 reads.

“We call on business leaders to speak out publicly and defend decisions taken decades ago in favour of businesses to support inclusion.”

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

Diversity, equity and inclusion programs, policies and practices make business sense and are widely popular with the public, consumers and employees. But a small, well-funded and extremist group of right-wing activists is attempting to pressure companies to abandon their DEI programs.

Recently, some CEOs have caved and announced their companies' divestment from diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

These capitulations weaken businesses and the American economy as a whole. Moreover, these short-sighted decisions make our workplaces less safe and less inclusive for hard-working Americans. Meanwhile, this exposes businesses to legal risks by increasing the likelihood of bias and discrimination within organizations.

Abandoning DEI will have long-term consequences for business success, ultimately shirking fiduciary responsibility to employees, consumers, and shareholders. Companies 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 talent pool and limit their company’s overall performance.

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

It’s critical that your employees don’t support these decisions. According to an Edelman survey conducted in 2024, 60% of people say that an inclusive workplace culture with a well-supported diversity program is critical to attracting and retaining them as employees, which is a 9-point increase from 2022. Additionally, according to Pew, only 16% of employees think that focusing on diversity, inclusion and inclusion “is a bad thing.”

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

Preparing businesses for the future also means recognizing the growing diversity of consumers and employees. One in four Gen Zers is Hispanic, 14% are Black, 6% are Asian, 5% are another or multi-race, and 30% identify as LGBTQ+. Our country’s disabled population continues to grow—recent CDC data showed the number of disabled adults in the United States increased from 61 million in 2018 to 70 million in 2024, or more than 1 in 4 Americans (28.7%). This immense financial influence of the populations typically served by DEI programs is seen across multiple sectors, from consumer goods to financial services, proving that DEI is a critical driver for business.

Simply put, hastily abandoning efforts that ensure fair, safe, and inclusive work environments is bad for business, unpopular, and reckless. As business leaders who helped create DEI programs, you know it’s good for business, and we have the evidence to prove it.

Right now, we call on business leaders and corporate board members to lead.

When the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion are tested by politically motivated, anti-business forces, CEOs and corporate board members must unabashedly defend them. To be clear, women workers, people of color, and disabled workers are not 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, they are not only capitulating to political forces and overlooking what is good for their bottom line, they are also introducing risks of discrimination and bias for their employees and their company.

We appreciate your cooperation and understand that the security risks posed by malicious actors are serious – they are threats that affect us all. Backtracking on long-standing commitments only serves to empower those who threaten their workers and customers. We call on business leaders to speak out publicly and defend pro-business decisions made decades ago to support inclusion. Together, your trusted voices will protect the business community from politically motivated anti-business extremists.