The federal discrimination lawsuit against the Fearless Fund and Fearless Foundation currently stands to completely upend the ability for organizations to provide specific criteria for scholarships or other grants.
The Fearless Fund and Foundation were launched in the last several years, with a specific focus to help women of color become entrepreneurs. This demographic is the leading group of new business owners since 2020, yet accesses a fraction of 1 per cent of all venture capital in the United States.
In August 2023, the American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER) sued the organizations over the “Fearless Strivers Grant,” which awarded $20,000 to Black women starting a business. This grant could help pay for myriad needs to get a company operational. AAER’s lawyers argued that the grant was discriminative under Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which barred race as a factor in contracts.
Atlanta-based Fearless Fund, a grant program for Black women business owners has been defunded.
A U.S. federal court of appeals panel suspended a venture capital firm's grant program for Black women business owners.
Ruling that a conservative group is likely to “prevail in its… pic.twitter.com/fpSUcDMAdC
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In September 2023, a U.S. District Court judge denied a preliminary injunction against the grant. That was almost immediately overruled by the U.S. Court of Appeals, which then reviewed the case and listened to oral arguments. In June, the Court of Appeals decided to keep the injunction in place through the duration of the litigation. Attorneys for the Fund are now considering all legal options forward.
How This Impacts Other Groups
The legal argument has centered around whether the grants are protected as a form of free speech. Throughout American history, organizations have been able to give grants, endowments, or donations to certain causes with specific criteria. These have helped Black, Irish, Italian, Jewish and other new Americans support their community through a variety of means.
Legal experts have noted a loss for the Fearless Fund and Fearless Foundation would effectively upend grants, scholarships, and endowments in the United States. They would no longer be able to have a specific criterion to help a certain community achieve a certain goal. For example, the Ancient Order of Hibernians would no longer be able to set rules that a scholarship be awarded to “to a member, the son, grandson, daughter, or granddaughter of a member of the AOH.”
The same would apply to organizations like the Daughters of the American Revolution, which only may give scholarships to young women who can trace their ancestry back to the U.S. to a certain point.
It’s time for Irish America and all communities that have been shoved into the margins to band together in this moment. We must speak in a unified voice to the White House, Congress and the Courts, stating that an attack on one of us is an attack on all. It is imperative we let our Congress Members know that we stand with the Fearless Fund and any other group which is under attack for supporting their own in order to help the next generation rise and reaize the American Dream.
