“We intend to continue using the SPLC [Southern Poverty Law Center] as a data source,” GuideStar President and CEO Jacob Harold wrote this week in response to complaints that his nonprofit watchdog group has named several conservative organizations as “hate groups.”

GuideStar is a tracker of nonprofits, which many donors have used to make decisions to whom to give money. They provide data on how money is raised, and how it is expended by a nonprofit. Donors can then make a more informed choice as to which charities deserve their money, which serves a very legitimate purpose. But tagging any organization as a “hate group” is certainly going to damage an organization’s ability to raise money.

Forty-one conservative…