Amalgamated Foundation Launches Hate Is Not Charitable Campaign

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 19, 2019: Amalgamated Foundation and its partners today launched the Hate Is Not Charitable Campaign, an initiative to prevent funding groups that promote hatred.

The campaign includes more than 20 donor networks, foundations, and Donor Advised Funds (“DAF”) providers that collectively represent over $1B in assets and growing. The campaign is calling for DAF providers to exercise their legal discretion over grants recommended by their donors and adopt pro-active policies to ensure that funds do not flow to organizations that promote hatred. Additionally, the Hate Is Not Charitable Campaign calls for “donors of conscience” to demand that their own donor advised providers adopt such policies.

The initiative follows a recent investigative media report exposing the use of DAFs to finance hate groups. The report found that, between 2014 and 2017, major donor-advised funds including Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, Schwab Charitable Fund, and Vanguard Charitable provided nearly $11 million in grants to 34 organizations that have been deemed hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The organizations listed in the report include anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, and anti-LGBTQ groups.

“In light of recent events, there is an increased urgency for the funding community to be unequivocal in its opposition to hate,” said Anna Fink, Amalgamated Foundation Executive Director. “It is time for the philanthropic sector and its many stakeholders to hold ourselves to a higher standard that fulfills our responsibility to the public interest.”

“Foundations, like financial institutions, must be responsible in shepherding financial resources and consider the risk associated with supporting organizations that promote hatred.” said Keith Mestrich, Board Chair of Amalgamated Foundation and President and CEO of Amalgamated Bank. “In the wake of the 2017 white nationalist violence in Charlottesville, Amalgamated Bank helped draw attention to the banking sector’s transactions with hate groups and we’re glad to see the Foundation taking on this issue in the philanthropic sphere.”

Amalgamated Foundation has enacted a policy and hopes to serve as a model for other DAF providers and foundations. This change includes adjusting the due diligence process to ensure no funding flows to organizations identified as hate groups.

The growing list of nationwide partners in the Campaign include the Women Donors Network, National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, Stonewall Community Foundation, North Star Fund, Liberty Hill Foundation, East Bay Community Foundation, and Brooklyn Community Foundation.

"The campaign gets at a central issue in the intense debate that's been swirling around donor advised funds: do sponsors truly exercise discretion in making grants, or do they simply function as a pass-through and make whatever grants donors advise?" reflected Aaron Dorfman, President and CEO of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, a signatory to the Campaign. “Enacting policies to block support for hatred is more than a best practice, its common decency.”

Organizations can learn more about the Amalgamated Foundation’s model policy or pledge support to the Hate Is Not Charitable Campaign: amalgamatedfoundation.org/Hate-Is-Not-Charitable

Hate Is Not Charitable Supporters as of March 22, 2021:

Advocate Safehouse Project

AJL Charitable Foundation

Allegany Franciscan Ministries

Amalgamated Foundation

American Muslim Fund

Appleton Foundation

Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice

BALLE Network

Benevolent

Black Alliance for Just Immigration

Boston Foundation

Bread and Roses Community Fund

Brooklyn Community Foundation

CERES Trust

CHANGE Philanthropy

Chicago Theological Seminary

Chinook Fund

Colorado Fund for People with Disabilities

Compton Foundation

Council of American Islamic Relations

Define American

Dietel and Partners

Documented Investigations

East Bay Community Foundation

EDGE Funders Alliance

Embrey Family Foundation

Fiduciary Trust Charitable

FJC

Fleur Larsen Facilitation

Funders for LGBTQ Issues

Geyelina Foundation

GLAAD, Inc.

Global Fund for Women

Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees

Pamela Grow

Haymarket Peoples' Fund

Hazen Foundation

Herman and Frieda L. Miller Foundation

Hill-Snowdon Foundation

Hispanics in Philanthropy

Horizons Foundation

IfNotNow

Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation

Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund

JustFund

Justice Funders

Kolot Chayeinu

Liberty Hill Foundation

Move Money Shift Power

MRG Foundation

Muslim Community Network

Naah Illahee Fund

Nathan Cummings Foundation

National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy

National Immigration Law Center

Neighborhood Funders Group

Network of Elected Women

New York Foundation

North Star Fund

Pacific Foundation Services, LLC

Peace Development Fund

Philadelphia Black Giving Circle

Phila Engaged Giving

PRBB Foundation

Progress Alliance of Washington

Propel Capital

Proteus Fund

Race Forward

Reis Foundation

Robasciotti & Philipson

Cathy Raphael

Resource Generation

Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment

RSF Social Finance

San Francisco Foundation

Social Justice Fund NW

Solano Community Foundation

Solidago Foundation

Solidaire Network

Solutions Project

Spyder Fund

Stonewall Community Foundation

Sweet Livity LLC

TAKE ON HATE - New York

The Douty Foundation

The Gift Trust

The Grove Foundation

Threshold Foundation

Tides Foundation

Washington Area Women's Foundation

Women Donors Network

Young Aspiring Americans for Social and Political Activism 

Zevin Asset Management