The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that California senator Joe Coto has agreed to withdraw his legislation that would have required foundations to collect ethnic and gender data related to their governance and grantmaking practices:
The California legislation, known as AB 624, would have required foundations with more than $250-million in assets to disclose the racial and gender composition of their boards and staffs and the number of grants and percentage of dollars going to groups led by and helping members of African-American, Asian-American, Hispanics, and other minority groups — as well as those helping gays, lesbians, bisexual, and transgender people.
[...]
It was strongly opposed by many grant makers nationwide, who argued that it interfered with the traditional right of foundations to make giving decisions without government pressure and that reporting requirements were not the best way to bring more diversity to philanthropy.
In exchange, according to the San Jose Mercury News, 10 foundations “agreed to boost funding in the coming years for minority-led, grass-roots groups that serve minority and low-income groups in California. The idea is to the bolster the groups’ staff and infrastructure so they can better compete for grants.”
