Southern Poverty Law Center Holds Over Half a Billion Dollars in Assets, Including $121M Overseas

The Southern Poverty Law Center will not run short on cash in its work to attack conservatives, one newspaper reports.

The SPLC has amassed more than half a billion dollars in assets, including $121 million in overseas accounts, The Washington Free Beacon reported.

According to audited statements and tax forms filed in 2018 with the State of California that were obtained by the paper, the group’s assets totaled a $518 million from November 2017 to Oct. 31, 2018. That represents an increase of $41 million from $477 million in total assets a year ago.

The SPLC has $91 million in U.S. public equity funds and $60 million in private equity funds, plus $24 million in real asset funds. And, the SPLC last year formed an Action Fund as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, to fight legislative battles.

According to their consolidated financial statements ending Oct. 31, 2018, the SPLC and Action Fund have cash and cash equivalents of $9.3 million. Other significant incomes include contributions and receivables of $8.2 million and investments of gift annuity program at just over $10 million.

It pays to work for the SPLC.

SPLC’s Oct. 31 Form 990 for tax-exempt groups shows that the organization provides training materials to “tens of thousands” of police officers every year, and does in-person training with thousands of officers every year. It also provides “award-winning, anti-bias materials to more than 400,000 teachers and schools nationwide.”

The organization’s highest-paid independent contractor is Grassroots Campaigns Inc. of Boston, which received $1,028,324. The company’s website says it “is a progressive organization that specializes in running face-to-face campaigns for political parties, candidates, and advocacy groups. We build membership bases and mobilize citizens for groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, the Democratic National Committee, the Nature Conservancy and Oxfam America.”

Even as SPLC rakes in the money, conservative groups have cried foul against the organization for labeling anyone it disagrees with as bigots.

Political commentator and writer Gavin McInnes filed a lawsuit in February against the SPLC, alleging that it contributed to his loss of employment and slandering on social media for labeling the Proud Boys as a hate group, The Tennessee Star reported last month.

Dennis Prager of PragerU criticized the SPLC for placing an article about his organization on its “Hatewatch” blog, The Star said last June.

Last May, the SPLC promised to provide legal representation to illegal aliens arrested in a Bean Station workplace raid who were in detention and facing deportation, The Star reported.

Now, the SPLC wants to teach Tennessee’s teachers.

The Star reported Tuesday that Williamson County Schools will send teachers to a series of SPLC workshops in Franklin in May.

Those workshops, called Teaching Tolerance, are scheduled for May 3 and May 4 at the Embassy Suites by Hilton in Franklin, according to tolerance.org

The event’s website clearly states that Teaching Tolerance is “a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center.”

“Social Justice 101” is one of the scheduled topics.

The move is seen as further evidence that Williamson County Schools superintendent Mike Looney, who created and launched a series of videos titled Williamson County Schools Cultural Competency Series that promote the concept of “white privilege” and the anti-American exceptionalism “privilege theory”–now required viewing by all teachers in the system during in-service training, has his own educational agenda.

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Jason M. Reynolds has more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist at outlets of all sizes.