Southern Poverty Law Center Gets Taste of Its Own Debanking Medicine

After years of the Southern Poverty Law Center demanding that charitable foundations blacklist conservative and Christian nonprofits, the shoe is finally on the other foot: Fidelity Charitable has denied contributions to the SPLC.

Fidelity hasn’t targeted the SPLC for ideological reasons in the same way the SPLC targets conservatives, however—America’s largest sponsor of donor-advised funds is merely following its own policies regarding nonprofits under criminal investigation.

As The New York Times first reported, Fidelity cut off grants to the SPLC from its customers, who have more than 350,000 donor-advised funds—charitable giving accounts that allow them to maximize tax savings while supporting eligible nonprofits.

“Fidelity Charitable is aware of an ongoing governmental investigation into the Southern Poverty Law Center,” the company wrote in an email to a donor, the Times reported. “Consistent with our grant-making standards and practices, the organization is not an eligible grant recipient during the ongoing investigation.”

Fidelity Charitable’s website states that “a grant recommendation might be declined” if the organization “is being investigated for alleged illegal activities or non-charitable activities, such as terrorism, money laundering, hate crimes, or fraud.”

Another banking behemoth, Vanguard Charitable, has a similar policy.

“Vanguard Charitable grants only to organizations that meet IRS eligibility requirements,” a spokesperson for the company told The Daily Signal in a statement Wednesday. “If we become aware an organization has been charged with a crime by state or federal authorities, we pause grantmaking while the matter is pending.”

Last week, a federal grand jury indicted the SPLC on wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy charges for sending money to members of the very white supremacist groups the center claims it exists to dismantle. The SPLC did not deny funding members of the Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan Nations, but insisted the funds were part of an informant program that it used to prevent violent attacks.

The indictment, however, suggests that the SPLC didn’t just pay these field agents—it actually supervised “racist postings” for an organizer of the 2017 Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally.

The SPLC will have its day in court, but Fidelity’s policy is clear: Grants to nonprofits facing criminal charges may be rejected.

The SPLC’s History of Debanking

Conservatives may be forgiven for indulging in a little bit of schadenfreude at this news.

As I documented in my book “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center,” the SPLC weaponized its history of suing KKK groups into bankruptcy to smear conservatives. It places mainstream conservative and Christian nonprofits on a “hate map” with Klan chapters, claiming the map reveals the “infrastructure upholding white supremacy.” This “hate map” inspired a terrorist attack in 2012.

The SPLC doesn’t just release this list every year to its donors and the media, exaggerating “hate” in order to drum up relevance and scare donors into ponying up cash. It also encourages social media platforms and companies like Fidelity to blacklist the groups on the map.

The SPLC has partnered with the Council on American-Islamic Relations to publish “Hate-Free Philanthropy” reports that call on companies in the charitable sector to blacklist “anti-Muslim hate groups.” The Amalgamated Foundation, a project of the SEIU-owned Amalgamated Bank, launched the “Hate Is Not Charitable” campaign, urging donor-advised funds to blacklist the groups on the SPLC “hate map.” Amalgamated Bank has, thankfully, sunsetted the campaign and removed it from the website.

In 2023, the SPLC released a report on “extremist finance,” pressuring donor-advised funds operated by major banks to blacklist “hate groups” like Alliance Defending Freedom and “antigovernment extremist groups” like Moms for Liberty.

In 2017, Vanco Payments abruptly ceased providing payment processing services to the Ruth Institute. Vanco Payments noted that the Ruth Institute “has been flagged by Card Brands as being affiliated with a product/service that promotes hate, violence, harassment and/or abuse.” It did not specifically cite the SPLC, but the “hate” accusation likely traces back to the SPLC’s branding the institute an “anti-LGBTQ hate group.”

In 2022, PayPal froze the Moms for Liberty account, providing no explanation. Only after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, pressured the company did it restore the account and allow Moms for Liberty to access the $4,500 in that account.

Some companies, such as Eventbrite, make no secret of the fact that they use the SPLC “hate map” to blacklist organizations, refusing to do business with them.

In the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network sent an email to leadership at major banks, urging them to stop “bankrolling bigotry,” specifically citing the SPLC on “hate groups.”

SPLC in Fidelity’s Doghouse

It remains to be seen whether a jury will convict the SPLC on criminal charges, but the indictment has already cost the SPLC the ability to receive the very same donor-advised funds it seeks to block from funding others.

The move also marks a sea change for Fidelity. Just a few years ago, conservatives warned that Fidelity appeared to be using the SPLC “hate map” to blacklist conservative nonprofits. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody sent a letter threatening legal action, and it seems the company reconsidered.

Now, SPLC is in Fidelity’s doghouse. It couldn’t happen to a more deserving subject.