Black Lives Matter allocated just over $30 million of the nearly $90 million it received in public donations between 2020 to 2022 to charitable foundations, according to several media outlets on Saturday citing public records. The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF), a nonprofit organization headquartered in Oakland, California, distributed $30,498,722 to Black, trans and anti-police nonprofits in fiscal years 2020 and 2021, according to two public filings from July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2022. Of this amount, $4.5 million was distributed to organizations run by BLM supporters and friends, during a period of time in which BLM recorded losses of $8.5 million.
This leftist movement also gave $400,000 to the Tamir Rice Foundation, which is highly critical of BLM. Likewise, BLMGNF gave money to supporters of Patrise Cullors, a BLM co-founder who left the group in 2021. As if that weren't enough, the New York Post also revealed that the television deal with Warner Bros. ended before they were able to produce any shows. The rest of the money, according to a report published by the New York Post, was distributed among friends and supporters of the movement and to companies subcontracted by BLM and run by people related to the organization. The money also went toward failed investments and the purchase of luxury homes in Los Angeles and Toronto.
Among BLMGNF's beneficiaries is Cullors' brother, Paul Cullors, a well-known self-taught graffiti artist who pocketed nearly $140,000. He is one of two members of the seven-person board who received a salary from BLMGNF. He also has a security company, Black Ties Security, which was contracted by BLMGNF and received $756,330 from BLMGNF for "security services." The other beneficiary is Kailee Scales, the former managing director, with almost $115,000.
Only 33% of BLM’s $90M in donations helped charitable foundations https://t.co/hQYYtBMp5Y pic.twitter.com/cOUmM9YBeK
— New York Post (@nypost) May 27, 2023
However, the largest grant awarded by the BLMGNF went to the Love Not Blood campaign, set up by Cephus "Uncle Bobby X" Johnson in memory of his nephew Oscar Grant, a Black drug dealer who was shot and killed by a white police officer in Oakland in 2009. The organization used $1,269,368 to fund the campaign organized by Johnson, a veteran activist and BLM member who has worked with Cullors for many years. Grant's death inspired the award-winning film Fruitvale Station.
