by WorldTribune Staff, October 21, 2025 Real World News
Hundreds of companies use the software company Benevity to connect with nonprofits. In determining which non-profits are eligible for donations, Benevity relies on the Southern Poverty Law Center's "Hate Map."
That essentially means conservative non-profits are blacklisted.
Earlier this month, in cutting all ties with the SPLC, FBI Director Kash Patel said the organization has turned into a "partisan smear machine" rather than a civil rights advocate.
"Their so-called 'hate map' has been used to defame mainstream Americans and even inspired violence," Patel said.
Conservative nonprofits are now speaking out, a report said.
“We, the undersigned organizations, urge Benevity to immediately end the use of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s ‘Hate Map’ and ‘Hate List’ in determining which nonprofits are eligible for corporate charitable giving and employee matching programs,” states a letter signed by 12 conservative groups, The Daily Signal reported on Oct. 17.
“By relying on these partisan designations, Benevity legitimizes a severely biased blacklist that inspires violence, urges discrimination against mainstream organizations, and undermines the spirit of charitable giving,” the letter adds.
According to its website, Benevity connects “nearly 1,000 enterprise companies” to a network of 513,000 nonprofits after vetting 2.2 million of them. It says it has managed $16 billion in grants and 99 million employee volunteer hours. In 2023, more than 2.3 million people donated through the Benevity platform, representing $3.2 billion.
The Daily Signal noted that 1792 Exchange, a nonprofit that exposes bias in corporate businesses, has counted 224 of the Fortune 1,000 companies that use Benevity. The list includes Accenture, Adobe, Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Amazon, American Express, Apple, AT&T, Best Buy, Cigna, Coca Cola, Costco, John Deere, Lowe’s, Macy’s, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Netflix, Nvidia, Paramount, Salesforce, Spotify, UPS, and many more.
In 2021, then-Benevity CEO Kelly Schmitt delivered a PowerPoint presentation explicitly stating that the company had “vetted” almost “2 million nonprofits,” adding that it used the “Southern Poverty Law Center Hate List.”
The letter from the conservative nonprofits states that “there are also recent reports of employees from major corporations that Benevity’s system blocked them from donating to Turning Point USA because of the SPLC’s designation. At the same time, left-leaning political groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center and Planned Parenthood remain fully eligible for Benevity’s platform.”
Related: Southern Poverty Law Center added Charlie Kirk’s organization to ‘hate map’ this year, September 16, 2025
The SPLC “hate map” includes:
• Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian law firm that has won multiple cases at the U.S. Supreme Court.
• Do No Harm, a group of doctors committed to ridding medicine of divisive racial ideologies and opposed to “gender-affirming care.”
• The David Horowitz Freedom Center, which monitors the threat of radical Islamist extremism.
• Moms for Liberty, a group of parents demanding a say in their kids’ education.
These and other groups signed the letter to Benevity.
“The SPLC’s claim to be a civil rights organization cannot be taken seriously,” the signatories wrote. “Instead, it is a political weapon that targets mainstream libertarian, conservative, religious, and family advocacy organizations for ideological reasons.”
The signatories claim the SPLC attacks organizations “not because of violence or extremism, but because they dissent from the SPLC’s preferred progressive orthodoxy.”
The letter notes that the “hate list” Benevity uses to screen nonprofits has inspired violence:
“In 2012, a gunman entered the Family Research Council’s Washington, D.C., headquarters intending to commit mass murder. He later admitted that he chose his target after seeing it labeled on the SPLC’s website. By using the SPLC’s lists to vet charities, Benevity reinforces and perpetuates a dangerous mechanism that has already been used to justify violence against peaceful Americans.”
The conservative groups ask Benevity to “publicly end its use of the SPLC’s hate list and hate map, adopt a viewpoint-neutral process for nonprofit eligibility, and restore access to organizations unfairly excluded.” They note that Benevity’s new CEO, Soraya Alexander, will start on Nov. 1, and add that this transition “presents a valuable opportunity” for the new CEO to champion fairness and objectivity.
The conservative groups also urge corporations using Benevity’s platform to join them in asking the platform to disavow the SPLC, and to “discontinue their partnership with Benevity until these changes are made.”
“Charitable giving should empower generosity, not enforce ideology,” the letter concludes.
