Schwab Affiliate Halts Customer Donations to Southern Poverty Law Center

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: New York Times

Schwab Affiliate Halts Customer Donations to Southern Poverty Law Center

Fidelity's and Vanguard's donor-advised fund entities have taken similar actions since a Justice Department indictment of the civil rights group.


Donor-advised funds let people create accounts, put donations in them, and take a tax deduction for the full amount that year. Then, they can parcel out donations to charities over time. Charles Krupa/Associated Press

By Ron Lieber
https://www.nytimes.com/by/ron-lieber
Ron Lieber welcomes tips from donor-advised fund insiders at nytimes.com/tips.
May 1, 2026

The donor-advised fund affiliated with Charles Schwab, DAFgiving360, has suspended account holders' ability to give money to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group. ... Last week, the Justice Department indicted the group and accused it of financial crimes. This week, the donor-advised funds that bear Fidelity's and Vanguard's names also cut the group off.

A spokeswoman for the Schwab-affiliated fund said, "If a governing body of a charity declares an investigation into a charity it oversees, DAFgiving360 may suspend grants to the organization." She would not provide a list of other organizations that it has suspended. ... Donor-advised funds allow individuals to create accounts, donate cash or securities into them and take a tax deduction for the full amount that year. Then they can parcel out donations to charities and other nonprofits over many years.

"Giving to your favorite charity has never been easier" is the language that DAFgiving360 uses on its website. Charles Schwab lists the account balance right next to investment account balances on its own website. ... DAFgiving360 is also careful, however, to use specific language that gets to the legal reality of how the funds work. Users can "recommend" grants to "eligible" charities, for example, which means DAFgiving360 controls the money and the account holder is technically just advising.

This is almost never a practical issue for account holders; donor-advised funds generally rubber-stamp donation requests. But in the wake of the criminal indictment, which accused the S.P.L.C. of paying informants money that contributed to the extremism that it opposes, President Trump said he believed that the S.P.L.C. was behind the racist Charlottesville, Va., riots in 2017. ... Mr. Trump did not provide evidence for his allegations against the center. And many Fidelity and Vanguard customers are furious about the move against the S.P.L.C.

{snip}

Ron Lieber has been the Your Money columnist since 2008. His beat is beating the system.
https://www.nytimes.com/by/ron-lieber

A version of this article appears in print on May 2, 2026, Section B, Page 5 of the New York edition with the headline: Schwab Affiliate Halts Donation to Civil Rights Group. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/01/business/schwab-donations-southern-poverty-law-center.html

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******
Kevin M. Kruse
‪@kevinmkruse.bsky.social‬

If you're investing with Schwab, Fidelity or Vanguard, you should probably look elsewhere because the people running them think the Trump investigations of SPLC are legit.

That's a warning sign that they are dumber than dirt. Get your money out before they invest it in raw milk futures or something

‪Ron Lieber‬
‪@ronlieber.bsky.social‬
· 14h

NEW: Schwab's donor-advised fund operation has cut off donations to the Southern Poverty Law Center, just like Fidelity and Vanguard did. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/01/b...

Schwab Affiliate Halts Customer Donations to Southern Poverty Law Center
www.nytimes.com
7:09 PM · May 1, 2026
*******

If you're investing with Schwab, Fidelity or Vanguard, you should probably look elsewhere because the people running them think the Trump investigations of SPLC are legit.

That's a warning sign that they are dumber than dirt. Get your money out before they invest it in raw milk futures or something

— Kevin M. Kruse (@kevinmkruse.bsky.social) 2026-05-01T23:09:24.726Z

******

Ron Lieber

‪@ronlieber.bsky.social‬

Follow
NEW: Schwab's donor-advised fund operation has cut off donations to the Southern Poverty Law Center, just like Fidelity and Vanguard did. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/01/b...

Schwab Affiliate Halts Customer Donations to Southern Poverty Law Center
www.nytimes.com
12:05 PM · May 1, 2026
*******

NEW: Schwab's donor-advised fund operation has cut off donations to the Southern Poverty Law Center, just like Fidelity and Vanguard did. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/01/b...

— Ron Lieber (@ronlieber.bsky.social) 2026-05-01T16:05:37.089Z

[AZ8theist]

2. Nazis gotta Nazi.

This is fascism 101, folks.

[in2herbs]

3. What will it take for the working class to understand that even though they have earned the money

they want to donate and therefore should have the final and only say in where its donated, once invested, the money belongs to the investment company and the investment company has the final say on where your donation and investments go.

[JT45242]

4. I'll bet they have no problems with the RCC

Biggest ring of pedophile protectors on Earth.

Trump is a convicted felon and adjudicated rapist, are his PACs a no fly zone. Also a pedophile based on what little of the Epstein files have been released (plus his own statements about pageant dressing rooms)

Despicable is the only appropriate word.

[Solly Mack]

5. "Trump said he believed that the S.P.L.C. was behind the racist Charlottesville, Va., riots in 2017"

Damn

[electric_blue68]

9. More of drumphf's brazen, and racist lies!

[Solly Mack]

12. Well, yeah. If it's someone else's fault, then it's not the fault of white supremacists.

[Skittles]

11. yup

NO EVIDENCE REQUIRED

[Solly Mack]

13. That man needs to be in prison.

[Skittles]

14. yes

since A LONG TIME AGO

[RainCaster]

6. Moved my money out this week

It wasn't much, but they do not deserve to have control over any part of my life.

[Old Crank]

7. We donate directly.

A small amount every month.

[dave99]

8. Only way to go. Direct to charity.

[Evolve Dammit]

10. The tentacles of GOP influence run deep. They got the message from the administration. SPLC does needed work. nt

[Botany]

15. Every Democrat should transfer their funds in Schwab, Fidelity, and Vanguard.

They are investment bankers entrusted with with their client’s money and retirement funds in order
to get positive returns on that money over time they should not be doing political operations with
those funds. Besides the Southern Poverty Law Center did not fund any of the liberal or democratic
people in Charlottesville prior to the right wing riots, attacks, and violence by the right in Charlottesville,
VA. They might have helped some people after the right wing driven violence with legal issues.

Trump and some of the media are selling lies and trying to rewrite history. A lot those right
wingers arrested for their violence up to the murder of a young lady by being run over by a car
had lived in or had spent time in S.W. Ohio in and around Lebanon, Ohio which is the home of
the Klan and other right wing groups. The S.P.L.C. did not cause the violence in Charlottesville,
VA it was caused by neo Nazi pro Trumpers who he has empowered with his hate speech.