The far-left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) ended the last tax year with close to a half billion dollars – $477 million in assets – after taking in an astounding $136 million that year, the group acknowledges in a new IRS filing.

Why the cash boost?

Given that the United States hasn’t been plagued with major civil unrest over the past year, it would appear the SPLC is cashing in by generating unjustified fear over a handful of fringe-right groups and by falsely portraying President Trump as a racist would-be fascist dictator.

Based in Birmingham, Ala., the SPLC pushes the Big Lie, endlessly popular in the media, that conservative Americans―especially male Caucasians―are racists and a dire threat to the nation. The Center treats almost all opposition to immigration, immigration law enforcement, multiculturalism, and open borders as hate and all political expression of those views as hate speech. It also regards critics of Islam, no matter how sincere and thoughtful they may be, as bigoted “Islamophobes” worthy of condemnation.

The stratospheric dollar figures disclosed by the SPLC are virtually unheard of in the world of tax-exempt 501(c)(3) political advocacy nonprofits. The group identified $136,373,624 as total revenue and indicated that $6.7 million in contributions originated from “anonymous donors.” And $132,044,179 of the revenue came from contributions and grants, while $3,341,791 came from investment income. (As this writer was first to report in 2012, the SPLC maintains bank accounts in offshore tax havens, currently Bermuda, Cayman Islands, and the British Virgin Islands. These findings were confirmed by the Washington Free Beacon and the Weekly Standard.)

In the year before, the SPLC reported total revenues of $58,176,499. This means that total revenue skyrocketed 234 percent in a single year.

In its newly revealed IRS Form 990 for the tax year ended Oct. 31, 2017, the SPLC reported having net assets of $449,834,593 (total assets of $477,046,287 minus liabilities of $27,211,694), up from net assets of $328,395,092 (total assets of $353,174,928 minus liabilities of $24,779,836). The SPLC reports having 302 employees and 197 volunteers.

See the full SPLC Form 990 here.

This article by Matthew Vadum first appeared April 20, 2018, at the website of Capital Research Center.