The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation did not raise a single penny for the first six years of its existence. It couldn’t.

The foundation wasn’t even registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a charity. But after George Floyd’s murder in May of 2020, tens of millions of dollars were given to this organization from major corporations and celebrities. And now, no one even knows where all that money has gone. Even worse, there doesn’t appear to be anyone in charge of the organization who can provide that information.

Founded in 2013 after the death of Trayvon Martin, Black Lives Matter was little more than a hashtag and a website that loosely coordinated activism in communities across the country to “intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.”

For years, there did not appear to be a lot of outside resources directed to the organization. But that all changed in 2020.

Unable to accept the avalanche of money sent its way, BLM channeled donations through Thousand Currents and the Tides Foundation until the IRS approved its application for nonprofit status in December 2020. Around that time, Thousand Currents transferred $66.5 million to BLM — a transaction personally signed off on by BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors.

Cullors later issued the organization’s first-ever “impact report” in February 2021, claiming that the organization had raised over $90 million in 2020, spent $8.4 million on operating expenses, and given out $21.7 million to local BLM chapters and affiliated organizations. But these were just top-line numbers in a flashy communications product. No details were given on who was specifically paid what.

Just three months later, Cullors left BLM, claiming that she wanted to focus on other projects. She adamantly denied charges that she left the organization due to media reports that she had recently purchased millions of dollars’ worth of real estate for herself.

When Cullors left BLM, she announced that activists Makani Themba and Monifa Bandele would replace her as senior executives. But Themba and Bandele later released a statement that they “were not able to come to an agreement with the acting Leadership Council about our scope and work authority.”

Asked who is now in charge of BLM, Themba told the Washington Examiner, “We never actually started in the position, so we never received any detailed information.”

Donors to BLM should have received some much-needed insight into how their money was being spent this November, when BLM was required by law to file a Form 990 tax return. It is now February, and there is no evidence that BLM ever filed its form.

CharityWatch Executive Director Laurie Styron described BLM as “a giant ghost ship full of treasure drifting in the night with no captain, no discernable crew, and no clear direction.”

According to Candid, a website devoted to tracking nonprofit donations, groups like BLM, which claim to be devoted to racial “equity,” have raised over $25 billion since George Floyd’s death.

What exactly have these billions accomplished? Are black lives any safer? Quite the opposite. Thanks to activism from groups like BLM, police budgets have been slashed in major cities across the country, and the number of arrests has plunged by 24%. As police were being defunded, murder rates skyrocketed, with black lives hardest hit.

In 2019, before the “defund the police” movement, 7,777 black people were murdered, making up 53.5% of all homicide victims. That was already bad, but in 2020, both of those numbers rose; 9,941 black people were murdered the year George Floyd died, accounting for 55.8% of all murders. That is an additional 2,000 black lives lost to violent crime last year. In contrast, only 60 unarmed men were killed by police in 2020, and only 18 of those were black.

The people who donated to BLM deserve to know where their money went. So do the people who live in communities that have been devastated by violence. Congress should investigate, and perhaps it will starting next January.Print