Black Lives Matter’s revenue fell by 88% in 2022.
Black Lives Matter’s Financial Woes
2022 was a tough year for Black Lives Matter. The charity’s revenue plummeted by 88% from the previous year, leaving it struggling to maintain its operations. This is a far cry from the $80 million it raised in the summer of 2020, following the death of George Floyd.
Self-Dealing and Property Accumulation
During its heyday, Black Lives Matter used its windfall to accumulate property and spread wealth to its leadership. Its founder, Patrisse Cullors, went on a real estate buying spree, purchasing four properties in California and Georgia for $3.2 million. The charity also secretly bought a $6 million compound in Los Angeles, which Cullors used to film videos of herself drinking wine and baking peach cobblers. Black Lives Matter even expanded to Canada, granting $8 million to its Canadian affiliate to finance the purchase of a Toronto mansion for $6.3 million.
But it wasn’t just Cullors who benefited. Financial disclosures revealed that Black Lives Matter paid her brother, Paul Cullors, $840,993 for “professional security services,” despite having no prior experience as a bodyguard. Paul Cullors went on to purchase his own Los Angeles home for $637,000 in December 2020. Black Lives Matter also paid $969,459 to an art firm run by the father of Cullors’s only child, Damon Turner. A consulting firm owned by a Black Lives Matter board member, Shalomyah Bowers, received $2,167,894 for providing management services for the charity.
Legal Troubles
Black Lives Matter’s troubles began when Cullors’s personal real estate purchases surfaced in April 2021. The two activists who were supposed to replace her never took the job. Black Lives Matter fell so far behind in disclosing its finances to the public that several liberal states barred it from raising funds in their jurisdictions in early 2022. The charity voluntarily shut down its ability to raise funds in February 2022 amid the crackdown.
Black Lives Matter Grassroots, a former sister organization of Black Lives Matter, cited the charity’s tax return in a September 2022 lawsuit accusing Bowers of using the charity as his “personal piggy bank.” The lawsuit alleged Bowers siphoned an additional $10 million in “fees” from Black Lives Matter to his consulting firm on top of the $2,167,894 disclosed in the charity’s Form 990.
The Future of Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter’s Form 990 tax return covering its fiscal year starting July 2020 and ending July 2021 was ultimately weaponized, but not by the nefarious right-wing forces Cullors often claims to be persecuted by. The charity’s Form 990 for fiscal year 2022 was due to the IRS on Monday, but Black Lives Matter did not respond to the Free Beacon’s request for the public document, which it is required by law to provide. The charity’s future remains uncertain.
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