The liberal spigot that funded the Southern Poverty Law Center might be drying up.
Two of the country’s largest backers of donor-advised funds have warned customers not to donate to the Southern Poverty Law Center, according to The New York Times.
The SPLC has been indicted by the Justice Department for sending money to leaders of hate groups while not reporting that they did so. The SPLC in turn fundraised to fight the allegations.
But Fidelity Charitable and Vanguard Charitable warned donors away from the embattled liberal icon.
Fidelity Charitable told their customers, who own about 350,000 charitable giving accounts that offer tax savings when they donate to eligible nonprofits, that it would not facilitate those donations.
“Fidelity Charitable is aware of an ongoing governmental investigation into Southern Poverty Law Center,” an email it sent to a donor said.
“Consistent with our grant-making standards and practices, the organization is not an eligible grant recipient during the ongoing investigation,” the email said.
Vanguard Charitable denied a request to send cash to the SPLC.
“The organization has had allegations and/or charges brought against them for activities that may call into question their ability to carry out their tax-exempt charitable purpose,” it wrote.
Fidelity Charitable warns account holders that it will not rubber stamp giving requests that would send money to charities facing legal scrutiny.
Its website said a request to donate to a group may be rejected if the group “is being investigated for alleged illegal activities or noncharitable activities, such as terrorism, money laundering, hate crimes or fraud,” or if “other state and federal agencies” are investigating a charitable entity.
A Vanguard representative said it facilitates donations “only to organizations that meet IRS eligibility requirements. If we become aware an organization has been charged with a crime by state or federal authorities, we pause grant-making while the matter is pending.”
When the group CharityWatch looked at the SPLC, it was not pleased.
“CharityWatch currently assigns the Southern Poverty Law Center an ‘F’ rating on its ‘A+’ to ‘F’ rating scale based on our analysis of its fiscal year ended 10/31/2024 consolidated audited financial statements and IRS tax Form 990,” the site wrote.
“CharityWatch determined that in fiscal 2024 SPLC spent 69% of its cash budget on programs and spent the remaining 31% on overhead. We further determined that it spent $22 to raise each $100 in cash donations that year. These metrics earned it an initial rating of ‘B’ for financial efficiency, but its final rating was downgraded to an ‘F’ due to the charity’s high asset reserves.”
The site noted that the SPLC has enough cash on hand to operate for six years even if it did not take in another penny.
The House Judiciary Committee is looking at the SPLC as well, particularly in the context of its work that went hand-in-glove with the Biden administration.
A committee news release noted that the panel is seeking answers in light of the federal indictment alleging that from 2014 to 2023, more than $3 million went to various hate groups.
“The Committee has been conducting oversight of the Biden-Harris Administration’s close coordination with the SPLC on federal civil rights matters. We have found that an internal FBI system contained at least 13 documents, including the Richmond memorandum that labeled traditional Catholics as ‘violent extremists,’ that cited material from the SPLC,” the release said.
“In addition, other publicly available documents revealed how the Justice Department partnered closely with the SPLC during the Biden-Harris Administration, including scheduling regular meetings, giving the SPLC early access to federal law-enforcement data, and allowing SPLC employees to train federal prosecutors. The new information about the SPLC alleged in the indictment only raises further questions,” the release said.
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