Washington, D.C. — Congressional Integrity Project is standing with the coalition of major philanthropic networks, foundations, and individual donors calling on Fidelity Charitable, Vanguard Charitable, and Charles Schwab’s DAFgiving360 to reverse their decision to stop processing donations to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The decision by these institutions to block SPLC donations did not happen in a vacuum. The Trump administration has criminally prosecuted the SPLC over its use of paid informants to infiltrate white supremacist groups and moved to overhaul IRS Form 990 in ways designed to punish the civil society organizations it views as political opponents. Blocking SPLC donations is the latest step in the administration’s coordinated campaign to crack down on a group that’s called out too many of their racist allies.
Fidelity, Vanguard, and Schwab are donor-advised fund sponsors. Their entire purpose is to direct charitable funds to the organizations their donors have designated. By capitulating to the administration’s politically motivated pressure before these specious charges have been adjudicated, they have abandoned that role and made themselves accomplices in the same campaign of retaliation that has defined this administration’s approach to civil society groups they disagree with from day one.
In response, Congressional Integrity Project Senior Advisor Kyle Herrig released the following statement:
“Fidelity, Vanguard, and Schwab had a choice. They could stand by their donors and their mission, or they could fold under pressure from an administration that has made targeting its perceived political enemies a governing priority. They folded. By blocking donations to the SPLC on the basis of specious charges that have not been adjudicated and a prosecution that is already unraveling in court, these institutions have made themselves accomplices to a retaliatory, politically driven attack on a civil rights organization that has spent decades fighting white supremacy in America. They should reverse this decision immediately.”
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