Following U.S. Supreme Court affirmative action rulings in 2023, foundations are largely staying the course in their grantmaking approaches, a report from the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) finds.

Based on a survey of 280 foundation leaders, the CEP Research Snapshot report (10 pages, PDF), aimed to better understand how foundations broadly were responding to the court’s rulings, and found that more than half of respondents (53 percent) have had—or are planning to have—internal discussions about the implications of the U.S. Supreme Court rulings on their work, with more than three-quarters of those engaged with the issue not making changes to their ongoing work as a result of these internal discussions.

According to the report, discussions with grantees or legal counsel were not as prevalent, with slightly more than one-third responding they have had—or are planning to have—discussions with their grantees about the implications rulings on the foundation’s work, and about 30 percent indicating they have sought legal counsel. Overall, foundations led by people of color were more likely to have had all forms of discussions (internal, with grantees, and with legal counsel), even accounting for whether the foundation is funding social justice work.