Black Lives Matter Facing Large Deficit

The formal Black Lives Matter organization faces financial difficulty which could lead to serious implications for the group’s future. The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation has also been accused of misleading public statements regarding donation funds.

The difficulties facing the organization come after a number of accusations of mismanagement and misuse of funds. The organization suffered an $8.5 million deficit last year.

Recent data shows that the organization donated just a third of the money that it raised during a two-year period. The organization raised approximately $90 billion in funds during the summers of 2020 to 2022. During that time, just over $30 million was given to non-profits. 

However, numbers appear to show that these donations were not as generous as they first appear. About $4.5 million of that total went to organizations operated by the organization’s own founders and allies.

Perhaps the most high-profile concern raised was about millions in payments to the organization’s founder, Patrisse Cullors. 

Cullors’ ample compensation allowed the founder to purchase a $6 million Los Angeles mansion.

When exposed in 2022, Cullors called the article originally published in New York Magazine a “despicable abuse of a platform that’s intended to provide truthful information to the public.” 

Despite the fact that the article was written by a Black journalist, Cullors accused author Sean Kevin Campbell of having a “proven and very public bias against me and other Black leaders,” describing the articles as “filled with misinformation, innuendo and incendiary opinions.”

Prior to the protests following George Floyd’s death in 2020, Cullors was paid $20,000 per month as the chair of a jail reform group.

Furthermore, the co-founder’s brother, Paul Cullors brought in nearly $140,000 from the organization. A company he operates, Black Ties Security, LLC received more than $750,000 in fiscal year 2021 in payments for “security services.”

Research shows that the company is run out of a UPS store in California. 

Paul Cullors received more than $800,000 in payments through another security firm that he operates.

He purchased a home near Los Angeles for more than $600,000 in 2021.