The Rhode Island Black Business Association (RIBBA) is among several organizations impacted by President Donald Trump’s termination of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives across various sectors.

According to The Brown Daily Herald, every January, RIBBA, a Providence, RI-based nonprofit dedicated to closing the racial wealth gap through business development programs for small business owners, requests funding packages from its larger company partners, typically ranging from $7,500 to $100,000.

However, some partners have indicated that their funding pool has been reduced this year, with many delaying their funding decisions until April and offering reduced financial packages.

“This trend aligns with broader shifts in corporate giving and budget constraints that many nonprofits are experiencing nationwide,” RIBBA President and CEO Lisa Ranglin said in an email to The Herald.

According to WPRI Channel 12, Ranglin stated that following Trump’s rollbacks of DEI initiatives, the contacts RIBBA had been communicating with at the federal level now appear to have been laid off.

“The two people that we were connecting with, they’re gone with email just going off in the space and we’re not getting anything back,” Ranglin said, WPRI reported.

She added that the “lack of commitment” from previous funders and supporters presents significant challenges to the association’s survival, per The Herald. After laying off two employees in December, RIBBA now has 11 staff members — and they’re working on a plan to prevent more cuts.

“We have not solved the problem that the organization set out to do,” Ranglin said, per The Herald. But “we are on the right side of history, and we’re going to continue to advocate for our clients.”

Oyeniran Oyewale, a graduate of RIBBA’s Emerging Leaders Development Program and its Alumni Association vice president, described the situation as “ridiculous” and “disheartening.”

He noted that while RIBBA is uncertain about what next year will bring, the organization plans to “go back to the drawing board” to address advocacy and funding issues.

Since taking office for a second time on Jan. 20, 2025, Trump has launched an attack on DEI initiatives nationwide, as noted by AFROTECH™.

On his first day in office, the president signed a record number of executive orders, including “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.”

The order aims to terminate “all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government.”

It further read, “Americans deserve a government committed to serving every person with equal dignity and respect, and to expending precious taxpayer resources only on making America great.”