ActBlue, the powerful Democratic online fundraising platform, continues to allow Black Lives Matter to rake in donations, even after the charity claimed Wednesday that it had “shut down online fundraising” amid legal threats from a growing chorus of states.
While BLM did on Wednesday remove the donation button once featured prominently on its website, at least two BLM fundraising pages hosted by ActBlue remain accessible online as of Thursday afternoon, providing a potential revenue stream to the charity as it remains out of compliance in California, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Virginia, and Washington.
“Our movement is dedicated to ending state-sanctioned violence, liberating Black people, and ending white supremacy forever,” one of the active BLM fundraising pages on ActBlue states.
California and Washington in January ordered the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, the charity that represents the national BLM movement, to cease all fundraising activities in their states until it forks over information about its finances in 2020, the year it raked in tens of millions amid the racial protests and riots that followed George Floyd’s killing.
BLACK LIVES MATTER SHUTS DOWN FUNDRAISING DAYS AFTER LIBERAL STATES THREATENED LEGAL ACTION
“We take these matters seriously and have taken immediate action,” an unidentified BLMGNF spokesperson told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday. “We have immediately engaged compliance counsel to address any issues related to state fundraising compliance. In the interim, we have shut down online fundraising as we work quickly to ensure we are meeting all compliance requirements.”
One of the BLM fundraising pages that remains active on ActBlue was linked in an email BLM sent to its supporters on Tuesday to kick off Black History Month.
ActBlue did remove a hub page for BLM on Thursday that had enabled users to create their own ActBlue fundraising pages for BLM, but the 19 such pages already created were still active.
ActBlue did not return numerous requests for comment Thursday asking why BLM’s fundraising pages on ActBlue were still active despite BLM’s claims.
An unidentified BLM spokesperson told the Washington Examiner Thursday afternoon that its pages on ActBlue were “not active,” although two test donations of $1 apiece were subsequently accepted through ActBlue BLM pages on Thursday.
“The ActBlue campaigns you reference are not active campaigns and are not actively soliciting any funds,” the spokesperson said in an email. “As previously noted, we have ceased all current fundraising as we work to ensure complete compliance.”
Alix Sandomir, a compliance specialist with Perlman & Perlman who submitted BLM’s now-expired charity registration in New Mexico in March 2021, declined to comment when reached by phone on Thursday.
BLM’S MILLIONS UNACCOUNTED FOR AFTER LEADERS QUIETLY JUMPED SHIP
Washington state officials notified BLM in a Jan. 5 letter that the charity faces fines upwards of $2,000 for each donation it solicits in the state until it reports its 2020 finances, and California threatened to hold BLM’s leaders personally liable if they don’t report their finances within the next 60 days.
It’s unclear who has been in charge of BLM and its $60 million bankroll since its co-founder Patrisse Cullors resigned in May amid scrutiny of her own personal finances. The two replacement executives Cullors appointed to lead the charity in her stead quietly announced in September they had never actually assumed their jobs due to disagreements with BLM.
One of BLM’s two known board members, Shalomyah Bowers, appears to have gone underground. Bowers said in an automated, out-of-office email on Tuesday that he will be unavailable via email and phone during the first half of February, and phone calls to Bowers’s cellphone on Thursday went straight to voicemail.
BLM’s other known board member, Raymond Howard, modified his LinkedIn page to erase his association with BLM after being contacted by the Washington Examiner for comment last week.
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Hawk Newsome, a New York-based black activist who called for an investigation into BLM’s finances in April, had a few curt words for the charity after it claimed to shut down its online fundraising on Wednesday.
“Sad, man. Just f***ing sad,” Newsome told the Washington Examiner.
