Keynote: DEI Initiatives in the Crosshairs of the Administration

In the last two months, President Trump signed a flurry of Executive Orders implementing a wide array of administration policies related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives designed to ban both public- and private-sector programs encouraging DEI and targeting federal contractors and grant recipients that advance DEI and environmental justice. New requirements for federal award recipients to certify – under the threat of criminal penalties – that they do not operate any “illegal” DEI programs is causing palpable consternation in segments of the nonprofit community. The White House and the Attorney General also issued memoranda targeting nonprofits in the DEI arena, both those that receive federal funding and those that don’t.

On top of these new Trump administration-led efforts, considerable DEI-related risks arise from pre-existing areas of law, such as federal and state employment laws, the federal prohibition of discrimination in contracting (including with grants, scholarships, fellowships, and otherwise) on the basis of race, and state DEI-specific laws and executive orders. New lawsuits have recently been filed against nonprofits in connection with the race-based contract discrimination front.

Join us to hear from one of the nation’s top nonprofit attorneys who has been steeped in these issues about practical steps that nonprofits can take to understand and mitigate their legal and other risks related to their DEI initiatives in this time of great regulatory change and uncertainty.