Alabama · Nonprofit
SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC
SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC (Alabama) receives grants from 2355 organizations whose IRS filings report $207,232,605 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($33,847,618). 1524 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 56% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $150M
- Funders on record
- 2,355
- Grants received
- $207M
- Net assets
- $887M
What Southern Poverty Law Center Inc does
Mission
The southern poverty law center is a catalyst for racial justice in the south and beyond, working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of all people.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Legal - the southern poverty law center (splc) seeks justice by supporting victims of civil rights abuses and hate crimes and promoting the civil and human rights of groups most affected by bias and discrimination in our society: communities of color, immigrants, guests workers, children, the poor, and the lgbt community - both in the deep south and nationwide. Its case docket focuses on holding hate groups accountable for murders and other violent acts committed by their members; ending workplace exploitation of immigrants; challenging unconstitutional or discriminatory laws and policies affecting immigrants, communities of color and the lgbt community; in addition to working to reform juvenile justice, mental health, and education systems that fail children and routinely push students out of classrooms and into the criminal justice system, disproportionately harming african-american and latino students living in poverty. The splc attorneys focus on these critical civil rights issues from five splc offices in the deep south. The center has identified four areas of work that pose the greatest opportunities to achieving its mission. The center has prioritized these areas of work in…
$39,765,409 spentof which $160,000 as grants$123,759 earned by the program44% of program spendingPublic information - the splc's public information and education efforts seek to combat hate and bias in our society, expose extremism, and reduce discrimination and injustice. The splc provides information about hate groups and other extremists, their activities, and their crimes to the public, law enforcement, policymakers, human rights organizations, and the media with the goal of preventing hate and extremism from entering the mainstream. The splc also seeks to foster equality in the classroom and support tolerance education by providing award-winning, anti-bias materials to more than 200,000 teachers and schools nationwide. The splc educates the public on the structural causes, and impacts of inequality and uses a multifaceted approach of community education, mobilization, media and legislative advocacy to combat bias and discrimination against minorities, immigrants, the poor, the lgbt community and other vulnerable members of society. All of the splc's work is provided free of charge.
$50,168,256 spentof which $852,500 as grants$49,657 earned by the program56% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $89,933,665.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $614M to $801M (+30%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
85% of SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (99% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Board chair
Karen Baynes-Dunning
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 822 funders to 860 funders, grant income rose $23M → $24M.
204 of 2355 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 56% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 2355 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% of grant income, and it takes 10 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 10 funders to its left
60% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 14% · 2018 16% · 2019 18% · 2020 15% · 2021 16% · 2022 15% · 2023 15% — broadly stable.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
48% of SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
56% of SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $91M that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Alabama, across 51 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $116M arriving through sponsors registered in 41 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC receives grants from 2355 organizations whose IRS filings report $207M to it.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 14 crime & legal nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $9k on record — $9k federal, $282 state.
- Department of State$9k
- FL$230
- NJ$52
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Alabama
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
70% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
96%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 26 states
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Splc Atlanta Office · disregarded
- Splc Action Fund · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC?
- SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC (Alabama) receives grants from 2355 organizations whose IRS filings report $207,232,605 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($33,847,618). 1524 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 56% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC have?
- IRS filings report 2355 organizations giving $207,232,605 in grants to SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC, 1524 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $33,847,618 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Alabama. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 2355 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing