Prominent Conservatives Warn Media About “Discredited” Southern Poverty Law Center While Weekly Standard Reports SPLC Has Millions Overseas
By Samuel Chamberlain. Forty-seven prominent conservatives have signed an open letter warning the mainstream media against using data on hate groups compiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
The letter calls the SPLC a “discredited, left-wing political activist organization that seeks to silence its political opponents with a ‘hate group’ label of its own invention.”
Founded in 1971, the SPLC gained fame by successfully prosecuting legal cases against white supremacist organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan. It describes its mission as “fighting hate and bigotry and … seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society.”
Today, the SPLC is best known for tracking hate groups, which the organization defines as having “beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristic.” Currently, the SPLC says 917 hate groups are operating in the United States. (Read more from “Prominent Conservatives Warn Media About “Discredited” Southern Poverty Law Center While Weekly Standard Reports SPLC Has Millions Overseas” HERE)
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The Southern Poverty Law Center Has $69 Million Parked Overseas
By Jeryl Bier. The Southern Poverty Law Center invests almost 20 percent of its nearly $320 million endowment fund in offshore equities and other investments. The 2016 annual report of the Alabama-based civil rights organization reports $69,093,576 of “non-U.S. equity funds” among the assets comprising the total endowment fund of $319,283,961, a fund the SPLC describes as a “plan for the day when nonprofits like the SPLC can no longer afford to solicit support through the mail because of rising postage and printing costs.” (Given that 2016 contributions topped $45 million, that day has not yet arrived.)
Although the details of most of the SPLC’s foreign investments are unknown, the portfolio includes at least several million dollars in the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, and Bermuda, as Joe Schoffstall reported in the Washington Free Beacon last week. The Beacon quoted two financial industry executives who expressed surprise and incredulity about the SPLC’s offshore investing.
When THE WEEKLY STANDARD inquired of the SPLC about the appropriateness of the $69 million in offshore investments for the U.S.-based civil rights group, SPLC president Richard Cohen responded: “It is common for universities, foundations and other nonprofit organizations to have a portion of their endowments invested in off-shore funds. Each such fund in which the SPLC is invested is a highly reputable one that was recommended by Cambridge Associates, one of the country’s leading investment advisory firms for nonprofit institutions.” (Read more from “The Southern Poverty Law Center Has $69 Million Parked Overseas” HERE)
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