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Legal Battle Ensues Over Control of Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation Funds

   Sep 09, 2022

Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) is currently named as a co-Defendant in a lawsuit filed by Plaintiff, Black Lives Matter Grassroots, Inc. (BLM Grassroots). BLM Grassroots is suing BLMGNF, along with a leader of the Foundation, Shalomyah Bowers, and Mr. Bowers' consulting firm, for allegedly "syphoning" millions of dollars in donations from BLMGNF into his own "personal piggy bank" (Black Lives Matter Grassroots, Inc. v. Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Inc., et al., Complaint, ΒΆ1). The suit also alleges that Bowers, who was hired by BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors to help operate BLMGNF and aid in its transition to BLM Grassroots, did not follow the transition plan set up by Cullors. (Bowers is the BLMGNF officer that, as Board Secretary, signed the BLMGNF IRS Form 990 tax filing for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021. His signature is dated May 13, 2022.)



CharityWatch Commentary on Transparency and Accountability Issues At Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation


"The BLM Global Network Foundation is '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 previously told the Washington Examiner in January [2022]."

- CharityWatch Executive Director, Laurie Styron, commenting on governance and transparency issues at Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation.

            MSN, 9/02/22

"CharityWatch Executive Director Laurie Styron said the public support BLM received from major corporations likely motivated small-dollar donors into giving to the group."

"'The death of George Floyd was treated as a global event. In the midst of this 24/7 news coverage, a lot of corporations may have jumped on the bandwagon and made a pledge or a donation without subjecting the charity or the people running it to normal due diligence procedures,' Styron told the Washington Examiner."

"'As we saw with Bernie Madoff, once a few well-respected people or institutions invest their money into something, this lends credibility to it,' Styron added. 'It can cause people to let down their guard and abandon routine due diligence. They reason that if this or that company is donating to this particular charity, then it must have already been thoroughly vetted, so it's a safe bet for my company or me as an individual to donate to it, too.'"

"'Relying on the wisdom of the crowd can sometimes have dire consequences, as we see here,' she said."

- CharityWatch Executive Director, Laurie Styron, commenting on corporate donations made to support the Black Lives Matter movement.

           The Washington Examiner, 06/03/2022


"'A grant from a charity's U.S. entity to its Canadian one isn't in and of itself a suspicious transaction,' Styron of CharityWatch said. 'The concern here is that this transaction occurred in a financial reporting year in which the charity reports having only one member of its governing body. And that member just so happens to have made an $8 million financial decision involving a related party with no independent oversight of this transaction.'"

- CharityWatch Executive Director, Laurie Styron, expressing concern over an $8 million international grant made by Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation to a related organization.

          The Washington Examiner, 05/20/2022


"'However, ... the IRS considers other factors aside from reported lobbying expenses relative to total expenses when deciding whether or not resources spent on lobbying are 'excessive,' said Laurie Styron, executive director of CharityWatch, a non-profit that analyzes charities. 'There is still much we don't know about significant portions of this charity's resources.'"

- CharityWatch Executive Director, Laurie Styron, reacting to the reported lobbying expenses included in this week's public disclosure of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation's fiscal 2021 IRS tax Form 990.

          The New York Post, 05/17/2022


"'The charity had no whistleblower policy, no document destruction and retention policy, and only one board member during the financial reporting period,' said Laurie Styron, executive director of CharityWatch, a nonprofit that monitors charities. 'It reports having and regularly monitoring and enforcing a written conflict of interest policy, but ... one person can't monitor and enforce a conflict of interest policy over themselves. It's frightening, isn't it, to consider that this much taxpayer-subsidized public money was being overseen by only one person?'"

- CharityWatch Executive Director, Laurie Styron, reacting to governance issues she identified in this week's release of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation's fiscal 2021 IRS tax Form 990.

          The New York Post, 05/17/2022


"'It didn't actually have any financial activity until 2020 when it received over $60 million from its former fiscal sponsor,' said Laurie Styron, Executive Director of CharityWatch.org. 'That was in October 2020 and the public is still waiting for any kind of accountability of that money in an official document like a tax filing or an audit.'"

- CharityWatch Executive Director, Laurie Styron, bemoaning the delay of the public's access to reliable information about how more than $60 million in Black Lives Matter donations were used.

          Fox News, Houston, TX, 04/28/2022


"'Taking advantage of filing extensions and changing its fiscal year is already leaving the public in the dark about what happened to more than $60 million in funds intended to forward social justice causes,' Laurie Styron, executive director of CharityWatch, which rates non-profits across the country, told The Post Thursday. 'It would be interesting to understand if this change in fiscal year was a good faith effort on the part of whoever is in charge to better manage its operations and staff resources, or was rather a delay tactic to buy more time.'"

- CharityWatch Executive Director, Laurie Styron, questioning Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation's decision to change its fiscal year, delaying its tax filing in the process.

           The New York Post, 2/17/2022

"'Given the money involved here, this is really unbelievable,' CharityWatch Executive Director Laurie Styron told the Washington Examiner. 'To not know who is in charge of $60+ million collected by the national charity arm of arguably the most prominent social justice movement in the country is the worst transparency issue I have seen in my 18 years as a charity watchdog.'"

- CharityWatch Executive Director, Laurie Styron, expressing concern about transparency issues at the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation.

           The Denver Gazette & The Washington Examiner, 2/16/2022

CharityWatch Executive Director Laurie Styron told the Washington Examiner that donors need to be careful not to conflate BLM's "subjective and flattering self-reported 'impact' data" with its form 990 tax return and independently audited financial statements, records that BLM has yet to provide for its 2020 fiscal year despite a mid-November 2021 deadline.

"'Charity 'Impact' reports rarely amount to anything more than an extension of a charity's marketing or fundraising strategies,' Styron said."

- CharityWatch Executive Director, Laurie Styron, warning donors do not conflate a charity's "impact" reports and other marketing materials with independent audited financial statements.

           Colorado Springs Gazette, 02/10/2022


"'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 [Global Network Foundation]."

"Styron, the CharityWatch executive director, said Form 990s are matters of public record and that BLM should have completed its 2020 form by now. 'Irrespective of where any person falls on the political spectrum or what their position is on any social justice issue, hopefully, we can all agree that tax-subsidized public charities have an ethical responsibility to be transparent with the public about how they are operating and how the donations they receive are being used,' Styron said. 'The amount of money involved here is not insignificant.'"

- CharityWatch Executive Director, Laurie Styron, commenting on governance and transparency issues at Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation.

          The Washington Examiner & Colorado Springs Gazette, 01/27/22




"Related Party Transactions" Raise More Accountability Questions  


According to the BLMGNF consolidated audit of June 30, 2021 (Note 8, Related Party Transactions):

"During the year ended June 30, 2021, BLMGNF entered into the following transactions with related parties:

  • At June 30, 2021, BLMGNF recorded a receivable for travel and other expense reimbursements due from the Executive Director totaling $73,523. 
  • A sibling of the Executive Director owned a security and protection company, which was paid $840,993 for security services during the year ended June 30, 2021. 
  • A related party to the Executive Director of BLMGNF was a board member of M4BJ operating as Black Lives Matter Canada, which was granted $8,024,626 during the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021. 
  • BLMGNF received unconditional, unrestricted grants totaling $69,164,086 from Thousand Currents, a 501(c)(3) organization which formerly acted as the fiscal sponsor of BLMGNF."

With respect to the $73,523 "receivable for travel and other expense reimbursements due from the Executive Director" cited above, the BLMGNF fiscal 2021 tax filing reports: "This was not a loan; includes other receivables for travel & reimbursements." It also reports: "Charter travel for the Executive Director was incurred due to security threats and during the COVID pandemic. This travel was for organizational purposes. The expenditure was voluntarily reimbursed subsequent to year end" (IRS Form 990, Schedule L, Part V). In addition, there was no written agreement in place re: the $73,523, and the transactions were not approved by a board or committee, according to the tax form reporting (IRS Form 990, Schedule L, Part II).

With respect to the $840,993 paid "for security services" cited above, the BLMGNF fiscal 2021 tax filing reports this as a business transaction involving interested persons involving Paul Cullors of Cullors Protection LLC. The transaction is described as: "Professional security services;" the "Relationship between interested person and the organization" is described as: "Family member of Founder & Executive Director" (IRS Form 990, Schedule L, Parts IV & V).


CharityWatch Updates Its Rating of Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation 


CharityWatch has issued a rating of "?" to Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) for its 2021 fiscal year, which indicates that we have specific concerns about the organization's financial reporting. Specifically, BLMGNF's lack of an independent governing body and its multiple related party transactions during the reporting year cause CharityWatch to question if the charity's financial reporting can be relied upon for purposes of assessing how efficiently the charity raised and spent public dollars during its fiscal year 2021. 

For the financial period July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021, BLMGNF reports that its board of directors consisted of only one person, Patrisse Cullors, Founder & Executive Director. The number of governing body "voting members...who are independent" is reported as zero (IRS Form 990, Part VII, Section A and Part VI, Section A, lines 1a & 1b).


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