AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel speak in April on the indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Washington recently turned the spotlight once again upon the Southern Poverty Law Center.
In a recent House Judiciary Committee hearing, lawmakers examined allegations about the organization, questioned its leadership under oath, and scrutinized claims that it funneled money to extremists while simultaneously portraying itself as the foremost authority on extremism and hate.
The hearing marked one of the highest-profile public examinations of the SPLC in its history and brought renewed national attention to allegations that continue to reverberate through corporate America.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has long positioned itself as a fearless guardian against a flood of hate supposedly drowning the nation. It has nurtured this image so effectively that mainstream media, the political class (up to and including the Biden White House), celebrities, and corporate America have consumed and regurgitated its materials for decades, passing them off as true or at least authoritative.
But, as it turns out, the organization itself was running the faucet that was the source of the “flood.”
A federal grand jury in Alabama recently indicted the organization on multiple counts, exposing an alleged web of deceit that included wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Prosecutors allege that the center covertly used donations to funnel more than $3 million to leaders of the very extremist groups it publicly condemned. The group then turned around to use those organizations’ activities to raise more money from donors, directly profiting from the fear it helped create.
Those allegations — in short, that the Southern Poverty Law Center is the arsonist who dresses as a firefighter — and the organization’s responses were front and center during last week’s congressional hearing.
The FBI, recognizing the rot, severed all ties with the organization last year. Whatever happens with this indictment, corporate America should take a hint now and follow suit: immediately, publicly, and completely.
The recent House Judiciary hearing underscores that these questions are no longer confined to court filings or investigative reporting. They are now the subject of congressional oversight, with lawmakers publicly questioning the organization’s leadership about its practices, finances, and longstanding influence over public policy and corporate decision-making.
For years, this organization’s “Hate Map” and “Hate List” have served as a de facto blacklist for mainstream conservative, religious, pro-life, and pro-family organizations. Groups such as Turning Point USA and Moms for Liberty — lawful, peaceful advocates operating within the American tradition — have been smeared and branded by the Southern Poverty Law Center with the same label it once reserved only for the Ku Klux Klan.
These designations are not based on neutral research and reporting; rather, they are partisan weapons. Worse than simply defaming these organizations, the center made them direct targets for violence. In 2012, a domestic terrorist carried out an armed attack on the Family Research Council’s headquarters in Washington, citing the Southern Poverty Law Center as his inspiration.
In short, their map has inspired fear, chilled speech, and distorted public policy.
In 2023, a Southern Poverty Law Center attorney was arrested on charges of domestic terrorism for alleged participation in an Atlanta riot in which cars were burned while rioters threw Molotov cocktails. His case was later dismissed due to a legal controversy over whether the state attorney general had the authority to prosecute it.
Despite all this, many companies continue to lend the credibility and financial support to the Southern Poverty Law Center, both directly through donations and indirectly through third-party platforms. One platform in particular demands urgent attention: Benevity.
Last week’s hearing also raises an unavoidable question for corporate America: If Congress is openly examining the credibility and conduct of the Southern Poverty Law Center, why are major corporations still relying on its designations to make reputational and philanthropic decisions?
Benevity processes billions of dollars in employee donations and corporate matching gifts each year for hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies. Its software has embedded the organization’s discredited “Hate List” as a default filter to screen out many worthy recipients. The result is viewpoint discrimination on an industrial scale.
Employee gifts to religious charities, pro-life organizations, and conservative advocacy groups are effectively banned by this filter. However, in a sadly ironic twist, the center itself remains fully eligible for corporate and employee contributions through Benevity’s platform.
No responsible corporation should outsource its charitable-giving decisions, or that of its employees, to an activist organization now facing federal indictment for secretly funding extremists, including one of the organizers of an infamous neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Va.
Companies have every right to set guardrails against illegality or financial impropriety. But they have no business delegating moral and political judgments to a partisan smear machine.
Benevity must act decisively, immediately, publicly, and unequivocally disavowing its relationship with the Southern Poverty Law Center. It must remove that organization’s influence on its “hate filter” across its platform and commit to viewpoint-neutral screening criteria based solely on lawful compliance, financial transparency, and mission integrity.
Half-measures and quiet tweaks will no longer suffice. The indictment has removed any plausible deniability. Corporations that currently partner with Benevity — that includes more than 200 Fortune 1,000 firms — should demand this change. If Benevity is unwilling to comply, they should seek better alternatives that respect the diversity of their employees’ beliefs rather than suppress it. Shareholder value, employee trust, and basic fairness are all at stake.
Douglas H. Napier is the Executive Chairman and CEO of 1792 Exchange.
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