Attorney General Ellison urges funds to reevaluate decision to cut off Southern Poverty Law Center

May 21, 2026 (SAINT PAUL) — Today, Attorney General Ellison led a coalition of 15 other attorneys general in urging several large donor-advised fund sponsors to carefully evaluate their decision to stop payments to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) following the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) highly controversial indictment of the SPLC. In their letter to the donor-advised fund sponsors, the coalition warns the institutions of the harm that could result from them helping the Trump administration target nonprofits for simply exercising their First Amendment rights.

"The Southern Poverty Law Center has been a champion in the fight for civil rights and against violent extremism and hate groups,” said Attorney General Ellison. “The Trump administration’s targeting of the SPLC is shameful and clearly motivated by politics, not justice. I’m sending this letter because I cannot sit back and watch as other organizations go along with Trump’s attempts to dismantle this venerable civil rights nonprofit simply because Trump views it as his political enemy."

The Southern Poverty Law Center is a civil rights nonprofit that works to combat white supremacist organizations and other hate groups in numerous ways. For years, the SPLC has gathered intelligence on the plans and operations of hate groups by means of paid informants. The SPLC then uses this information to disrupt those hate groups’ operations. The use of paid informants is also common tactic employed by law enforcement agencies. Despite that, the DOJ indicted the SPLC on April 21, 2026, alleging that the SPLC’s payments to confidential informants amounts to the defrauding of their donors. Following the DOJ’s indictment, the Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, the Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, and Donor Advised Charitable Giving, Inc. all either restricted or halted payments to the SPLC. 

In their letter, the attorneys general call these financial institutions’ attention to the Trump administration’s well-documented history of targeting nonprofits and charitable organizations that President Trump feels oppose his political agenda. The letter also notes recent whistleblower reports that the DOJ pressured prosecutors to obtain speedy indictments against SPLC, despite prosecutors’ misgivings.

Attorney General Ellison then argues that it would be harmful if the fund sponsors would allow politically motivated prosecutions as an excuse to suppress, chill, or help dismantle organizations doing important work on behalf of civil rights, public safety, and democracy for simply exercising their protected First Amendment rights. Attorney General Ellison’s letter then expresses concern with the fact that the fund sponsors in question have refused to disclose other nonprofits to whom they have paused donations, amplifying concerns that the fund sponsors are furthering the administration’s clear viewpoint discrimination campaign.

Attorney General Ellison closes the letter by cautioning the fund sponsors to carefully consider whether their actions would undermine donor intent and help the Trump administration weaponize government power against nonprofit organizations simply for exercising their protected First Amendment rights.

Attorney General Ellison’s letter was signed onto by the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai'i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.