Dustin DeVito on Timcast IRL: Benevity, the SPLC and the American Company
Dustin DeVito, 1792 Exchange’s Director of Research, joined Timcast IRL to discuss his Washington Post piece on the political screen inside corporate gift matching. He explained how Benevity, the platform behind many corporate gift-match programs, relied on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s hate list, what happened to the archived evidence after the piece ran, and how companies are responding. He also covered the origin of the 1792 name and the launch of the American Company. The hate list behind your company’s gift matchDeVito describes how companies exposed in 2024 pledged to stop funding controversial non-business causes. Our Back to Business Tracker followed through on those pledges, and companies like Walmart and Lowe’s shifted to six-figure grants for hurricane relief in North Carolina. The hate list behind your company’s gift match DeVito explains how more than 200 Fortune 1000 companies use Benevity to vet the charities they match. Benevity’s internal vetting document shows its list builds on the SPLC’s hate list, which includes Turning Point USA, Alliance Defending Freedom, Focus on the Family, Do No Harm and Moms for Liberty. The SPLC’s credibility problemDeVito explains that the SPLC, now under federal indictment, is accused of funding the extremist groups it claims to counter. He points to the 2012 shooting at the …