Foundation Signs on to "Hate Is Not Charitable" Campaign to Prevent Funding to Hate Groups
We are pleased to join together with the Amalgamated Foundation and its partners for the Hate is Not Charitable Campaign, an initiative to prevent funding groups that promote hatred.
The campaign includes more than 20 donor networks, foundations, and Donor Advised Funds (DAF) providers that collectively represent over $1B in assets and growing. The campaign is calling for DAF providers to exercise their legal discretion over grants recommended by their donors and adopt pro-active policies to ensure that funds do not flow to organizations that promote hatred. Additionally, the Hate is Not Charitable Campaign calls for “donors of conscience” to demand that their own donor advised providers adopt such policies.
The initiative follows a recent investigative media report exposing the use of DAFs to finance hate groups. The report found that, between 2014 and 2017, major donor-advised funds including Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, Schwab Charitable Fund, and Vanguard Charitable provided nearly $11 million in grants to 34 organizations that have been deemed hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The organizations listed in the report include anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, and anti-LGBTQ groups.
Read the official letter below:
Hate Is Not Charitable Campaign
As leaders of philanthropic institutions, donor advised fund providers, and individual philanthropists, we are joining together to take a stand against the twisted use of charitable funds to support organizations that foment hatred. We are deeply concerned that donors, acting anonymously, through donor advised funds managed by Donors Trust, Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, Schwab Charitable Fund, and Vanguard Charitable between 2014 and 2017 contributed nearly $11 million to 34 organizations that the Southern Poverty Law Center considers to be hate groups. These organizations include anti-LGBTQ groups, anti-Muslim groups, anti-immigrant groups, a white nationalist group, among others.
Donors who utilize donor advised funds receive significant tax advantages, and the ability to make grants anonymously. These advantages are based on the imperative that their contributions be used for charitable and educational purposes that promote the public good. Using tax-deductible dollars to support hate groups undermines a shared value of democracy inherent to the logic of promoting the public interest. Promoting hatred is the opposite of public good.
Donor Advised Fund providers should filter out hate. Policies and procedures that screen out hate groups should become a standard part of charitable due diligence. We call upon donor advised fund providers to exercise their legal discretion over grants made by donor advised funds and reject donor recommendations to organizations engaged in hateful activities.
Donors of conscience should take a stand against hate. We call upon donors of conscience to demand their donor advised fund providers enact policies to ensure charitable resources do not flow to hate groups, or to move their donor advised funds to a provider who is willing to do so.
Hatred is the opposite of charity. Please join us.
Hate Is Not Charitable Supporters as of March 11, 2019:
Amalgamated Foundation
BALLE Network
Bread and Roses Community Fund
Brooklyn Community Foundation
CERES Trust
Chinook Fund
East Bay Community Foundation
Haymarket Peoples' Fund
Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation
JustFund
Justice Funders
Liberty Hill Foundation
National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy
Neighborhood Funders Group
New York Foundation
North Star Fund
Propel Capital
Proteus Fund
Resource Generation
Social Justice Fund NW
Solidaire Network
Solutions Project
Stonewall Community Foundation
Threshold Foundation
Women Donors Network
* Listed signatories do not allow charitable gifts to flow to hate groups