researcherfounder
Heidi Beirich
Chief strategy officer, Global Project Against Hate and Extremism
Director, Intelligence Project (2012 to 2019), Southern Poverty Law Center · Co-founder; chief strategy officer, Global Project Against Hate and Extremism
Background
Heidi Beirich is a former director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project and a co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.
In August 2026, a federal grand jury charged her in the Justice Department's donor-fraud case against the Southern Poverty Law Center. Her lawyer says she is innocent.
Key facts
- Southern Poverty Law Center
- Joined in 1999; director of its Intelligence Project from 2012 until leaving in 2019source
- Global Project Against Hate and Extremism
- Co-founded the group; serves as chief strategy officersource
- Charges
- Conspiracy counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and concealment money launderingsource
- Indictment allegation
- Oversaw payments to an informant identified as "F-9", who allegedly received more than $1.2 millionsource
- Defense
- Her lawyer, Michael Proctor, says she is innocent and calls the case politically motivatedsource
WYDE coverage of Heidi Beirich
Sources
Follow the money in philanthropy.
Who gives, who receives, and what it funds. Every Friday.