AP Exclusive: Black Lives Matter has $42 million in assets

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By AARON MORRISON

NEW YORK (AP) — The foundation started by organizers of the Black Lives Matter movement is still worth tens of millions of dollars, after spending more than $37 million on grants, real estate, consultants, and other expenses, according to tax documents filed with the IRS.

In a new, 63-page Form 990 shared exclusively with The Associated Press, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation Inc. reports that it invested $32 million in stocks from the $90 million it received as donations amid racial justice protests in 2020. That investment is expected to become an endowment to ensure the foundation’s work continues in the future, organizers say.

It ended its last fiscal year – from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021 – with nearly $42 million in net assets. The foundation had an operating budget of about $4 million, according to a board member.

The tax filing shows that nearly $6 million was spent on a Los Angeles-area compound. The Studio City property, which includes a home with six bedrooms and bathrooms, a swimming pool, a soundstage and office space, was intended as a campus for a Black artists fellowship and is currently used for that purpose, the board member said.



D'Zhane Parker, left, Cicley Gay, center, and Shalomyah Bowers pose for a portrait on Friday, May 13, 2022, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/government-and-politics-race-ethnicity-philanthropy-black-lives-matter-5bc4772e029da522036f8ad2a02990aa

[childfreebychoice]

1. 6 mil compound is making right wingers nuts, online

Money could have better spent, imho

[Raster]

4. Fuck the reich-wing.

Are you Black?

[sybylla]

17. +1

[haele]

21. In LA, that's about right, if you're housing 6 and including offices.

Okay, so in Louisiana outside Baton Rouge proper near the University, you might find an equivalent property for around $800k, you aren't going to find an equivalent in Los Angeles.
Heck, a halfway decent 2 bedroom/2 bath with a garage on a city lot goes for $1 million. This is a multi-use working/living space maker's space type compound, basically a small office/industrial complex with six studio apartments. $6 million is a reasonable price.
Probably more than reasonable considering they'll probably have to make the apartments and offices affordable to the artists they're trying to mentor/help. Which would be far, far below market rate.

On edit - that is what appears this compound is supposed to be providing. Investing in assistance and encouragement for the arts and businesses in the Black Community.
Seems to me that's a good expenditure of money.

Haele

[Jose Garcia]

23. Apparently members of BLM now agree with the RWers

Black Lives Matter leader accused of stealing $10 million from organization

The leader of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation has been accused by former colleagues of stealing more than $10 million in donations from the organization for personal use, according to a lawsuit filed in court this week.

Shalomyah Bowers was called in the court filing as a “rogue administrator, a middle man turned usurper” who siphoned contributions to the nonprofit activist group to use as a “personal piggy bank,” according to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Thursday.

Bowers’ actions led the foundation into investigations by the Internal Revenue Service and various state attorneys general, “blazing a path of irreparable harm to BLM in less than eighteen months,” the suit claims. “While BLM leaders and movement workers were on the street risking their lives, Mr. Bowers remained in his cushy offices devising a scheme of fraud and misrepresentation to break the implied-in-fact contract between donors and BLM.”

More : https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-09-02/black-lives-matter-leader-accused-of-stealing-10-million-from-organization%3f_amp=true

[Probatim]

2. Increase that by several orders of magnitude and they can compete with the Kochs.

Just another story to inject fear in to lives of those who are economically troubled.

[nycbos]

3. You might not like it but it's a story.

And if the organization is spending their donations on real estate instead community programs or grassroots lobbying efforts to reform policing than maybe we should look to support other African-American lead organizations.

[ruet]

5. Why Is This A Story?

...let alone LBN. You can expect the Faux News crew to make something stupid out of this for the next month.

[SouthBayDem]

6. Financial info about an influential activist org is in public interest

It's not the media's job to do PR/marketing for BLM.

[spudspud]

12. Correct. It's the media's job to do PR/marketing hit jobs for White supremacists and other bigots.

And mission accomplished as per usual.

[Lonestarblue]

8. Yes. Where are the AP exposes on all the Koch foundations and other Republican donors?

The media just loves to stir up crap, but they should target all political groups, not just those run by black people.

[ruet]

10. Given Current Events;...

Right to Life? Americans United for Life?

[sybylla]

18. Yep.

Plus, a 990 is not something that comes with an ounce of intent. It's just black and white money in and money out.

We all know why they are looking at the BLM 990 and not all the reich wing organizations.

[Auggie]

7. Serious money all around ...

investments, expenses, grants

[Farmer-Rick]

9. Since they got most of those donations in 2020

They seem to be acting like a typical non profit start up, which is to be expected at this point. Seems some things need to be organized better with more effort to distribute funds to the grass roots.

But it doesn't sound worse then the Red Cross that pays each of its top executives (about 5 of them) over $700,000 a year and has a general operating budget of about $106 million.

I don't get the point of the article. It seems like the writer didn't expect BLM to have money or largish donations? It's a popular activist organization that is well funded.......So what?

[TlalocW]

11. Is there an issue with the compound?

Seems like it's being used for its intended purposes and not as a place for BLM executives to live in or something else that wouldn't be seemly.

TlalocW

[ruet]

13. Well, First Off...

they call it a "compound". Scary, scary, stuff.

[inthewind21]

14. WTF

Scary scary stuff huh. It blows the mind at the responses. Investing in real estate, Good bet, especially now. Investing period. Oh wait, it's BLM. So it's scary scary stuff. Now the United Way or Susan G Komen an other number of non-profits, well now they are legit and doing it right, I mean they pay their executives 6+ figures. Oh wait they are all white and not to be questioned. Got it now!

[ruet]

15. Do I Really Need the Sarcasm Tag for That? -NT-

[TlalocW]

16. Nooooooo

Of course noooooot. Because it's sooooo easy to understand sarcasm when it's written... Oh, wait. I'm proving your point.

TlalocW

[brush]

20. Yes, you do. There are negative post here on BLM...

not being a "hat in hand" begging organization.

I didn't get your first post was sarcasm.

[haele]

22. It has a swimming pool. A luxury!

Even though they'll probably find a pool too expensive by to maintain over time and fill it in, turn it into a garden or something like that.

Haele

[gldstwmn]

19. Good.

I hope it grows.