When Kulia Petzoldt first realized of George Floyd’s loss of life in 2020, she and her teenage daughter ventured to Lake Merritt in Oakland, California, to protest alongside a mass of individuals demanding justice.
Petzoldt, who’s white, mentioned rising up round totally different cultures and having associates who have been Black made her really feel extra aware of the racial discrimination Black individuals confronted. The Black Lives Matter motion solidified that consciousness.
“We can’t just do nothing,” Petzoldt, 42, mentioned, “and particularly those of us who are sort of protected by society.”
Beyond protesting, Petzoldt and tens of millions of others donated a cumulative $90 million in 2020 as individuals rallied behind eradicating racial inequality. She mentioned she donated a couple of hundred {dollars} to the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation on numerous events, together with a donation of $50 after studying that the inspiration had bought a $6 million mansion in Southern California, which was first reported by New York Magazine. To Petzoldt, the purchase was an indication of stability, she mentioned.
“I think that it’s a great sign that in addition to the public movement that a lot of us saw, that Black Lives Matter is investing in the long- term communication and influence within our society,” she mentioned, “which is much more likely to make change compared to protests.”
Petzoldt is one in every of many individuals throughout the nation making an attempt to make sense of what has develop into a controversial determination BLM leaders made in October 2020 after they purchased property in Southern California utilizing group funds. New York Magazine’s report particulars the looks of impropriety and the way BLM leaders meant “to keep the house’s existence a secret.”
Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Global Foundation Network, and Melina Abdullah, co-founder of BLM Los Angeles, dismissed accusations of wrongdoing throughout a roundtable assembly the next week. They mentioned the property is used as a secure haven from loss of life threats and that they’d meant to share the news of the purchase however have been simply ready till it grew to become secure to take action. That response and the purchase itself have elicited combined reactions.
Why the mansion is controversial
Tiffinie Larkins works in accounting in Florida and mentioned she’s by no means donated to the inspiration however has supported the group because it began. She’s towards the purchase as a result of it used group funds; she mentioned utilizing private salaries would have been the higher choice.
“I’m completely against that because that’s not what those donations were for,” Larkins mentioned. Instead, she posited, why didn’t the group spend money on safe workplace area if leaders have been anxious about safety?
During the roundtable, Cullors mentioned that she and Abdullah used the residence as a secure haven, which interfered with their plans of asserting that the inspiration had purchased the mansion. “Conditions changed, and that’s it,” Cullors mentioned.
Abdullah mentioned she and her two daughters have stayed there on 4 events after her dwelling was erroneously the goal of police raids, a harassment tactic often known as swatting. Since news of the mansion’s purchase was made public, Abdullah mentioned she and her household have obtained 2,500 on-line threats and hateful messages — one from somebody who Adbullah mentioned bodily attacked her in 2017. The alleged attacker despatched her an article concerning the mansion, together with a profanity-laced message.
“The way that the articles are written makes it sound like people live in the home,” Abdullah mentioned. “It spurs these kinds of acts of violence.”
Larkins mentioned she is an adamant supporter of the group and its targets, however disagrees with the acquisition as a result of the optics look dangerous.
There “was so much controversy regarding Black Lives Matter — racists and people against it were saying it’s a scam and it’s all of this. It’s very unfortunate that it played right into that topic,” Larkins mentioned.
Abdullah mentioned that right-wing media have solid the purchase of the mansion as “unethical” or “unscrupulous.”
“I don’t donate, I think for that reason, to any cause,” Larkins mentioned. “But I do believe that people should still support the organization. I think tighter controls need to be managed over the company to restrict that and then bring in someone new because I believe in the organization. and I think they need a new marketing strategy to kind of pivot away” from this controversy.
How nonprofits allocate donations
How nonprofits disperse donations is legally regulated in accordance with requirements geared toward defending donors. “They have a right to expect the money to be used consistent with the appeal” for donations, mentioned Lloyd Mayer, an skilled on nonprofit teams and a legislation professor on the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, mentioned.
He mentioned the requirements require placing donations towards no matter targets the nonprofit used to draw donors, whether or not the decision was to help administrative prices or present lease help. He mentioned that legally, the mansion purchase was “consistent with Black Lives Matters purposes.”
“It’s a creative space for activists to highlight racial justice issues,” Mayer continued. “But most donors weren’t expecting money to go buy a really nice house in a nice neighborhood.”
To win within the court docket of public opinion, Mayer mentioned BLM can launch monetary data with out disclosing leaders’ private information or posing a risk.
Mayer mentioned releasing tax returns and audited monetary statements is the business customary BLM ought to observe.
“Despite the fact they received the tax status in late 2020, there is no financial information available to you besides the very basic numbers that don’t really tell you much,” Mayer mentioned. “I’d just like to know whether the accounts that say they still have $60 million in the bank, somehow, are true? And if so, where is that $60 million and what are the plans for it?”
The nationwide chapter launched a report in the beginning of 2021, which mentioned it raised $90 million in 2020 in direction of an annual finances that was $8.4 million. It dispersed $21.7 million to native chapters and 33 different organizations.
“We are left with an approximate balance of $60 million. Returning to fiscal sustainability, it is important that an organization not end its year at a balance of $0,” the report mentioned as the one reference to how the surplus cash can be used.
Anthony Beckford, president and co-founder of Black Lives Matter’s Brooklyn, New York, chapter, mentioned that his group had by no means obtained funds from the nationwide chapter.
He mentioned funds that went to the inspiration weren’t distributed to his chapter, regardless of being instructed by donors that they thought they have been funding the Brooklyn arm.
“We need funding,” he mentioned. “We need resources that the people need.”
These sources, in accordance with Beckford, embody extra testing kits for Covid and different ailments that vastly have an effect on the Black neighborhood, and entry to transportation to offer free rides to commuters.
Regarding the mansion, Beckford frowns upon it, as a result of it “doesn’t benefit the people at all,” he mentioned. He additionally mentioned that buying the mansions may be problematic, as a result of individuals assume all BLM chapters are receiving tens of millions of {dollars}, when that’s not the case.
Despite individuals’s skepticism of BLM, Beckford mentioned that the mansion was not a mirrored image of the motion, which he tied to the individuals who misplaced family members to police brutality and search justice.
“If you’re going to donate to the movement, realize that everybody you see marching out there, that’s the movement — the people, the organizations that you see out there who are grassroots — that’s the movement,” he mentioned, “because they’re controlled by the people. They’re run by the people; and every effort they put forth is grassroots for the people.”