Iconic nature club founded in 1892 destroys itself with woke pivot that saw 180 DEI staffers hired and member ‘scolded for asking about wolves instead of equity, justice and inclusion’

Longtime members of the iconic Sierra Club warn the environmental group is imploding after woke infighting destroyed its focus on nature, driving away members and donors.

The once-powerful group, founded in 1892, had long been a giant of American environmentalism, making its name through causes including establishing Earth Day.

But in the last six years the club has lost 60 percent of its membership and is reportedly facing a $40 million projected budget deficit despite several rounds of staff layoffs.

Insiders said issues began during Donald Trump’s first term in office a decade ago as the as the group positioned itself in opposition to his rollbacks on environmental laws.

The position attracted a flurry of new members and saw the organization flush with $2 million in donations in just two weeks.

However problems reportedly arose as leaders looked to capitalize on its influence by expanding the club into an umbrella activist group, crusading on progressive issues ranging from racial justice, gay rights and immigration.

Insiders told the New York Times that they were issued an ‘equity language guide’ and found themselves being scolded for not prioritizing equity and diversity.

One member, Delia Malone, told the Times that she had a complaint launched against her for deviating from the organization’s new mission because she said the club should lobby Colorado lawmakers to provide more protections for wolves.

Longtime members of the iconic Sierra Club say they no longer recognize the environmental activist group after woke infighting destroyed its focus on nature

Insiders say issues began when the group became a symbol of anti-Donald Trump resistance as the Republican rose to power a decade ago, and its leaders decided to expand it into an umbrella organization crusading for progressive issues

‘One of the staff said, “That’s fine, Delia. But what do wolves have to do with equity, justice and inclusion?”‘ she recalled.

Earlier this year the Sierra Club fired its first black executive director, Ben Jealous, the former president of the NAACP, after the group hired him in 2022 to reverse its declining membership and donations.

According to the Times, his tenure was marked by ‘accusations of sexual harassment, bullying, and overspending’, and insiders said the organization spread itself too thin across an array of woke causes.

Jealous told Politico after he was fired that he felt he was subjected to discrimination and a ‘campaign’ against him, and before he was ousted he said he ‘raised concerns about racial discrimination and retaliation I saw in the Sierra Club.’

Before its recent decline, the Sierra Club made headlines through its campaign Beyond Coal, which aimed to close all of America’s coal-fired power plants.

At a time when the organization was well funded with donations – including a $120 million gift from billionaire Mike Bloomberg – the group successfully sued regulators and it was on track to close hundreds of plants by 2017.

‘The game plan was clear, and it was working,’ Abigail Dillen, president of the environmental group Earthjustice, told the Times.

When Trump was first elected in 2016, donations soared and volunteers and memberships jumped to over four million.

But it was Trump’s rise that may have caused the Sierra Club’s downfall, as its leaders decided their sole focus on environmentalism was too narrow for the gravity of the moment.

Earlier this year the Sierra Club fired its first black executive director, Ben Jealous, the former president of the NAACP, after the group hired him to stop its declining membership and donation numbers in 2022

Longtime members said they felt the Sierra Club lost its way when it moved away from focusing on environmental issues

In 2017, the group’s then-executive director Michael Brune told members: ‘We can’t defend the environment by shutting ourselves up in a big, green box labeled “environmental issues”.’

The shift to the left saw the organization rapidly expand the number of staff in an employee union, which in turn raised salaries by over 30 percent in five years.

These increased costs saw labor expenses double from 2016 to 2024.

However donations dried up as many members were turned off by a sudden need to support a wide net of social causes separate from the environment.

Among the woke standards introduced were an ‘equity language guide’, which lectured members about how everyday words such as ‘vibrant’ and ‘hardworking’ were racist.

Supporters were told not to refer to ‘Americans’ because it excluded immigrants, and the term ‘lame duck’ was also reportedly banned because ‘lame’ could be considered offensive.

While Malone said she still volunteers for the Sierra Club, she knows many like her that decided to quit because they didn’t see the point if it was not focused on environmentalism.

Member Delia Malone said she had a complaint launched against her because she said the club should lobby Colorado lawmakers to provide more protections for wolves, and was told :’What do wolves have to do with equity, justice and inclusion?’

The Sierra Club supported defunding the police and reparations for slavery amid the Black Lives Matter protests, and many members questioned what happened to the long-beloved environmental group.

Jim Dougherty, an environmental activist and Sierra Club director, told the Times that he raised objections in 2019 when he realized the group had put more funding into DEI than to the environment.

‘I said, “We have two full-time employees devoted to Trump’s war on the Arctic refuge, and we have 108 going to D.E.I., and I don’t think we have our priorities straight”,’ he said.

Dougherty said he was the lone board member to back his objections, and a budget focused on DEI policies was passed.

Organizers said the issues within the club were compounded when Trump lost the 2020 election, as it no-longer had a prominent enemy to rally around.

Memberships and donations declined further, and in 2022 union members asked the Sierra Club to cease all trips and operations in Israel because of the Middle East crisis.

Within one month in 2022, it lost over 130,000 members.

Loren Blackford, the group’s new executive director (left), said she stands behind the club’s hard shift to the left going forward

Jealous fired dozens of staff through three rounds of layoffs, but actions by the leadership struggled to stop members leaving and expenses piling up.

He told the Times that he felt his efforts were undercut by the union, and ‘campaign attacks that the union carried out against the organization before I was hired and doubled down on after I became executive director were weakening efforts to raise money and to do the work.’

And now, even with Trump’s return to the White House, the organization said it has not seen the same surge in support that it did when he first assumed power.

‘We didn’t have a direct ‘Trump bump’ in the same way we did for the first Trump administration,’ Loren Blackford, the group’s new executive director, said.

Despite its current state, Blackford said she stands behind the club’s hard shift to the left going forward.

‘As long as climate change and environmental protection are viewed as just being concerns for a limited group of elites, we lose,’ she said.

‘We only win by building a powerful, diverse movement.’