Despite the nation’s long history of organized labor, workers’ rights haven’t typically been a priority for philanthropy — though there are some exceptions, including a few stalwart funders, plus a few new faces. Far more funders focus on strategies like workforce development, job training and backing small businesses and entrepreneurs, which are important needs that at the same time do not tend to raise tough questions around structural inequality and corporate power. But there are some funders supporting the protection and advancement of workers’ rights. Many are doing so in the context of a “new labor movement” that’s been underway in the U.S.
While union membership hit a record low in 2023, organized labor has had some big wins over the past two years. Philanthropy-backed groups have helped contribute to that organizing. Although 501c3 funders do not give to unions (which are classified as 501c5 organizations), they do support an array of 501c3 groups aiming to empower workers, like the National Domestic Workers Alliance, National Employment Law Project, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, to name a few.
These groups and the movement as a whole have a steep hill to climb in the U.S., given widening income gaps, wage stagnation, the rise of artificial intelligence and digital surveillance in work environments, and the rise of the gig economy, which excludes workers from labor protections. Nevertheless, there are some good signs, like the fact that the majority of Americans view labor unions as having a positive effect on the country, with younger generations of workers being more pro-union than older generations.
It remains to be seen how the new Trump administration will impact the movement, having aligned itself with billionaire owners of tech companies while at the same time drawing on a populist wave that saw increasing numbers of working-class voters back Trump in 2024. Expectations are low when it comes to actual policies that affect workers, and Trump’s dismantling of economic safeguards, drastic actions on global trade, and mass firings of federal employees are already having an adverse effect.
As workers’ rights philanthropies come to terms with disturbing new federal realities, many of the same structural challenges they’ve confronted for years continue to hold. To that end, here’s a non-exhaustive list of six funders who are currently supporting workers’ rights.
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation supports workers in the U.S. and around the globe through its Future of Work(ers) program, which is dedicated to ensuring that all workers have equal rights to labor protections, that everyone is guaranteed social protections, and that workers are able to shape the policies and economic systems that impact their lives.
Ford’s strategy includes building capacity and strengthening organizations that work to enforce labor laws and social protections, as well as those that innovate means to organize workers. It also aims to convene advocates, organizers, policy groups and academics to shape workers’ rights policies, help develop a hub to build the technical capabilities of workers’ organizations so they can strengthen their campaigns to influence business practices, and change narratives around labor rights and social protections.
One area that Ford prioritizes is the impact of new technology on workers, particularly across issues related to undermining worker power, worker surveillance and privacy, algorithms that reinforce discrimination, and physical safety.
Over the years, Ford has backed almost all of the nation’s major labor organizing nonprofit groups, as we outlined in our recently updated report on workers’ rights and workforce development funding. Some of Ford’s recent grantees in this space include The Worker Agency, Center for Community Change, the Center for Labor and a Just Economy Program at Harvard Law School, Labor Lab and Polaris Project.
James Irvine Foundation
The California-focused James Irvine Foundation is dedicated to helping low-income workers in the Golden State achieve economic prosperity. Most of Irvine’s support for workers’ rights comes through its Fair Work Initiative, launched in 2018. The initiative supports low-wage workers by backing efforts to reduce wage theft, ensure access to the rights and benefits to which they are legally entitled, promote civic engagement, and connect low-wage workers with critical information and services.
In 2019, the Fair Work initiative funded a nonprofit intermediary called the LeadersTrust to help build and strengthen workers’ rights organizations and support leaders. Irvine has committed more than $20 million through its partnership with the LeadersTrust, which strengthens the operations and programming of around 60 workers’ rights groups in the state.
In a 2023 report on its Fair Work Initiative, Irvine advanced the thesis that philanthropy has placed “a critical role” in the gains workers’ rights groups have made in recent years, including increasing their engagement and support of workers, leveraging workers’ voices to advance pro-worker policy reforms at the local and state levels, and helping to address wage theft, among others.
Irvine, alongside the Omidyar Network and the Open Society Foundations, has backed the California Coalition for Worker Power, which is made up of more than 50 worker centers, worker advocates, labor policy experts and labor unions. The coalition works to make sure all California workers have the power to come together and improve their working conditions.
Some of the Irvine Foundation’s recent grantees include Center for Empowered Politics Education Fund, Chinese Progressive Association, National Domestic Workers Alliance, Grassroots Solutions, Legal Aid at Work, Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates of Southern California and State Democracy Project.
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W.K. Kellogg Foundation
The Kellogg Foundation funds worker protections and rights through its Good Jobs and Family Economic Security area of focus. Its Employment Equity grantmaking in the U.S. supports initiatives that seek to increase access to resources, promote financial stability, create better employment opportunities and strengthen entrepreneurship. This work includes advancing the development and enforcement of labor standards and workers’ rights, and supporting equitable access to high-quality jobs that pay fair wages, offer benefits and worker protections, and provide opportunities for career growth.
“We focus on workers in low-paid, precarious jobs and try to elevate job quality as an input for job security — so it’s not only about job access, but access to jobs that provide a sustaining wage, benefits, retirement and advancement. Jobs that are dignified,” said Marcela Montes, program officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in a Q&A with Economic Opportunity Funders.
Montes added that Kellogg is supporting the capacity of work justice organizations to represent workers’ rights and people of color.
Rosenberg Foundation
A longtime progressive funder in California, the Rosenberg Foundation supports workers’ rights at the crossroads of immigrant rights and economic justice. Immigrants are often some of the most exploited workers in the U.S. In California, immigrants make up 34% of the state’s workforce between the ages of 25 and 54.
For Rosenberg, farm workers have been a priority since the 1950s. Rosenberg’s grantmaking in this space includes supporting strategies that strengthen labor protections for agricultural guest workers and challenging unfair wages and exploitative working conditions for farmer workers, as well as for day laborers, garment workers, restaurant workers, domestic workers and those who work in the car wash industries. Rosenberg also supports labor organizing, impact litigation and policy advocacy.
MacKenzie Scott
As we noted in our updated report on workforce development and workers’ rights, billionaire megadonor MacKenzie Scott is a relatively new donor in this space and has awarded notable support to workers’ rights groups. More recently, the bulk of her worker-focused funding has gone toward causes like direct service jobs training, career development and micro-financing initiatives.
Nevertheless, the fact that she’s backed labor movement nonprofits at all (and, as usual, with substantial giving) puts her in the minority among living billionaire givers. Scott’s labor movement and advocacy grantees include One Fair Wage, the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the Families and Workers Fund and the Workers Defense Project.
Melinda French Gates
Like MacKenzie Scott, Melinda French Gates is another major billionaire donor who has supported workers’ rights, particularly those of women. After stepping down as co-chair of the Gates Foundation last year, she announced later in 2024 that she was awarding $150 million through her giving vehicle Pivotal Ventures to support women in the workforce and eliminate workforce barriers for women. She has also called for the implementation of national paid family leave.
Some of French Gates’ grantees include the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Paid Leave for All, National Women’s Law Center and the National Partnership for Women & Families.
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In addition to these funders, some other grantmakers that have backed workers’ rights and labor organizing groups in recent years include the Open Society Foundations (which has also funded these efforts overseas), the Freedom Together Foundation (formerly the JPB Foundation), the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Joyce Foundation and the Omidyar Network.
