The latest trend in corporate philanthropy signals that bosses and boards are finally retraining their focus on what the country actually needs – and it’s a welcome shift away from the woke DEI agenda that has dominated for years, On The Money has learned.
In the past six months alone, Google, AT&T, Lowe’s, Meta (the owner of Facebook and Instagram) and Larry Fink’s BlackRock announced they are pumping tens of millions of dollars into various programs to train people in the “skilled trades” – plumbers, mechanics, electricians, pipe fitters and iron workers.
To be sure, these corporate behemoths aren’t shelling out all of this cash just to make the world a better place. AT&T says it needs blue-collar tradesmen to expand its high-speed fiber network to support AI buildout. Indeed, the need to support AI infrastructure is at the heart of the need for skilled laborers. AI still hasn’t automated plumbing and iron work, and it might never.
These are also good-paying jobs – many of them in the six figures – that will be earned by people who need to save for retirement. So you can understand why BlackRock, a major provider of retirement plans, might also be interested in this.
That said, it’s nice to see big corporations backing something that’s concrete and hard to argue with. That’s after years of plowing funds into useless nonprofits that graded companies on the intersectionality of their workers, or how they measured up to obtuse environmental standards.
And yes, it’s about time. Since the social justice movement ramped up in 2020, corporate philanthropy has veered absurdly left. The controversial (and some would say, financially suspect) Black Lives Matter movement received funding at the expense of charities devoted to helping vets, as I discovered in researching my book on corporate wokeness, “Go Woke Go Broke: The Inside Story on the radicalization of Corporate America.”
A public backlash coupled with turnover at the White House put corporations on notice that they shouldn’t be playing lefty politics with shareholder money. Diversity Equity and Inclusion policies are being phased out. So is fealty to unrealistic environmental mandates, such as the so-called net-zero movement. No one is bragging about giving money to BLM now.
What they are touting, including to your humble correspondent, is an effort to help all working-class Americans learn a skilled trade. This had been a pathway to the middle class in the US for years until everyone somehow decided that getting a degree in liberal arts will lead to a bigger salary.
That has turned out to be a shaky bet, of course, or we wouldn’t have a student loan crisis. Now corporate America is trying to figure out how to crank out more welders and the like.
Full disclosure: I know a little about trade schooling because my dad was a product of it. It was his ticket (and our family’s ticket) to the working class, owning a small home and a better life. It’s also a faster route to a better life than liberal arts degrees that can leave students heavily in debt with no skills and fighting for jobs being automated by AI.
Meta is spending $115 million, Lowe’s $250 million. AT&T hasn’t specifically broken out its training outlay, but has said it will be part of a five-year, $38 billion infrastructure buildout to meet AI demand. BlackRock, which manages $14 trillion in assets and is highly profitable, is making a $100 million charitable grant to fund its so-called “Future Builders” initiative for training programs across the country.
As part of its investment, BlackRock in May announced $30 million to train more than 12,000 in Texas for various careers such as electricians in a state that desperately needs skilled laborers given its massive expansion.
“The scale of growth underway in Texas demands a workforce ready to build it,” Fink said of the move. “By working alongside trusted Texas training institutions and workforce leaders, Future Builders is expanding access to skilled trades jobs that are essential to the state’s economy—helping more Texans access good-paying careers and build long-term security.”
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