By Jesse Dunthrop // Black Lives Matter // EEW Magazine Online

Many Black-led activist organizations struggle to get financial support in the millions, but Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation raised a whopping $90 million in 2020. Since that time, however, giving has declined by 88 percent, but spending has not.

BLM, founded in 2013, is making headlines after ending last year with a nearly $9 million deficit — while still paying out millions to organizers and relatives of co-founder Patrisse Cullors who stepped down in May 2021 after reports of financial impropriety which she denied.

Cullors, who has been hailed by Time magazine as one of the most influential women in America for co-founding the Black Lives Matter movement and leading its growth as a global organization, said she resigned to focus on her second book and a multi-year TV deal with Warner Bros.

She further stated that her resignation had nothing to do with alleged attempts to discredit her and that it had been planned for over a year.

Tax documents posted online show that last year, the nonprofit recorded revenue of $8.5 million but spent $17 million, concluding the financial year in the red in the exact amount of $8,559,748.  The amount identified in the state filings, just under $9 million, is a $67 million decrease from the $77 million the nonprofit pulled in during its previous fiscal year. 

Despite cash flow decreases, millions of dollars were paid out to companies with close ties to the group. An independent auditor’s review of the previous two years reveals that Shalomyah Bowers, who replaced Cullors, has a company that was paid $1.69 million for “management and consulting services.”

Board member Danielle Edwards also owned a firm “which was paid $1,063,500 for consulting services,” the auditor’s review said.

Cullors’ brother, Paul Cullors, the only salaried employee last year, received nearly $125,000, with $15,000 in “other compensation” for security. His security firm, Black Ties LLC, fared even better, receiving a total $756,330— a similar amount paid the previous financial year.

The documents, shared by the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office, were first published by the Washington Free Beacon.

“While Patrisse Cullors was forced to resign due to charges of using BLM’s funds for her personal use, it looks like she’s still keeping it all in the family,” Paul Kamenar, an attorney for the National Legal and Policy Center watchdog group, told the Free Beacon.

The five listed board members — including Bowers, Edwards and current leader Cicley Gay —reported receiving no income from Black Lives Matter Global Foundation. It is unclear what other parties may have received payment, since charities are only legally obligated to disclose the names of their five highest-compensated independent contractors.

In its filings, BLM said it was “working inside and outside of the system to heal the past, re-imagine the present, and invest in the future of black lives through policy change, investing in our communities, and a commitment to arts.”

“We are building a community of healing and nurturing ecosystems that support black communities impacted by oppressive structures and injustice,” it said.

The group distributed $4 million to Black activist groups in the financial year ending 2021 — including $400,000 to the Tamir Rice Foundation in Ohio established by Samaria Rice, the mother of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old African-American boy killed by a white policeman in 2014 while playing with a toy gun. 

BLM also gave $1,269,368 to the Love Not Blood Campaign, a California-based group founded by Cephus Johnson, whose nephew, Oscar Grant, was killed by police in 2009. 

A Daily Mail report claimed that Black Lives Matter is “headed for insolvency” and is “at risk of going bankrupt after its finances plunged.” After reading the report, some assumed that BLM was already bankrupt— or at the very least on a irreversible collision course toward destruction.

But the ultimate fate of the group remains to be seen.

In response to the Daily Mail piece, Candace Owens, a fierce critic of Black Lives Matter who released a 2022 documentary, “The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM,” tweeted, “All I know is that there are a lot of black Americans that owe me an apology today. It’s embarrassing to be scammed in broad daylight but that’s what happened to a lot of you.”

The foundation was started by organizers of the Black Lives Matter movement which first emerged following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. It is not the sole organization within the broader movement, but is the largest and most well-funded.