- openDemocracy is republishing this story in February 2025, after Goldman Sachs became the latest US company to abandon an internal diversity rule in the face of Donald Trump’s anti-diversity drive.
The Bank of America and Goldman Sachs have both been lauded for their LGBTIQ-friendly workplaces. But tax filings uncovered by openDemocracy show nonprofit foundations linked to the banks have also funded ultraconservative groups fighting to roll back civil rights for the queer community worldwide.
From 2017 to 2020, the Bank of America Charitable Foundation handed out more than $390,000 to eight such organisations who between them have resisted same-sex marriage laws and anti-discrimination protections for LGBTIQ people, challenged contraception and abortion access, and sought to ban gender-affirming healthcare for trans people.
openDemocracy also uncovered donations by the Shell Oil Company Foundation and the Motorola Solutions Foundation, as well as charitable foundations of the US Chamber of Commerce, and Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America lobby groups.
