Race Forward (also known as the Applied Research Center) is a left-of-center organization that advocates for a variety of race and other identity-based issues as well as environmental issues. The organization hosts conferences in support of left-of-center racial and identity-politics efforts and publishes the magazine and online media outlet Colorlines. ¹

Race Forward has been a central organizing group for left-of-center race-based movements. It merged with the Center for Social Inclusion, a project of the Tides Center, in 2017 to consolidate its race-based policy efforts. Race Forward also co-sponsors the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE), a coalition of local governments engaging in vocal support for identity-politics policies. The organization hosts an annual conference, the Facing Race National Conference, which provides race-first, left-of-center advocacy groups a place to strategize and plan. ^{1 2}

Background

Race Forward was founded in 1981 as the Applied Research Center with a mission to dismantle what it considered structural racism in America. Its founder, Gary Delgado, argued that Black and brown communities played an integral role in advocating against racial inequality. Delgado ran the Applied Research Center until 2006, when Rinku Sen took over. Since its inception, Race Forward has combated what it considers to be racial and environmental injustices, including the presidency of George H. W. Bush, the acquittal of police officers who were involved in the deaths of Black citizens, Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, the presidency of Donald Trump, and more. ¹

In 2017, Race Forward merged with the Center for Social Inclusion (CSI) to further its reach in the racial and environmental policy sphere. CSI was founded in 2001 by civil rights attorney Maya Wiley and political scientist Jocelyn Sargent and was home to the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE), a joint project formed in 2015 between CSI and the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society (now the Othering and Belonging Institute). When Race Forward and CSI merged, its work expanded from working with community organizations and organizers to local and regional government employees and leaders. Today, the GARE network comprises more than 400 local and regional jurisdictions working to develop what it considers racially equitable practices and policies. ¹

Facing Race National Conference

The Facing Race National Conference is an annual conference hosted by Race Forward since 2009. The conference consists of workshops, panels, and other activities all designed to push the organization’s left-wing approach to identity politics and race-relations advocacy issues. It has further added other left-wing issues, including climate change activism. The conference has a history of pushing other radical-left claims and anti-market, pro-socialism rhetoric through panel discussions, claiming that K-12 schools are channels for white supremacy and that the Trump administration advocated white-nationalist policies through the White House that intentionally harm Blacks and other racial minorities. ^{3 4}

Facing Race National Conference has had several prominent corporate sponsors as well as sponsorship from prominent educational and non-profit organizations. For example, the 2024 Facing Race National Convention was held in St. Louis, Missouri in November and was sponsored by the following groups: the American Medical Association, the Missouri Foundation for Health, the Kresge Foundation, US Bancorp, the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Open Society Foundations, Geico, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Transgender Law Center, AAA Insurance, Washington University Medicine, Saint Louis University’s Division of Diversity and Innovative Community Engagement, the Stupski Foundation, NEO Philanthropy, the Community Action Partnership, the Marguerite Casey Foundation, the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity, the Deaconess Foundation, Port of Portland, the Othering and Belonging Institute, the Women’s March, and Ballpark Village, Saint Louis. ⁵

In the past, various corporate sponsors have supported the left-wing conference, including the Ben and Jerry’s Foundation, the Center for Media Justice, and PolicyLink. ^{6 7 8}

The keynote speaker for the 2024 Facing Race National Conference was controversial MSNBC host Joy Ann-Reid. Reid hosts the MSNBC show “The ReidOut,” an opinion show that provides a left-of-center perspective on contemporary political analysis. More than 4,000 people attended the conference. ⁹

Colorlines

Colorlines is an online publication and physical magazine funded by Race Forward. The publication focuses on racial identity issues and other left-of-center issues. Stories published on Colorlines push a wide variety of issues such as expanded access to abortion, expansionist immigration policies, labor organizing, tax incentives for people of color, and LGBT issues. ¹⁰

The Colorlines website has featured left-of-center organizations pushing different issues. For example, the website pushed environmental issues featuring the Climate Justice Alliance, a left-of-center coalition organization pushing radical leftist environmentalist agendas such as the Green New Deal. ¹¹ Colorlines’ stories have also been featured on the website of Color of Change, an online organizing organization that attacks conservative organizations and seeks to silence conservative media. ¹² The website was also listed by Greenpeace as part of a toolkit the organization published in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department in 2020, in an effort to push the radical-left agenda of the Black Lives Matter movement and related entities. ¹³

In May 2024, on the 70th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education, Colorlines contributor Avis Weathersbee authored an article suggesting that the efforts to shrink and remove diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and offices in the public education system were reminiscent of a pre-Brown United States, in which educational racial segregation was practiced. Weathersbee claimed that this movement away from affirmative action and DEI and the lack of critical race theory (CRT) in American public schools was a step backward in history that encouraged discrimination and segregation. ¹⁴

Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE)

Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) is a fiscally sponsored project of Race Forward that serves as a coalition of local governments engaging in support for race-first and identity policies. The project is also funded by the Othering and Belonging Institute (formerly the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society), a left-of-center think tank housed at the University of California at Berkeley that produces studies pushing race-based policies. ^{15 16}

The advisory board for the project is made up of activists and officials from left-of-center organizations, labor unions, and American universities. Notably, members of the board work for the Service Employees International Union, one of the largest labor unions in the United States; PolicyLink, a radical-left organization pushing racial-identity-politics; and Center for Community Change, a left-of-center organization advocating for an array of social and racial issues. ¹⁷

In 2024, following Hurricanes Helene and Milton, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was alleged to have given favor in its relief efforts, reportedly neglecting those with campaign signs supporting former President Donald Trump in their yards. During media coverage of this scandal, it was uncovered that FEMA used a Racial Equity Tool developed by GARE to guide how the agency distributes its aid. The agency allegedly prioritized racial minorities, LGBTQ individuals, and other left-wing social groups in its relief based on the GARE-developed racial equity calculator. ¹⁸

Other Initiatives and Activism

In addition to the aforementioned conferences and publications, Race Forward also offers extensive race-first training and educational resources to non-profits, educational institutions, and governmental agencies, including the Butterfly Lab, a project to research and normalize legal and illegal immigration as part of American democracy. ¹⁹

Race Forward also operates the Federal Initiative to Govern for Racial Equity (FIRE), a critical race theory initiative that roots systemic racism in America in the founding era and seeks to produce research and educational information on how to rid society of alleged systemic racism. ²⁰ Race Forward also has a land and housing justice project that argues for greater government involvement in housing to right alleged inequity in housing policy. ²¹ A similar project operated by Race Forward is its race-first training it provides to civil servants and other government employees, advocating a race-first approach to public service. ²²

Mobilization Against Trump

Following the second election of President Donald Trump in November 2024, Race Forward hosted a webinar event entitled, “#Race And the Way Forward: Racial Justice After the 2024 Election” which sought to form a strategy for racial equity during Trump’s second administration. ²³

The webinar claimed to discuss the “next steps for the racial justice movement” during Trump’s second term. ²³ Speakers included Rukia Lumumba, the founder of left-of-center activist group People’s Advocacy Institute, and Rinku Sen, the former president of Race Forward and executive director of Narrative Initiative, a project of the left-of-center nonprofit New Venture Fund. ^{23 24} During Sen’s time as director of Race Forward, he had pioneered the project to remove the word “illegal” in reference to unlawfully present migrants from political parlance. ²³

A Race Forward press release following Trump’s second election in 2024 argued that the only explanation for Trump’s re-election was that a large portion of the American electorate had still not embraced racial equality. The press release alleged that those who voted for former President Trump “desire to hold power, influence, and wealth among only a few” in society. ²⁵

Founder and Leadership

Gary Delgado is the founder of and a senior fellow for Race Forward. He worked as the executive director for the organization until 2006, when Rinku Sen took over. Delgado has worked in several capacities for racial-advocacy and other left-of-center issues. He has worked as a researcher and has written articles for prominent left-of-center organizations such as the Ford Foundation and the Annie E. Casey Foundation. He also worked as an organizer for the National Welfare Rights Organization, an organization active in the 1960s and 1970s that called for a guaranteed basic income for all Americans. ^{26 27 28}

Glenn Harris is the president of Race Forward and the publisher of its Colorlines publication. Harris previously worked as the manager for City of Seattle Race and Social Justice Initiative, an organization which claims to fight what it calls systemic racism in the city of Seattle. He also serves on a number of boards of directors for identity-politics and race-based organizations, including the Philanthropic Initiative on Racial Equity (PRE), the Willamette Valley Law Project, and the City Parks Alliance. Before joining Race Forward, Harris was President of the Center for Social Inclusion (CSI), which merged with Race Forward in 2017. Harris also worked as development director at Western States Center, interim director at the MRG Foundation in Portland, and manager of the City of Seattle Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI). He also supported the start of initiatives similar to RSJI across the country and helped found the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE). ²⁹

Eric Ward is the executive vice president of Race Forward. He has worked for over three decades in left-wing advocacy, dealing with leaders from government, law enforcement, business, and civil rights groups to advance civil rights work. Ward also sits on the boards of several organizations and has been published at several prominent media outlets. ³⁰ He was featured in a PBS special on “Civil Courage” as a part of the government-funded media outlet’s “Dialogue for Change” series. During this interview, Ward shared about the threat to modern democracy posed by both anti-Semitic and Islamophobic entities in the United States. Ward also testified before Congress in the aftermath of the January 6th riot at the US Capitol. ³¹

Terry Keleher is the director of strategic innovations for Race Forward. He has a long history of working in advisory roles and as a “racial healing practitioner” for left-of-center organizations focused on identity-based issues. Keleher has worked for the ACLU, Chicago Community Trust, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. He has also published a number of articles covering racial and economic issues in left-wing and far-left publications such as Yes! Magazine, and the Huffington Post. ³²

Finances

In 2022, Race Forward reported $16,435,117 in revenue, $25,022,006 in expenses, and $34,918,779 in total assets. ³³

The organization is largely funded through grants and donations from left-of-center grantmaking and philanthropic groups. In 2022, Race Forward received a $1,000,000 grant from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and another $1,000,000 grant from Blue Meridian Partners in 2021. ^{34 35} In 2022, Race Forward received a $400,000 donation from the Seattle Foundation, a $310,830 grant from Fidelity Investments Charitable Gifts Fund, and smaller donations and grants from The Blackbaud Giving Group, the Tides Foundation, the Oregon Community Foundation, the Public Health Institute, and PolicyLink. ^{36 37 38}

Since 2017, Race Forward has received $2,775,000 from the Open Society Foundations, the grantmaking organization funded primarily by billionaire philanthropist George Soros. ³⁹ Since 2007, Race Forward has received $9,955,000 from the Ford Foundation, one of the largest left-of-center grantmaking entities in the United States. ^{40 41 42} Other major gifts from left-of-center grantmaking entities to Race Forward include a $400,000 grant from the Kresge Foundation in 2018 and a $160,000 grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in 2017. ^{43 44}

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2. “2018 Facing Race Program.” Facing Race National Convention, Race Forward. Accessed November 24, 2024. https://facingrace.raceforward.org/program/full-program.
3. “2018 Facing Race Program.” Facing Race, Race Forward. Accessed November 24, 2024. https://facingrace.raceforward.org/program/full-program.
4. “How the Facing Race Conference Is Meeting the Political Moment: A Conversation with Leslie Grant-Spann.” Nonprofit Quarterly. November 19, 2024. Accessed November 24, 2024. https://nonprofitquarterly.org/how-the-facing-race-conference-is-meeting-the-political-moment-a-conversation-with-leslie-grant-spann/
5. “Sponsors.” Facing Race Convention, Race Forward. Accessed November 24, 2024. https://facingrace.raceforward.org/sponsors
6. “Five Tools for Activists: What we learned at the facing race conference.” Ben and Jerry’s Foundation. Accessed November 24, 2024. https://www.benjerry.com/whats-new/2018/11/facing-race-conference.
7. “Facing Race National Conference 2018.” Center for Media Justice. Accessed November 24, 2024. https://mediajustice.org/news/facingrace2018/.
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10. Colorlines.” Colorlines. Accessed November 24, 2024. https://www.colorlines.com/.
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18. O’Neil, Tyler.  “Not just Trump signs: Employees reveal FEMA’s systematic woke discrimination.” The Lion. November 15, 2024. Accessed November 24, 2024. https://readlion.com/not-just-trump-signs-employees-reveal-femas-systematic-woke-discrimination/
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24. “Our Team.” Narrative Initiative, Accessed November 24, 2024. https://www.narrativeinitiative.org/our-team
25.  “Race Forward: Our Work is Not Over: We Must Continue to Organize.” Race Forward. Accessed November 24, 2024. https://www.raceforward.org/press/statement/race-forward%E2%80%93our-work%E2%80%93is%E2%80%93not%E2%80%93over%E2%80%93we-must-continue-to-organize
26. Grossman, Sara. “Lifetime Activist and Changemaker Gary Delgado Joins Haas Institute.” Othering & Belonging Institute. September 22, 2016. Accessed November 24, 2024. https://belonging.berkeley.edu/lifetime-activist-and-changemaker-gary-delgado-joins-haas-institute
27. Sen, Rinku. “Help Us Celebrate as the Applied Research Center Turns 30.” Colorlines. September 18, 2012. Accessed November 24, 2024. https://colorlines.com/article/help-us-celebrate-applied-research-center-turns-30/
28. “Gary Delgado.” ISSI – UC Berkeley. Accessed November 24, 2024. https://issi.berkeley.edu/people/gary-delgado
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38. “Results for Race Forward.” ProPublica. Accessed November 24, 2024. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text_search?sort=best&year%5B%5D=2022&q=94-2759879&submit=Apply
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42. “Grants to ‘Race Forward – Page 3.’” Ford Foundation. Accessed November 24, 2024. https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/our-grants/awarded-grants/grants-database/?page=3&search=Race+Forward
43. “Kresge Foundation Grants Database: Race Forward.” Kresge Foundation. Accessed November 24, 2024. https://kresge.org/grant/race-forward-0.
44. “Hewlett Foundation Grants Database: Race Forward.” William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Accessed November 24, 2024. https://hewlett.org/grants/race-forward-for-general-operating-support/.