Black Lives Matter encompasses a variety of local and umbrella groups. Among the more famous and what most people think of when they mean BLM is the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation.

When BLM blew up, it moved over from Thousand Currents and the Tides Center, lefty activist money machines, and built its own money machines even while its “trained Marxist” co-founders, Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi, got Hollywood deals and book deals. 

$60 million went into their coffers, but no one knows who controls anything.

No one appears to have been in charge at Black Lives Matter for months. The address it lists on tax forms is wrong, and the charity’s two board members won’t say who controls its $60 million bankroll, a Washington Examiner investigation has found.

BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors appointed two activists to serve as the group’s senior directors following her resignation in May amid scrutiny over her personal finances. But both quietly announced in September that they never took the jobs due to disagreements with BLM. They told the Washington Examiner they don’t know who now leads the nation’s most influential social justice organization.

BLM has a lot of money, but it’s not clear that it has any leadership and it lost a lot of its local influence at the end of 2020.

Ten local chapters are severing ties with the Black Lives Matter Global Network, as the national leadership is known. They are furious that Patrisse Cullors, its remaining co-founder, assumed the role of executive director of the group and made these decisions without their input. That’s a move, that, to some, signaled a rebuke of its “leaderful” structure, which gave every member an equal say and kept anyone — including a founder — from overreaching.

The 10 chapters that signed the letter, the self-proclaimed #BLM10, laid out a half-dozen points of contention and long-standing grievances. Cullors is chief among their complaints, they said, arguing she made a power grab when she appointed herself executive director of the Black Lives Matter Global Network.

They also said there’s a lack of transparency over money the movement has raised and how chapters can access it. Since Black Lives Matter formed in 2013, the chapters complained they’ve received scant financial support, despite repeated promises.

Yet early last year, it was talking big in this AP story/press release. (There’s really no difference when the media reports on BLM.)

 The foundation widely seen as a steward of the Black Lives Matter movement says it took in just over $90 million last year, according to a financial snapshot shared exclusively with The Associated Press.

The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation is now building infrastructure to catch up to the speed of its funding and plans to use its endowment to become known for more than protests after Black Americans die at the hands of police or vigilantes.

“We want to uplift Black joy and liberation, not just Black death. We want to see Black communities thriving, not just surviving,” reads an impact report the foundation shared with the AP before releasing it.

Which sounded like plans to use BLM and its cash to promote the various “creative” ambitions of its key figures, some of whom are frustrated writers.

There’s a lot of money in the money machine.

The racial justice movement had a broad impact on philanthropic giving last year. According to an upcoming report by Candid and the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, 35% of the $20.2 billion in U.S. funding dollars from corporations, foundations, public charities and high-net-worth individuals to address COVID-19 was explicitly designated for communities of color.

But where’s it going?

Would any normative organization be able to get away with this? Obviously not. The Obama administration made a point of targeting conservative groups. Dem AGs, especially the one in New York, have made a point of targeting Trump, the NRA, and anywhere they smell blood. Yet BLM is able to tote around $60 million with zero accountability.