Fidelity and Vanguard, two of the top three investment companies managing trillions of dollars of assets, have stopped facilitating customers’ donations to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as a result of the Justice Department’s indictment of the nonprofit that purports to identify and combat “hate” in the name of social justice.
The philanthropic arms of the two companies, Fidelity Charitable and Vanguard Charitable, allow their customers to donate to a list of nonprofits via donor-advised funds (DAF). Fidelity Charitable, which has about 350,000 donation accounts, describes DAF on its website:
“A donor-advised fund, or DAF, is like a charitable investment account for the sole purpose of supporting charitable organizations you care about.
“When you contribute cash, securities, or other assets to a donor-advised fund at a public charity, like Fidelity Charitable, you are generally eligible to take an immediate tax deduction. Then those funds can be invested for tax-free growth, and you can recommend grants to any eligible IRS-qualified public charity.”
However, both of the asset management giants have a policy of disallowing donations to organizations if those potential recipients are under indictment for a crime – as SPLC has been since last week.
“The SPLC allegedly engaged in a massive fraud operation to deceive their donors, enrich themselves, and hide their deceptive operations from the public," FBI Director Kash Patel said on April 23, announcing that a grand jury had returned an 11-count indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
“The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche explained in a press release. Between 2014 and 2023, the SPLC secretly funneled more than $3 million in donated funds to individuals who were associated with various violent extremist groups including the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, and National Socialist Party of America, Patel and Blanche alleged at a press conference.
In response, Fidelity and Vanguard notified customers that they could no longer donate to SPLC, due to the criminal indictment, pending resolution of the case.
“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,” Vanguard Charitable told customers. “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.”
Ironically, customers had been able to donate to SPLC through the two firms’ charitable programs – even though SPLC in 2023 branded both Vanguard Charitable and Fidelity Charitable as donor advised funds from which “hate- and extremism-related nonprofits were receiving funding.”
A “Hatewatch” page currently on SPLC’s website is titled “Extremists Get Boost From Donor-Advised Funds, Bitcoin.” The page lists funding received by – what SPLC considers “hate” and “extremist” nonprofits – from “six popular donor-advised funds.”
Listed among the so-called hate groups receiving funding from Fidelity Charitable are:
- Turning Point USA.
- Parents Defending Education.
- American Family Association.
- Family Research Council.
- Alliance Defending Freedom.
- Liberty Counsel.
For its part, Vanguard is condemned by SPLC for allowing customers to donate to nonprofits such as:
- Moms for America.
- Project Veritas.
- Turning Point USA.
- Parents Defending Education.
- American Family Association.
- Family Research Council.
- Alliance Defending Freedom.
- Liberty Counsel.
