DoorDash Drops SPLC Blacklist from Employee Giving Program as Conservative Groups Push Back on Benevity

DoorDash Changes Course

DoorDash has formally requested that its workplace giving platform, Deed, make the Southern Poverty Law Center's hate map filter optional rather than the default setting for employee charitable donations, according to reporting by the Daily Signal published June 14, 2026.

The change came after the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian law firm, and IWP Capital, a Catholic financial advisory firm, pressed DoorDash to reconsider its reliance on the SPLC's list. Noah Nash, legal counsel for ADF's Corporate Engagement Team, told the Daily Signal the result is "a great win for shareholders and employees" and called it "an excellent example for other companies to follow."

A DoorDash spokesman confirmed the company had made the request to Deed. No dollar amount on affected donations has been publicly disclosed.

What the SPLC Filter Actually Does

Deed describes itself as a global workplace giving, volunteering, and employee wellbeing platform serving Fortune 500 clients. Its FAQ states that "many of our partners utilize common industry standards, such as the Southern Poverty Law Center hate list" for screening purposes, according to the Daily Signal.

In practice, when a company defaults to that filter, employees cannot donate through the platform to any nonprofit the SPLC has tagged on its "hate map." The SPLC's map has long drawn criticism for placing mainstream conservative and religious organizations like Alliance Defending Freedom and Family Research Council alongside chapters of the Ku Klux Klan.

A similar platform, Benevity, which claims to connect nearly 1,000 enterprise companies to a network of 513,000 nonprofits, also uses the SPLC filter. Benevity has said the filter is an option, not a default. Greg Scott, executive vice president at 1792 Exchange, pushed back on that characterization, telling the Daily Signal that "Benevity's denial that it defaults to the SPLC filter is hard to square with its own history." He pointed to a 2021 PowerPoint by then-CEO Kelly Schmitt that explicitly described vetting nearly 2 million nonprofits using the SPLC list.

The Coalition Pressing Benevity

Fifteen organizations have now signed a letter demanding that Benevity stop using the SPLC filter entirely. The original twelve sent their letter in October 2025. The updated letter, exclusively provided to the Daily Signal, adds three new signatories: Turning Point USA, PragerU, and Focus on the Family.

Douglas Napier, executive chairman and CEO of 1792 Exchange, said in a statement: "Charitable giving programs should empower generosity, not enforce political conformity. Benevity must immediately end its use of Southern Poverty Law Center's defamatory 'Hate List' and 'Hate Map' to block mainstream charitable organizations."

Paul Batura, vice president of communications at Focus on the Family, said: "Citing and sourcing the SPLC is the equivalent of a company promising clean water drawing their water from a polluted or toxic aquifer."

Benevity's response, provided to the Daily Signal last month: "Benevity is not directly affiliated with the SPLC." The company did not address whether it would drop the filter.

The Federal Indictment Hanging Over SPLC

The coalition's push has new legal context. A federal grand jury handed down 11 criminal charges against the SPLC for allegedly funding the very hate groups it claims to exist to "dismantle," according to the Daily Signal's reporting on the Read Lion republication of the same piece. Those charges are allegations and have not resulted in a conviction. No trial date has been publicly announced in these sources.

Benevity's continued use of the SPLC filter, even as its key vendor faces a federal indictment, represents a key question now facing companies that haven't moved the way DoorDash has.

The Strongest Case for Keeping the Filter

The argument for maintaining SPLC-based vetting isn't purely political. Companies face real reputational risk if their employee giving programs accidentally funnel corporate matching funds to organizations that a significant portion of their workforce, customers, or regulators considers hateful. Platform providers like Deed and Benevity argue they are offering a compliance tool, not making an editorial judgment, and that the filter is adjustable. For a multinational with tens of thousands of employees, having a third-party vetting standard, even an imperfect one, limits liability.

That's a legitimate business concern. The problem is that the SPLC's credibility as a neutral arbiter has eroded significantly, well before the current indictment. Multiple legal settlements, the resignation of co-founder Morris Dees over internal misconduct allegations in 2019, and documented instances of the organization labeling mainstream religious and conservative groups alongside actual white nationalist organizations have made the SPLC a contested source, not a neutral one. Using it as a default filter is not a neutral act.

What Comes Next

DoorDash's move is concrete but narrow. It only covers Deed as a platform, only applies to DoorDash employees, and only shifts the SPLC filter from default to optional. It does not remove it entirely. Whether Deed's other Fortune 500 partners follow DoorDash's lead, or whether Benevity responds at all to the updated coalition letter, remain open questions as of June 14, 2026.

1792 Exchange, which tracks corporate DEI and ideological practices, has stated it is monitoring hundreds of major corporations that use Benevity. If Benevity does not respond to the coalition letter, the next step the coalition has signaled is escalating pressure to Benevity's corporate clients directly.