The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the multi-billion-dollar philanthropy led by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Dr. Priscilla Chan, is reportedly moving away from political spending, following criticism from Republicans and internal tensions with liberal staff members.
The initiative, founded in 2015, always invested in a combination of social and scientific causes, but has recently rebranded as “science-first,” and has ended internal diversity programs, housing initiatives, and diversity-focused funding for scientists.
This spring, a school for low-income students that Chan founded also closed.
The shift, which has also included an overall slowdown in spending, with $336 million in grants, less than half the group’s average, came after a series of bruising encounters with politics, The New York Times reports.
Chan and Zuckerberg were reportedly frustrated after getting criticism from Trump and his allies for efforts like donating $400 million to nonpartisan election infrastructure in the 2020 race, an effort MAGA derided as “Zuckerberg bucks.” Trump, for his part, threatened the Meta boss with “life in prison” during the 2024 campaign if he intervened in the election.
Political fatigue reportedly began even earlier, according to the Times, with Zuckerberg growing frustrated with criticisms from liberal staff members at the philanthropy in the wake of the 2020 racial justice protests.
The Independent has contacted the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative for comment.
The organization has explained the changes as a combination of new strategy and a shifting political landscape.
In a June letter, Chan, a pediatrician, emphasized the group’s long-running commitment to curing disease, a cause she became attached to as a doctor in San Francisco.
“It was there that I saw the limits of medicine and science up close, working with children with rare diseases,” she wrote in a June blog post. “For those families, expanding the limits of what we know — advancing basic science research — is their only hope for a better life for their child.
In a February post, the initiative explained its decision to cut its DEI teams as a response to the “shifting regulatory and legal landscape.”
In recent years, the Supreme Court has struck down race-based affirmative action in higher education admissions, and the Trump administration has sought to end DEI in both the public and private sector.
At the same time, as the Republican has returned to power, Meta has repositioned itself with moves seen by some as an attempt to remain in the administration’s good graces, including ending diversity programs, eliminating fact-checkers, putting Trump ally Dana White on the Meta board, and attending the president’s inauguration earlier this year.
Shortly after Trump was elected, Zuckerberg was spotted at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, where senior White House official Stephen Miller said the tech billionaire had “been very clear about his desire to be a supporter of and a participant in this change that we’re seeing all around America, all around the world, with this reform movement that Donald Trump is leading.”
