JB Pritzker Wants to Lead the Trump Resistance. But Is He Turning His Back on DEI?By Gabe Kaminsky
https://www.thefp.com/p/jb-pritzker-dei-donald-trump-pritzker-family-foundation-website
Mentions of diversity and equity have vanished from the Pritzker Family Foundation’s website amid Trump’s attack on DEI.
Since the election of Donald Trump, Democratic Illinois governor JB Pritzker has emerged as a key figure in the Resistance 2.0. A longtime proponent of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, Pritzker has described Trump’s attack on DEI as an attempt to “tear down” civil rights. He also called Trump “unfit to lead” after the president suggested DEI played a role in a tragic aircraft collision in January in Washington, D.C.
But, according to a Free Press review of internet archive records, Pritzker’s own family nonprofit appears to have scrubbed a slew of DEI language from its website on March 11. The Pritzker Family Foundation eliminated the phrase justice and equity from its mission statement and jettisoned the word inequities to describe its focus on social justice. The group also removed the word equitable from the statement that said the group had a “deep desire to create more just and equitable outcomes.”
And the foundation removed an entire sentence from its website that read: “Learn more about our ongoing efforts to apply a lens of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) to our grantmaking here,” which linked to a downloadable foundation document detailing its “ongoing journey” to embrace DEI. This document can no longer be found on the foundation’s site, but was located by The Free Press on the internet archive.
The document, which according to its file name was created in 2021, said that “diversity and inclusion” are “central to the foundation’s work.” It described how the organization is analyzing “inequitable systems” that discriminate against minorities as it shapes its philanthropic giving.
Progressive activist Misty Gaither says the alterations cast doubt on whether the Pritzker Family Foundation was serious about promoting DEI in the first place. “If anyone can so quickly scrub their website, their efforts have been performative at best over the last several years,” Gaither, who advises companies on DEI and is the former vice president of DEI and Belonging at Indeed, told The Free Press.
The Pritzker Family Foundation did not respond to a request for comment on the changes to its website. A spokesperson for the governor’s office said Pritzker has “been clear” that he will not roll back government DEI programs in Illinois and is continuing to push back against the Trump administration.
Located in Chicago, the Pritzker Family Foundation doles out tens of millions to support university research and early childhood development initiatives. Founded in 2001 by JB Pritzker and his wife, MK Pritzker, its most recent tax filing with the IRS in 2024 places its assets at over $148 million. Although JB Pritzker stepped down from the group’s board after he first decided to run for office in 2017, the foundation was organized as the charitable arm of the governor and his wife, and is thus entirely financed by the couple. The Pritzkers are one of the wealthiest families in the United States, owing much of their fortune to Jay Pritzker’s founding of Hyatt Hotels in 1957. JB boasts a personal net worth of at least $3.7 billion.
According to financial disclosures, much of the group’s money has been directed in recent years to the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, the American Heart Association, and the president and fellows of Harvard College. It has also supported the Chicago Community Foundation’s efforts, including its LGBTQ initiative, Covid-19 response, and immigration programs. Many of the foundation’s grantees, including the Tides Center, the Center for the Study of Social Policy, the Center for American Progress, and the Vera Institute of Justice, are strong supporters of DEI. Other nonprofits linked to the Pritzkers are large backers of transgender initiatives; the governor’s cousin Jennifer Pritzker is a biological male who identifies as a woman.
Gaither, the former DEI official at Indeed, said any foundation moving to curb its promotion of DEI causes “harm to marginalized groups.”
“It’s clearly problematic,” Gaither added.
JB Pritzker, who became governor in 2019, is believed to be ramping up to run for president in 2028. Last November, he reacted to Trump’s win by launching a group that works with other state officials to advance policies that “safeguard democracy.” A Pritzker spokesperson declined to comment on his 2028 ambitions, pointing The Free Press to a statement last week in which the governor said he has not yet made a decision whether to run for reelection.
News of the foundation’s website deletions comes as large corporations and nonprofits face pressure from the Trump administration to oppose DEI. In his first week in office, Trump issued a series of executive orders directing federal agencies to certify they are not furthering DEI in alleged violation of anti-discrimination laws. One of Trump’s January orders called on federal officials to develop plans to potentially investigate nonprofits with assets of more than $500 million—a criteria the Pritzker Family Foundation does not meet.
Since the election, companies ranging from Disney to Deloitte to Coca-Cola have rolled back their DEI programs. Left-leaning advocacy groups, meanwhile, have sharply criticized Trump’s DEI attack as an attempt to unjustly harm oppressed minorities, with Human Rights Watch likening it to a “crusade” that runs contrary to the spirit of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Republicans say DEI itself contradicts the notion of equality under the law, since it embraces a system of boosting certain identity groups over others.
To Fred Hicks, a veteran Democratic strategist who leads the voter turnout group Black Men Decide, the Pritzker Family Foundation’s website changes do not necessarily mean it’s backing down from supporting DEI. Rather, it could indicate a creative way to avoid scrutiny from Trump.
“I see it as taking a different track to remain true to your guidance and what you’re trying to accomplish without stating it on your website and making you a target of the Trump administration,” Hicks told The Free Press.
But Dr. Marcus Anthony Hunter, a UCLA sociology professor and the author of Radical Reparations: Healing the Soul of a Nation, said the Pritzker Family Foundation should take a public stand in defending DEI, given its financial firepower.
“It seems like the easy route to avoid conflict by just erasing stuff rather than having a confrontation plan,” he told The Free Press. “What are they afraid of? If anyone can fight back, it would be an organization like this. If an organization with that amount in holdings and reach is capitulating, what does that say for the mom and pop nonprofits? You can’t spell equality without equity.”
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