Office of the
Illinois Attorney General
Kwame Raoul

Chicago — Attorney General Kwame Raoul, as part of a coalition of 15 attorneys general, urged several large donor-advised charitable fund sponsors to carefully evaluate their decisions to stop payments to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) following the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) highly controversial indictment of the SPLC. In a letter to the donor-advised fund sponsors, the coalition warns of the harm that could result from penalizing nonprofit organizations being targeted by the Trump administration for exercising their First Amendment rights. 

“The Trump administration has a well-documented pattern of using the power of the federal government to target the president’s perceived political enemies and those who hold opinions or enact policies that are unfavorable to this administration,” Raoul said. “These retribution campaigns are made even more effective when private sector organizations capitulate and are willing to contribute to the harm. I join my colleagues in calling on donor-advised charitable funds to stand up to this unlawful bullying by the president.”

In their letter, Raoul and the attorneys general note the Trump administration’s history of targeting nonprofits and charitable organizations that President Trump feels oppose his political agenda. The letter also highlights whistleblower reports that the DOJ pressured prosecutors to obtain speedy indictments against the SPLC, despite prosecutors’ misgivings. 

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 used paid informants to gather intelligence on the plans and operations of hate groups and use this information to disrupt their operations. The use of paid informants is also a common tactic employed by law enforcement agencies. Despite that, the DOJ indicted the SPLC on April 21, alleging that the SPLC’s payments to confidential informants amount 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.  

Donor-advised funds allow donors to access tax deductions on their charitable giving and can help them focus giving strategically to meet philanthropic priorities. According to the National Philanthropic Trust, donor-advised funds controlled more than $327 billion in assets and held nearly 3.6 million accounts in 2024. While donor-advised funds would be expected to evaluate the risk to donors when a nonprofit is under investigation or indictment, automatically cutting donors off from being able to give to organizations runs the risk of turning these funds into a powerful tool for retribution. The attorneys general argue that it would be harmful if the fund sponsors allow politically motivated prosecutions to suppress, chill or help dismantle organizations doing important work on behalf of civil rights, public safety and democracy.

State attorneys general across the country are the chief regulators of charitable nonprofit corporations, charitable trusts and charitable solicitations, and they work to ensure that those organizations are properly registered under their states’ laws.

Raoul and the attorneys general ask 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. 

The coalition’s letter also expresses concern 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. 

Joining Attorney General Raoul in sending the letter are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.