CEO of the Year 2025 Survey Shows a Drop-off in DEI Budgets since 2021

The annual Columbus CEO Survey of Economic Conditions for 2025 found evidence of a drop-off in efforts around diversity, equity and inclusion as the racial justice reckoning of 2020 recedes into the rearview mirror and sentiment against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) fueled by racism comes to the forefront at the state and national levels.

Here are the results as reported by for-profit enterprises and nonprofit and government organizations surveyed in 2021 and 2025 as part of our CEO of the Year initiative. (Worth noting: In 2021, 27 percent of survey respondents were from nonprofit organizations. In 2025, that figure was 39 percent, giving them an outsize weight in the survey compared with the Columbus area overall.)

On both surveys, respondents were asked: Have you changed your company’s budget to DEI over the past year, including dedicated staff positions, training and workforce analysis? Data comes from Columbus CEO’s Survey of Economic Conditions for 2025 and 2021. Numbers have been rounded.

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