PART 1 — THE ORGANIZATIONS AND THE MONEY
Who Controls the Money, Who Shapes the Influence, and Why It Matters
By Project Milk Carton | The Constitutional Republic
When most parents hear the words “Social-Emotional Learning” or “SEL,” they usually picture something harmless.
Maybe they think about anti-bullying lessons.
Maybe they imagine children learning kindness, teamwork, or emotional control.
Maybe they assume schools are simply helping students manage stress and anxiety.
But what if the story behind SEL is much bigger than that?
What if hidden behind the friendly language of “mental wellness,” “equity,” and “social-emotional support” was a massive network of nonprofits, billionaire foundations, political organizations, curriculum companies, and federal funding pipelines working together to reshape education across America?
And what if almost nobody explained how connected these organizations actually are?
That is where this investigation begins.
Because before we can understand how these programs entered classrooms, we first need to understand the organizations behind them — how much money they control, who funds them, and why their influence matters.
And once you start following the money, the picture becomes much larger than most people realize.
The SPLC: From Civil Rights Group to Financial Giant
At the center of this story is the Southern Poverty Law Center, better known as the SPLC.
The SPLC was founded in 1971 in Montgomery, Alabama by Morris Dees and Joseph Levin. Originally, the organization built its reputation through civil rights lawsuits and legal actions against extremist groups.
For many years, the SPLC was viewed by large parts of the public as a major watchdog organization focused on racism and extremism.
But over time, something changed.
The organization grew far beyond a legal nonprofit.
It became a massive financial machine.
According to IRS filings and audited financial statements reviewed in this investigation, the SPLC now controls roughly $786.7 million in net assets.
To put that into perspective:
That is more money than many colleges, hospitals, and regional banks control.
The organization’s endowment has more than doubled since 2016, growing from around $319 million to nearly $787 million in less than a decade.
A chart included in the investigative research shows the rapid growth:
2010 → Estimated $216 million
2016 → $319 million
2017 → $432 million
2018 → $518 million
2020 → $566 million
2023 → $749 million
2024 → $786.7 million
That is an enormous amount of money for a nonprofit organization.
According to CharityWatch, the SPLC could theoretically continue operating for six full years without raising another dollar because of the size of its reserves and investments.
Think about that for a second.
Most nonprofits survive month-to-month.
The SPLC has enough money stored away to survive nearly a decade without new donations.
That level of wealth creates influence.
And influence changes systems.
Why Money Equals Influence
A lot of people hear “nonprofit” and assume “small organization.”
That is no longer true in modern America.
Today, many nonprofits function like giant corporate networks.
They employ executives making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
They manage investment portfolios.
They lobby politicians.
They shape public policy.
They influence school systems.
They partner with corporations and governments.
And in many cases, they operate with less public oversight than corporations themselves.
The SPLC is one of the clearest examples of this transformation.
In 2024 alone, the organization brought in roughly $129 million in revenue, most of it from grants and donations.
Its former CEO, Margaret Huang, reportedly earned over $522,000 in total compensation before resigning in 2025.
Even more surprising, the organization posted a new CEO salary range of up to $525,000 less than 24 hours after the federal indictment became public.
That shocked many observers.
Because most organizations facing federal criminal charges would enter crisis mode.
Instead, the SPLC appeared financially stable enough to continue operating almost normally.
That is the power of large institutional wealth.
Offshore Investments and Financial Complexity
Another major issue raised in the investigation involves offshore investments.
According to financial filings reviewed in the report, the SPLC maintained millions of dollars in offshore investment structures connected to places like the Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands.
Some of these included:
Tiger Global Private Investment Partners IX
AQR Managed Futures Offshore Fund Ltd.
Cayman-based investment structures
The report states offshore assets grew more than 430% over the last decade.
Now, it is important to understand something:
Offshore investments are not automatically illegal.
Many organizations and corporations use them for tax strategies, investment diversification, or international finance.
But when a nonprofit organization built around public trust begins operating with highly complex investment structures, critics naturally begin asking questions:
Why are these offshore structures necessary?
Who manages them?
How transparent are they?
And how much influence does this financial power create?
Those questions become even bigger once federal investigations enter the picture.
The Federal Indictment That Changed Everything
On April 21, 2026, the story surrounding the SPLC changed dramatically.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced that a federal grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama had returned an 11-count indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The charges included:
6 counts of wire fraud
4 counts of false statements to a federally insured bank
1 count of conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering
According to federal prosecutors, the SPLC allegedly funneled more than $3 million in donor funds to individuals connected to extremist organizations between 2014 and 2023.
The DOJ alleges those payments were hidden through fictitious entities like:
“Fox Photography”
“Rare Books Warehouse”
The government claims these structures were used to disguise:
“the true nature, source, ownership, and control” of the money.
The SPLC has denied wrongdoing and argues the payments were part of intelligence-gathering operations connected to monitoring extremist groups.
The case remains ongoing.
But regardless of the final outcome, the indictment fundamentally changed public discussion surrounding the organization.
Why?
Because the SPLC is not just another nonprofit.
It sits at the center of an enormous influence network touching:
Education
Media
Technology companies
Financial institutions
Political organizations
School systems
Counselor associations
Corporate donors
And activist coalitions
Once the indictment became public, people started asking a much bigger question:
If this organization has this much influence over American institutions, how much public oversight actually exists?
The Learning for Justice Program
One of the most important branches of the SPLC is its education arm: Learning for Justice.
Many Americans may remember it under its old name:
“Teaching Tolerance.”
In 2021, the program was rebranded as Learning for Justice.
And this program is massive.
According to the report:
It reaches more than 500,000 educators
Sends materials to 450,000 educators twice yearly
Operates in kindergarten through 12th grade
Has partnerships in 169 districts across 42 states
That is enormous reach.
Most parents have never even heard the name “Learning for Justice.”
But its materials may already be inside their child’s classroom.
The Four Domains
Learning for Justice promotes what it calls “Social Justice Standards.”
These standards are organized into four domains:
Identity
Diversity
Justice
Action
At first glance, some of this language sounds reasonable.
But critics argue the framework moves beyond emotional learning and into political ideology.
For example:
“Recognize that power and privilege influence relationships”
“Take action against bias”
Supporters say these ideas teach empathy and awareness.
Critics argue they introduce activist frameworks into classrooms under the label of SEL.
That debate is now spreading nationwide.
The Hidden Advantage: Free Curriculum
One reason Learning for Justice spread so quickly is simple:
It was free.
And when an organization controls nearly $800 million in assets, it can afford to give away enormous amounts of educational material.
This creates what economists call a “market distortion.”
Smaller curriculum companies cannot compete with “free.”
So when schools, teachers, or districts look for educational resources, the free option becomes incredibly attractive.
That matters because whoever provides the materials often shapes the framework students learn from.
Influence does not always arrive through laws.
Sometimes it arrives through free resources.
The Billionaire Foundation Network
The SPLC is not operating alone.
A huge part of this investigation focuses on the financial networks surrounding organizations connected to education policy and SEL expansion.
One of the biggest names is the NoVo Foundation.
The NoVo Foundation was created by Peter Buffett, the son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, and Jennifer Buffett.
The foundation reportedly began with roughly $1 billion worth of Berkshire Hathaway stock.
Today it controls hundreds of millions of dollars in assets.
The foundation helped fund large-scale SEL expansion efforts alongside CASEL — the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning.
This is important because CASEL became one of the most influential organizations defining what SEL meant nationwide.
And once billionaire-backed foundations begin funding standards organizations, those standards begin spreading quickly into public systems.
The Tides Foundation and “Dark Money”
Another major organization mentioned repeatedly throughout the report is the Tides Foundation.
Tides controls over $1.4 billion in assets and distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in grants yearly.
Critics often refer to Tides as a “dark money” pass-through organization.
Why?
Because donor-advised funds can make it difficult for the public to trace where money originally came from.
The investigation states:
NoVo Foundation reportedly sent over $52 million to Tides in one year
SPLC received documented grants connected to Tides
Other funding moved through donor-advised structures where the original source was hidden
Again, none of this automatically means criminal wrongdoing.
But it does raise transparency questions:
Who funds these systems?
Who influences educational policy?
And should parents know more about the organizations shaping classroom frameworks?
Corporate America and the SPLC
One of the most surprising parts of the investigation is the number of major corporations connected financially to the SPLC.
According to the report, Fortune 1000 companies contributed millions collectively between 2020 and 2024.
Some companies listed included:
Goldman Sachs
PayPal
JPMorgan Chase
Bank of America
T. Rowe Price
BNY Mellon
Raymond James
But after the federal indictment became public, several organizations reportedly paused or reconsidered support.
Goldman Sachs stated:
“We would not allow donations…to an organization under federal criminal indictment.”
That marked a major shift.
Because for years, many corporations viewed supporting the SPLC as politically safe and socially beneficial.
The indictment suddenly changed the public risk calculation.
The Internal Crisis
The report also describes years of internal controversy inside the SPLC itself.
In 2019, founder Morris Dees was fired amid accusations involving workplace misconduct, racism, and sexual harassment.
Later:
Employees accused leadership of financial mismanagement
80 employees were laid off in 2024
92% of staff reportedly voted “no confidence” in leadership
These internal problems matter because they raise questions about organizational stability and accountability.
An organization shaping national conversations about morality and justice was simultaneously facing major allegations inside its own structure.
That contradiction became impossible for critics to ignore.
Why This Matters for Schools
At this point, many readers may ask:
“What does all this money and nonprofit drama have to do with classrooms?”
The answer is influence.
Education is one of the most powerful systems in society.
Whoever shapes standards, training, curriculum, and counselor frameworks influences how future generations understand:
identity
politics
justice
race
activism
citizenship
and society itself
And modern influence rarely works through direct control.
Instead, it moves through:
grants
standards
certifications
nonprofit partnerships
conferences
free educational resources
counselor training
and federal funding pipelines
That is why this investigation matters.
Because most parents never saw the full network operating behind the scenes.
They only saw the final product entering classrooms labeled:
“Social-Emotional Learning.”
The Bigger Picture
This story is not simply about one organization.
It is about how modern institutional influence works in America.
A small number of very wealthy foundations, nonprofits, standards groups, and advocacy organizations can shape national systems without ever appearing on a ballot.
No parent voted on these frameworks nationally.
No public referendum approved them.
Yet through partnerships, funding, certifications, and institutional alignment, these ideas spread into tens of thousands of schools.
That is the core issue at the center of this series:
transparency.
Whether people support or oppose these programs politically, communities deserve to know:
who created them
who funded them
how they spread
and what frameworks are connected to them
Because informed communities make stronger decisions.
And when parents lose visibility into systems shaping their children, public trust begins to collapse.
What Comes Next
In Part 2 of this investigation, we will examine what may be the most important document in this entire story:
The official alignment documents connecting Second Step curriculum directly to Learning for Justice standards.
Not leaked documents.
Not whistleblower testimony.
Official published alignment charts.
Documents that show exactly how these frameworks connect together inside schools.
And once those connections are visible, the conversation changes completely.
Because influence is most powerful when people never realize it exists.
And this investigation is about making the invisible visible.
Because protecting children starts with informed communities.Conclusion
This investigation is only the beginning.
Over the next several parts of this series, we will continue following the money, the organizations, the curriculum pipelines, and the influence networks shaping classrooms across America. Our goal is simple: help ordinary people understand systems that are often hidden behind complicated language, nonprofit partnerships, and bureaucratic structures.
Whether you agree with every conclusion or not, one thing should matter to everyone:
Parents and communities deserve transparency.
They deserve to know who is influencing education, where the money comes from, how programs spread, and what ideas are being introduced into schools under labels many families never fully understood.
At Project Milk Carton, we believe informed communities are stronger communities. We believe protecting children starts with awareness, public discussion, and accountability. And we believe ordinary citizens should never feel powerless when it comes to the systems shaping future generations.
If you found this investigation valuable, educational, or thought-provoking, please consider supporting our work by becoming a paid subscriber to The Constitutional Republic on Substack.
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Investigative reporting
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And future investigations like this one
Most importantly, please share this article.
Independent investigations survive when communities help spread the information. The more people who understand these systems, the harder it becomes for powerful institutions to operate without public awareness.
Because silence protects systems.
Informed communities protect children.
SOURCES
DOJ / Federal
• DOJ Press Release — SPLC Indictment (justice.gov/opa)
• Indictment Document PDF (justice.gov/opa/media)
• FBI Director Patel Remarks (fbi.gov/video-repository) State Investigations
• Alabama AG Investigation (alabamaag.gov)
• Daily Signal — Alabama AG 'Monetizing Hate' (dailysignal.com)
• Florida AG Subpoena (myfloridalegal.com) Financial
• SPLC 2024 Audited Financial Statements (splcenter.org)
• Capital Research Center — SPLC's Charitable Wealth
• CharityWatch — Federal Scrutiny of SPLC
• Free Beacon — Offshore Assets
• Daily Signal — 15 Fortune 1000 Companies
• ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer — SPLC (EIN: 63-0598743) Indictment Details • NPR — SPLC Charged (April 21, 2026)
• Fox News — 5 Most Shocking Informants
• CNN — Superseding Indictment Expected Internal Scandals
• CNN — SPLC Leadership Crisis (2019)
• Alabama Reporter — Dees Fired (2019)
• Alabama Reflector — Huang Resigns (2025)
• 1819 News — $500K CEO Job After Indictment Learning for Justice / Schools
• Daily Signal — 169 School Districts in 42 States (May 2026)
• Fox News — Kindergarten Penetration
• ASCA-LFJ Standards Crosswalk PDF Political
• Fox News — Ossoff $700K from SPLC Affiliate
• OpenSecrets — SPLC Action Fund (C90020496) CivicOps Database (PMC Internal)
• 59 grants totaling $14,114,698 tracked flowing TO SPLC (2021–2024)
• 17 grants tracked flowing FROM SPLC to other organizations
• SPLC → New Venture Fund: $275,000 (dark money conduit)
• Tides Foundation → SPLC: $137,000 Research compiled by ARIA / Project Milk Carton | All dollar figures sourced from IRS Form 990 filings, DOJ filings, and CivicOps database Generated: May 13, 2026 at 10:01 PM | projectmilkcarton.org