BLM's millions unaccounted for after leaders quietly jumped ship

"Like a giant ghost ship full of treasure drifting in the night with no captain, no discernible crew, and no clear direction," CharityWatch Executive Director Laurie Styron said of BLM. BLACK LIVES MATTER FOUNDATION RAISED MORE THAN $90M IN 2020 BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors appointed two activists to serve as the group's senior directors following her resignation in May amid scrutiny over her personal finances.

BLM denied allegations that Cullors spent BLM funds on her personal properties.

While a charity's finances are ultimately the responsibility of its board of directors, BLM's bylaws explicitly state that its executive director "Shall have charge of all funds and securities of the Corporation." The two remaining BLM board members, Shalomyah Bowers and Raymond Howard, did not return numerous requests for comment asking who has been in charge of BLM and its money since Cullors left the charity in May. Bowers served as the treasurer for multiple activist organizations run by Cullors, including BLM PAC and a Los Angeles-based jail reform group that paid Cullors $20,000 a month and dropped nearly $26,000 for "Meetings" at a luxury Malibu beach resort in 2019.

Despite New Impact Partners's apparent efforts to conceal its affiliation with BLM, the consulting firm continues to solicit applications for its "Talent Network," which it says will connect job applicants directly to BLM and other activist organizations.

"What BLM does is of tremendous social importance. That they won't give an honest or complete or straightforward answer in regards to its leadership is a concern. Not only do they not have an executive director right now, we think, but they also don't want to tell you how the organization is being run." BLM was not a charity in its own right for much of 2020, a year in which it received a windfall of cash from big corporations and individual donors spurred by the police killing of George Floyd and the nationwide riots that followed.

Rather, BLM spent most of the year essentially borrowing the charitable status of two other California-based charities, Thousand Currents and the Tides Foundation, which served as BLM's fiscal sponsors.

On Tuesday, a Washington Examiner reporter attempted to request BLM's 2020 Form 990 in person at the charity's office in Los Angeles, which the group disclosed as the location its books are stored in previous filings submitted to the IRS, only to be told by a security guard that there has never been a BLM office at the location.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/blms-millions-go-unaccounted-for-after-leaders-quietly-jump-ship