After a year of mismanagement and scandal, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) is on the verge of bankruptcy.
The official nonprofit organization, BLMGNF, which rallies the social movement free to use by grassroots social justice organizations, Black Lives Matter (BLM), is apparently failing in its administrative duties of the movement – financial disclosures indicate that the organization has an $8.5 million deficit last year, Newsweek reported.
The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative watchdog, obtained and analyzed records that show the BLMGNF is in financial distress. The value of the organization’s investment accounts fell by nearly $10 million in its most recent fiscal year.
BLMGNF’s Form 990, the annual information return that tax-exempt organizations must file with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), shows that about $1 million, or a little more than $961,000, was lost in a $172,000 securities sale.
When a nonprofit loses money on a securities sale, it means that the organization sold securities for less than it paid for them. This can happen for several reasons, including declines in the stock market or changes in the organization’s investment strategy.
The BLMGNF organization was created after George Zimmerman was acquitted of killing Trayvon Martin in 2013. It has consistently received donations over the past decade, and reported receiving nearly $77 million between July 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021.
This period coincides with the time of George Floyd’s murder, making it the nonprofit’s most successful time for donations.
However, in the following fiscal year, between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022, the nonprofit received less than $10 million in donations, or just $9.3 million in contributions – an 88 percent decrease.
Floyd’s murder on May 25, 2020, and donations to BLMGNF gave the organization a net worth of $42 million by the end of summer 2021, but in 2022, the nonprofit had $30 million in assets.
In the midst of the organization’s scandals, the organization is spending more than it takes in and receiving fewer donations.
It raised more than $90 million in 2020, but only 33 percent of those donations went to the charity’s endowment, the New York Post reported.
Some of the scandals that correlate with the nonprofit’s loss of donations include BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors mysteriously buying four high-end homes, hiring her brother Paul Cullors and his security team, two paid employees with him as “head of security,” six-figure sums, and surviving family members of police brutality, a core tenet of why BLM exists, saying they have not been compensated or financially supported.
Although Patrisse stepped down from her leadership role at BLMGNF, close friends and family members of hers were still employed.
One of the members of BLMGNF’s seven-person board of directors who received a salary was brother Paul, a graffiti artist who earned $139,708.
The other person who received a payout was Kailee Scales, the organization’s former executive director, who earned $114,625 before leaving in 2020. Additionally, Black Ties Security, LLC, a company owned by Paul, was one of the highest paid contractors for the group, earning $756,330 in 2021 for providing security services.
Paul lives near his security company, which is located in a UPS store in Mission Hills, Calif.
He bought a three-bedroom house in the Los Angeles suburbs in February 2021 for $637,006, according to public records.
BLMGNF paid $840,993 to another security company, Cullors Security LLC, which is controlled by Paul, according to filings from the previous fiscal year, 2020.
The second security company is registered at the address of his Mission Hills home, the NY Post reported.
“Black lives don’t matter. Your pockets matter,” said Lisa Simpson, whose son, Richard Risher, was killed by Los Angeles police in 2016, The LA Times reported. She was promised by her local chapter, the first in the nation, that it would help pay for her deceased 18-year-old’s funeral. She claimed she never received the help she requested, even though people around her told her they had donated to her cause.
There is tension between BLMGNF and local BLM chapters, represented by Black Lives Matter Grassroots. BLMGNF’s executive secretary, Shalomyah Bowers, has been accused of stealing $10 million and using the foundation’s account for personal gain. Bowers’ company, Bowers Consulting, was also paid nearly $1.7 million for management and consulting services.
In a lawsuit filed against Bowers last year, local leaders have alleged that it was Bowers’ action that led to “multiple investigations by the Internal Revenue Service and various state attorney generals, blazing a path of irreparable harm to BLM in less than eighteen months.”
Bowers and BLMGNF denied claims of financial misconduct.
