NEW YORK – What appeared to be a prestigious opportunity to spearhead a leading environmental organization’s groundbreaking initiative in green energy financing has taken a controversial turn.

In May 2023, Pedro da Silva joined the Sierra Club Foundation, a charitable extension of the organization founded by renowned naturalist John Muir. With a background in investment management, da Silva was tasked with directing the “Shifting Trillions” initiative. This program aimed to redirect major banks’ investments from fossil fuels to climate-friendly solutions.

This initiative gained momentum as the Sierra Club, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, shifted its focus towards environmental justice. As various organizations re-evaluated their roles in perpetuating systemic racism, the Sierra Club acknowledged its founder’s racist views, apologized, and committed to diversifying its staff.

However, da Silva claims these commitments did not translate into the foundation’s internal practices. In a wrongful termination lawsuit filed Thursday in a California state court, the 29-year-old alleges that routine workplace interactions were misinterpreted, resulting in an unjust harassment complaint rooted in racial stereotypes about Black men.

Da Silva perceives his dismissal as retaliation for his outspoken criticism regarding the organization’s discriminatory practices and lack of diversity.

“This is what undermines movements significantly,” da Silva expressed to the Associated Press. “Organizations like these make bold declarations about diversity being their strength, yet they create environments where diverse leaders struggle to thrive.”

It’s been a tumultuous period for the Sierra Club, among the country’s oldest grassroots environmental groups. Facing a $40 million budget deficit in 2023, then-executive director Ben Jealous oversaw three rounds of layoffs that eliminated about 10% of staff.

Jealous, its first Black leader, was ousted last August after staff accusations of harassment and bullying — a move Jealous considers “racial retaliation.” Jealous and da Silva are represented by the same civil rights and employment firm: Hadsell Stormer Renick & Dai, LLP.

A Sierra Club Foundation spokesperson said the decision to fire da Silva was “carefully considered.” His claims “were not the cause of his termination, are antithetical to our values and policies and are completely without merit, and we are in the process of vigorously defending our position in the appropriate legal forum,” the spokesperson said.

For da Silva, the experience illustrates what he sees as a pattern at the Sierra Club and a sector-wide problem in philanthropy: progressive nonprofits hired highly qualified leaders of color when liberal donors wanted to see racial justice following 2020 but failed to support them and their equitable visions.

The lawsuit comes amid broader concerns in the sector that, with those visions facing new setbacks following the Trump administration’s crusade against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, Black staffer turnover may be on the horizon just after many enter positions of power.

“When equity is woven into leadership development, decision making and accountability, it’s less vulnerable to political cycles,” said Michael Leach, the first-ever White House chief diversity officer under President Joe Biden. “We have to start investing more in trust, not just externally, but internally.”

A ceiling for Black nonprofit leaders as DEI funding retrenches

Institutions have recently faced a reckoning over their embrace of racial justice.

Scores have backtracked on diversity commitments over the last year after the Trump administration’s executive orders banning “illegal DEI” at organizations interacting with the federal government.

Candid, a nonprofit research service, and ABFE, a membership group for Black philanthropy professionals, recently surveyed over 200 Black-led nonprofits about the backlash to race-explicit work.

In interviews, ABFE President Susan Taylor Batten said Black leaders repeatedly mentioned the psychological toll of “constantly negotiating their identity” as they balanced their missions against financial sustainability.

“I am concerned that, while the numbers may not yet be so visible, that we will see exits in the field of Black leaders,” Taylor Batten said.

‘Things started to go south’

So transformational was Shifting Trillions’ mission that da Silva said he took a 40% pay cut to build what he was told would become an entire department — the foundation’s flagship program.

The job description said the leader should “model equity, inclusion, and justice.”

According to da Silva, the foundation’s executive director, Dan Chu, told him he’d hire “a bunch of people” in his second year, expecting a staff of 6-10.

Within two years, da Silva said he’d influenced more than $2 trillion despite being denied “virtually all of the resources” promised. His accomplishments brought a raise, he said, but he had to fight just to get one teammate.

What changed, in his view, is that he started speaking up. He pointed out the foundation’s board had no Black women. He objected to the notion that the Fearless Fund lawsuit meant they should stop investing with Black-led asset managers. And he suggested a more qualified Black woman had been passed over for a white candidate as the new chief legal officer.

On a trip to Monterey, California, according to the lawsuit, Chu confided to da Silva that he was helping the Sierra Club “drum up harassment complaints” against Jealous to oust him. And da Silva said he expressed concern that Jealous was “hired as a Black man who would be set up to fail” and scapegoated.

He said their interactions grew colder. Chu shortened the timeline when da Silva tried to discuss five-year plans. His dismissive remarks about Black employees continued, according to the lawsuit. Chu asked da Silva to identify board members who could take over aspects of his role.

“It was really when I started raising those concerns directly to the executive director about how Black employees were being treated, spoken about most often by him, that things started to go south,” da Silva said. “I realized that I had sort of stepped into something that was not consistent with what they claimed publicly were their values.”

ln late January 2025, according to the lawsuit, the new chief legal officer texted da Silva that he was under investigation. The foundation accused him of harassment and hostility for interactions with his subordinate that included recommending an Octavia Butler novel, sharing music by Etta James and Outkast, sending after-hours texts and taking a work walk through the park.

Rising ranks and stagnant support

Other non-white nonprofit workers have described leadership as a “hollow prize.”

Chanda Causer, who previously led a small business advocacy network, said there wasn’t much money to be made in social justice work for a while. But around 2015 she noticed those same jobs started carrying higher salaries. All of a sudden, the leaders in the room looked a lot more like her.

A sobering reality sunk in at leadership retreats. She met other women of color who felt they’d been hired to rescue poorly run organizations that, unbeknownst to them, were running out of money.

Now, as a consultant who coaches mostly women leaders of color, Causer said they often feel heightened pressure to “get it right” as the first person of their identity to hold their position.

“If funders are coming in to support, especially, people of color for the first time in leadership roles, they also have a fiduciary responsibility to do oversight and support and help them get to those outcomes,” Causer said.

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Brown reported from Washington, D.C.

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