New documents reveal that insiders at the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) have had millions of dollars in contracts issued to companies they own.
The Daily Caller first reported that the nation’s largest BLM organization authorized massive contracts to firms owned by leaders of the organization and their family members between July 2022 and June 2023.
BLMGNF paid BOWERS, a consulting firm that is at least 35% owned by Shalomyah Bowers, the secretary of BLMGNF’s board, nearly $2.6 million during the time frame for “staffing and management services,” according to tax filings.
Bowers is also the treasurer of the Black Lives Matter Political Action Committee, the PAC affiliated with BLMGNF. In 2023, the majority of the PAC’s expenses were directed by Bowers towards paying his own firm for “strategic consulting services.”
Similarly, Paul Cullors, a graffiti artist and BLMGNF’s head of security and the brother of co-founder Patrisse Cullors, owns at least 35% of Black Ties LLC. That firm was paid $1.6 million for “professional security services,” despite the organization’s repeated calls to defund the police, which they proudly display on their website.
“We call for a national defunding of police,” the BLM website reads. “We demand investment in our communities and the resources to ensure Black people not only survive, but thrive.”
Additionally, New Impact Partners, a consulting firm owned by Danielle Edwards, the sister of Raymond Howard, BLMGNF’s director of operations, was paid $913,500 for “consulting services,” and Trap Heals, a company run by Damon Turner, the father of Patrisse Cullors’ child, was paid approximately $780,000 for “live production, design and media” work.
Experts expressed ethical concerns over the lack of oversight and possible conflicts of interest, with the contracts, funded with charitable money, being sent to private companies owned by interested parties.
“Whether a person loves this charity’s mission or hates it, they should be angry that significant amounts of charitable dollars are being channeled to interested parties without adequate oversight in place,” Charity Watch Executive Director Laurie Styron told the Caller. “Charities are expected to avoid both real and perceived conflicts of interest to maintain public trust. This charity is doing the opposite. The optics here are really, really bad.”
Styron noted that BLMGNF “has no independent oversight,” since the board of the organization is too small to guard against the misuse of funds by those in charge.
“This is an issue not just for donors but for taxpayers,” Styron said. “Charities enjoy a lot of tax benefits in the form of not paying income tax on their revenue and having the ability to offer their donors tax deductions on their contributions. In exchange, charities are expected to maintain an independent governing body that makes decisions in the best interest of the charity and its mission, not for the self-enrichment of its stakeholders.”
“Charities are not supposed to act as money conduits for for-profit businesses and individuals,” said nonprofit ethics expert Doug White to the Caller. “Based on this, the people, all close to the founder, seem like grifters—and at the expense of the public.”
White suggested that the payments from BLMGNF to various companies might fall under “private inurement,” meaning that assets may be used for the enrichment of insiders rather than actual charitable purposes. White argued this could threaten the foundation’s charitable status.
“I have sympathy for the cause—the search for equality is a good thing, in my view, as well as the group’s other goals—but the delivery apparatus for a cause—a nonprofit—has to honor its obligations to the public,” he added.
