The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), a philanthropic organization founded by Meta (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, is putting an end to its diversity, equity and inclusion programs (DEI) in a move that parallels Zuckerberg’s recent cuts at Meta. The charity also recently cut back on its social advocacy work to focus on science and A.I.
The reorganization comes as CZI reviews its “programs and practices to ensure that they align with our focus as a science philanthropy as well as the current legal and policy landscape,” said Marc Malandro, the organization’s chief operating officer, in an internal email yesterday (Feb. 18).
In 2015, Zuckerberg and Chan pledged to give away 99 percent of their Meta shares, then valued at $45 billion, and established CZI to do so. The couple serve as co-CEOs of the nonprofit, based in Redwood City, Calif. Over the past decade, the organization has committed about $7 billion in grants.
CZI staffers earlier this year were reportedly reassured that the philanthropic initiative remains distinct from Zuckerberg’s tech company and wouldn’t be impacted by DEI pullbacks at Meta. In January, following an announcement from Zuckerberg that detailed cuts to Meta’s fact-checking program and censorship efforts and were perceived by many as a way to curry favor with the Trump administration, the Big Tech company told employees it would dismantle its DEI team and eliminate programs like supplier diversity efforts, representation goals and a hiring approach ensuring candidates from underrepresented backgrounds were considered.
This scrapped hiring approach, known as the “Diverse Slate Approach,” was also a practice of CZI’s—until now. The strategy has been discontinued, announced Malandro, who noted that CZI will “continue to cast a wide net to source top candidates while always selecting the best candidate for the role.”
In light of a “shifting regulatory and legal landscape,” CZI’s diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility team will also be disbanded, with its its three members transitioning to different roles at the organization, said Malandro in his email.
What else is changing at CZI?
It isn’t just CZI’s DEI efforts that are undergoing shake-ups. When Zuckerberg and Chan initially established their philanthropic vehicle, its funding areas included political and social advocacy work like immigration reform and racial equity grants. In its 2020 annual letter, for example, CZI announced plans to give $500 million over the next five years to support organizations fighting for racial equity—a pledge the initiative says it has completed.
This type of funding has since been discontinued, according to Malandro, who doubled down on CZI’s recent pivot towards science research studying challenges like cellular behavior, inflammation, and disease detection, prevention and treatment. While CZI’s current focus areas consist of science, education and community-related grants, Chan last year reportedly told employees that the initiative’s “next phase” will be as a science-first organization.
Going forward, biology and A.I-related challenges will take priority for the nonprofit. “As we’ve focused on science, we’ve wound down our social advocacy funding,” Malandro told CZI’s employees, adding that no new programs in this area have been launched in recent years. “There are a small number of multiyear grant commitments we made previously that we still honor, but none of these will support political activism,” he said.
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