New CA Legislation Proposed Regarding Foundations' Reporting Requirements

This morning Larry Mantle (on KPCC) was discussing new CA legislation that would require foundations to report their board and staff diversity as well as their grantees'.

Here is more info from Project Vote Smart's website:
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PVS' Synopsis:
Vote to pass a bill that requires private, public, and corporate foundations with assets over $250 million to report on the demographic composition of their board of directors and staff, and provide details of the diversity of organizations to which the foundation awarded grants and business contracts.

Official Synopsis:

Requires specified foundations to collect race, gender-related and sexual orientation-related data and post this information on their Web sites. Specifically, this bill :

1)Requires every private, corporate and public operating foundation with assets over $250 million to collect, among other things, the following information:

a) The racial, gender and sexual orientation composition of its board of directors;

b) The racial, gender and sexual orientation composition of the private foundation's staff;

c) The percentage of business contracts awarded to businesses owned by specified groups;

d) The number of grants and percentage of grant dollars awarded to organizations serving specified communities; and,

e) The number of grants and percentage of grant dollars awarded to organizations where the grantee's board of directors and/or staff are members of specified groups.

2)Requires the collected racial, gender-specific and sexual orientation-related information to be posted on the each private foundation's Internet website and included in its annual report.

Highlights:

- Requires foundations to report the number of grants awarded to organizations serving social minorities and those comprised of more than 50 percent ethnic minorities, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender employees [sec. 1 (a) (8-13)].

- Requires foundations to report the percentage of business contracts awarded to businesses owned by African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Pacific Islanders, Caucasians, Latinos, Native Americans, Alaskan Natives, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender people [sec. 1 (a) (7)].
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They said on the radio show this morning that the gender and sexual orientation language has since been removed from the bill's language.

One of the organization's pushing for the legislation, Greenlining, has published a one page overview of the bill:
greenlining.org/documents/view/183
Greenlining's main argument is that since foundations receive "public funding" (i.e. function under the IRS 501c3 status and receive preferential tax treatment), they are subject to the same requirements to encourage diversity as other state institutions.