Though trained as a lawyer, SPLC’s founder, Morris Dees, is best known for his fundraising ability. Raising over $24 million for the George McGovern presidential campaign in 1972, his payment was the donor list, the gold mine that provided much of SPLC’s later funding. He also worked on the Jimmy Carter campaign in 1976, adding to SPLC’s donor list. In fact, besides issuing slanderous attacks on political opponents, fundraising seems to be SPLC’s primary objective. So since one of the SPLC’s tools is hate, perhaps we should examine how other liberals view them.
SPLC Co-founder Morris Dees’ business partner, Millard Fuller:
Morris and I, from the first day of our partnership, shared the overriding purpose of making a pile of money. We were not particular about how we did it; we just wanted to be independently rich. During the eight years we worked together, we never wavered in that resolve.
Renowned anti-death-penalty lawyer Millard Farmer [not to be confused with Dees’ partner, Millard Fuller]:
[Dees is] the Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker of the civil rights movement, though I don’t mean to malign Jim and Tammy Faye.
Nation Magazine’s Alexander Cockburn:
Ever since 1971, U.S. Postal Service mailbags have bulged with his fundraising letters, scaring dollars out of the pockets of trembling liberals aghast at his lurid depictions of hate-sodden America, in dire need of legal confrontation by the SPLC.
Today, the SPLC spends most of its time – and money – on a relentless fund-raising campaign, peddling memberships in the church of tolerance with all the zeal of a circuit rider passing the collection plate.
Noting an Arlington, Virginia reader’s question about contributing to the SPLC in the federal government’s Combined Federal Campaign, an editorial in The Fairfax Journal concluded:
… give your hard-earned dollars to a real charity, not a bunch of slick, parasitic hucksters who live high on the hog by raising money on behalf of needy people who never see a dime of it.
Stephen Bright, President of the Southern Center for Human Rights:
The positive contributions Dees has made to justice – most undertaken based upon calculations as to their publicity and fundraising potential – are far overshadowed by what Harper’s described as his “flagrantly misleading” solicitations for money. He has raised millions upon millions of dollars with various schemes, never mentioning that he does not need the money because he has $175 million and two “poverty palace” buildings in Montgomery. He has taken advantage of naive, well-meaning people – some of moderate or low incomes – who believe his pitches and give to his $175-million operation. He has spent most of what they have sent him to raise still more millions, pay high salaries, and promote himself.
Making money does seem to remain SPLC’s primary preoccupation. SPLC raked in $54.4 million in FY 2014, according to its most recent IRS filing, with net assets topping out at an incredible $314.7 million. Some of SPLC’s assets are stashed away in offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands and Bangladesh of all places. Nobody knows how much or why they do that but it is beyond the reach of law enforcement.
Of its $42.4 million 2014 expenditures, 40.6 percent was devoted to salaries. Morris Dees himself still takes a compensation package of almost $365,000 per year. Also noteworthy is the fact that Development Director Wendy Via makes more ($202,426), than SPLC’s general counsel and former CEO Joseph Levin, ($196,446). Not surprising since 22.8 percent ($9,674,637), of total expenses go for fundraising.
Despite its vaunted donor list, SPLC has received millions from literally hundreds of foundations over the years. The following table lists SPLC’s top ten donors between 2000 and 2014. The Picower Foundation provided the most. Founder Jeffrey Picower made $5 billion from the Bernie Madoff scam. Friends with Madoff for 30 years, he made more than Madoff himself. The Picower estate settled a suit for $7.2 billion to compensate victims. Don’t look for SPLC to return any of their millions however.
SPLC’s Montgomery, Alabama headquarters, an imposing testimonial to Stalinist architecture jokingly called the “Poverty Palace” has been described variously as “a high-rise trailer,” “the Fuhrer bunker,” and “a small-scaled Death Star,” Blogger Steve Sailor states:
The Southern Poverty Law Center has worked tirelessly to eradicate the last vestiges of poverty, Southern or otherwise, in the lifestyle of founder Morris Dees…by smearing people like Dick Lamm, three-times Democratic governor of Colorado. Some of the moolah raised from the affluent saps Dees has terrified has gone into building this expensive but godawful-looking headquarters building in Montgomery, Alabama…Yes, I know it looks like a high-rise trailer, but, trust me, it cost a lot of money to build something that ugly.
Social critic James Kunstler called it:
…a “building” designed to look like a small-scaled Death Star, all black reflective glass, canted concrete and steel walls…
In a singular display of pettiness, SPLC’s Levin, CEO at the time, felt the need to respond to Kunstler’s criticism. Kunstler gave it right back:
You say, “…I was CEO when the building was designed and constructed and lived with that process for almost three years.”
Well, you got hosed. You bought the Emperor’s New Clothes… you put up a building that is a horror, and I’m glad that I said so in public. Now I am only sorry that I did not know you were responsible for the building, or that you were in the audience, because I would have singled you out for opprobrium…
The issue is what you did on the site you chose. (And by the way, in case you wonder, I am a registered Democrat and a New York Jew, not a conservative.) You put up a building that looks like the Fuhrer Bunker. It dishonors the site and it even dishonors your mission of social justice. The design of the building makes social justice appear despotic.
And despotic seems to aptly describe SPLC’s entire approach. SPLC made its bones suing the Ku Klux Klan into penury. Nobody can fault them for that. But then, wrapped in the mantle of “social justice”, SPLC grabbed a place of honor among the civil rights legends, all the while turning its notoriety into a cause célèbre for a massive, non-stop fundraising drive. It must ever grow its list of what it defines as “extremist” to shake down terrified donors for more funds. If it ever had noble motives, SPLC has certainly lost its way. Next time you read something, anything from the SPLC, understand what they are really about: fomenting hate and making money. Consider the source.
Source for above: James Simpson is an economist, former White House budget analyst, businessman and investigative journalist.
Millions in Off-Shore Accounts
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a left-wing nonprofit known for its “hate group” designations, now has $92 million in offshore investment funds, according to financial statements. The SPLC, which has come under fire from across the political spectrum for some of its “extremist” labeling of groups, has been thriving since President Donald Trump entered the White House.
The controversial organization reported $477 million in total assets and $132 million in contributions on its most recent tax forms, which cover Nov. 1, 2016 to Oct. 31, 2017. That represents an increase of $140 million in its total assets from the previous year. Millions flowed to the group following the deadly Charlottesville, Va. attacks from employees at companies including JP Morgan Chase and Apple as well as from actors such as George Clooney.
As part of its business dealings, the SPLC holds tens of millions in offshore entities. While little is publicly available on the SPLC’s actual transactions, the Washington Free Beacon discovered forms last year that shed light on some of its transfers to entities that are mainly located in the Cayman Islands. The SPLC additionally reports investments in entities in Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands. The Weekly Standard later found that the SPLC had $69 million in non-U.S. equity funds.
The SPLC reported $92 million in non-U.S. equity funds as of October 31, 2017, according to its most recent audited financial statement: a $23 million increase from the previous year and an amount that equates to around 20 percent of its total assets.
“Those on both the Left and Right have the same question: what kind of nonprofit that has ‘poverty’ in its name hoards nearly a hundred million dollars in offshore accounts? The SPLC will now have to update its treasure map to keep track of its massive offshore fortune,” said Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Jerry Boykin, the executive vice president of the Family Research Council.
A shooter entered the Family Research Council’s office in 2012 and opened fire after seeing the organization listed as a “hate group” on the SPLC’s website. The SPLC this week apologized and entered a $3.375 million settlement for naming the Quilliam Foundation and its founder, Maajid Nawaz, as anti-Muslim extremists. Richard Cohen, the SPLC’s president, said in video apology that his group was “wrong” to include Nawaz’s group on its list.
“The Southern Poverty Law Center was wrong to include Maajid Nawaz and the Quilliam Foundation in our Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists,” Cohen said. “Since we published the field guide, we have taken the time to do more research and have consulted with human rights advocates we respect. We’ve found that Mr. Nawaz and Quilliam have made valuable and important contributions to public discourse, including by promoting pluralism and condemning both anti-Muslim bigotry and Islamist extremism.”
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who was born in Somalia and later fled to the Netherlands to escape a forced marriage, and who was placed on the same list as Nawaz, recently called the SPLC a “scam,” the Washington Examiner reports. “It’s really kind of a scam that these people are pulling off. At one point they started off with very serious issues like civil rights groups, and stood up for these people, but after that it’s just one big fundraising machine,” Ali said.
The SPLC has also partnered with Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Twitter to help the companies determine what are designated as “hate groups,” according to the Daily Caller. The SPLC did not return a request for comment on its offshore investments by press time.
Source: Freebeacon
Sources: Conservapedia; Breitbart
