To: Fidelity Charitable, Vanguard Charitable, Goldman Sachs Gives, Charles Schwab DAFgiving360, and Thrivent Charitable
Demand Corporate Charities Stop Aiding Trump's Attacks on the Racial Justice Movement!
Through their charitable arms, some of the country's largest and most powerful financial institutions are helping carry out Trump's political attacks on the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Last month, Trump's Justice Department went after the SPLC for its work tracking the white supremacist networks that largely support this administration’s agenda. Thousands of supporters rushed to donate and defend the SPLC. Then, Fidelity Charitable and Vanguard Charitable stepped in to block those donations from their donor-advised funds. Now, additional major Wall Street charities have joined in, with Goldman Sachs Gives, Charles Schwab's DAFgiving360, and Thrivent Charitable refusing to allow donations from their donor-advised funds to go to the SPLC.
The SPLC is one target. But Trump allies are already signaling that Color Of Change and other racial justice and pro-democracy groups are also on their hit list. If these major financial players get away with cutting off the SPLC, the next group will go down more easily, and the one after that more easily still.
Color Of Change has spent years exposing the corporations and charitable funds bankrolling attacks on civil rights, voting rights, and fair treatment at work. Now we need public pressure to stop these “charities” in their tracks.
Why is this important?
Trump's Department of Justice is targeting the Southern Poverty Law Center, one of the nation's most prominent civil rights organizations, in a blatantly politically motivated attack. For decades, the SPLC has done critical work that the FBI should be doing—tracking violent extremists before they act. White supremacist violence has been the deadliest domestic terror threat in this country for years. Instead of stopping that violence, Trump’s DOJ is trying to tear down the systems meant to hold white supremacist organizations accountable. Trump dismantled the component built to investigate such organizations and pushed out its seasoned and specialized attorneys. Trump’s DOJ doesn't prosecute white supremacists. Trump pardons them instead. And now his Justice Department is going after organizations that have kept watch when the federal government wouldn't.
Trump is testing whether corporations, banks, tech platforms, and wealthy institutions will go along with him and help cut off resources to groups challenging racism and authoritarianism. Fidelity Charitable, Vanguard Charitable, Goldman Sachs Gives, Charles Schwab's DAFgiving360, and Thrivent Charitable are doing just that—their actions to block donations to SPLC are aiding Trump's efforts to take away our collective power to create positive change for all. This is just the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s attacks on groups that support abortion rights, LGBTQ+ rights, sex education access, gun control, justice system reform, racial and gender justice, voting rights, climate justice, and more.
The question this raises is bigger than one organization. It's whether Black people will be allowed to organize, advocate, and build power without being punished for it.
We stand with the SPLC and call out Fidelity Charitable, Vanguard Charitable, Goldman Sachs Gives, Charles Schwab DAFgiving360, and Thrivent Charitable, demand that they change course and remove any and all restrictions on funding to the SPLC. Color Of Change and its members will continue to stand with partners like the SPLC against the right-wing authoritarian efforts to suppress the movement for civil and human rights for all. We are not backing down from the fight to defend our communities from harm. We stand together, united with allied organizations, more committed than ever.
These Wall Street charities must decide which side of history they will be on. Tell them to get on the right side of history and restore charitable giving access to the SPLC NOW!