Advocates for southern voting rights among Madoff victims

Most of the big names mentioned as victims of Bernard Madoff's $50 billion investor swindle are linked to New York and Hollywood. But the impact is being felt across the country, including among nonprofits working in the South that depended on foundations who used Madoff to manage their investments. The JEHT Foundation, for example, was a leading supporter of civil rights causes, including groups working to expand voting rights in the South. But on Monday, Dec. 15, the New York-based funder posted a notice on its website that it was shutting down after eight years of grantmaking: "The JEHT Foundation, a national philanthropic organization, has stopped all grant making effective immediately and will close its doors at the end of January 2009. The funds of the donors to the Foundation, Jeanne Levy-Church and Kenneth Levy-Church, were managed by Bernard L. Madoff, a prominent financial advisor who was arrested last week for defrauding investors out of billions of dollars." Among the groups working in the South that JEHT provided support to over the last three years: * Democracy North Carolina ($375,000 in grants), which led the effort to pass same-day voter registration in North Carolina, winning public financing for judicial elections and rooting out corruption among state officials. * The Brennan Center in New York ($880,000) whose Democracy Program has been a major factor in defending voting rights in the South, including challenging voter purges in 2008 in Florida and Georgia that threatened to disenfranchise thousands of legitimate voters. * The Advancement Project in D.C. ($600,000) which played a critical role in Virginia during the 2008 elections, joining a lawsuit against the state to ensure adequate voting capacity. The Advancement Project has also been a vocal advocate for a just recovery for Hurricane Katrina survivors. JEHT's outgoing President, Robert Crane, spells out the consequences of Madoff's crime for such nonprofits in his statement: "The issues the Foundation addressed received very limited philanthropic support and the loss of the foundation's funding and leadership will cause significant pain and disruption of the work for many dedicated people and organizations. The Foundation's programs have met with significant success in recent years - promoting change in these critical areas in partnership with government and the non-profit sector. Hopefully others will look closely at this work and consider supporting it going forward."