Black Lives Matter’s fundraising pages on ActBlue were deactivated Friday, a day after the Washington Examiner exposed that BLM was still accepting donations on the Democratic platform despite claiming it had stopped amid questions about its finances.
California and Washington state ordered BLM in January to cease soliciting contributions in their states until it discloses its finances for 2020, the year it raked in tens of millions during the nationwide unrest prompted by George Floyd’s killing at the hands of police. BLM said Wednesday it had shut down online fundraising while it sorts out its compliance issues, but the group continued to accept charitable contributions through its ActBlue fundraising pages as recently as Thursday afternoon.
“You have attempted to make a contribution to a fundraising page that has no active recipients: either the page’s owner has removed all committees or organizations from the page, or we have concluded processing contributions for these committees or organizations,” BLM’s two ActBlue fundraising pages now state as of Friday morning.
ACTBLUE STILL ALLOWING BLM TO SOLICIT DONATIONS DESPITE CHARITY’S SHUTDOWN CLAIM
The ActBlue pages were shuttered less than a day after an unidentified BLM spokesperson claimed Thursday afternoon that the pages were”not active” despite the fact that the pages had continued to accept charitable contributions for BLM into the evening.
“We appreciate your support of the movement and our ongoing fight to end state-sanctioned violence, liberate Black people, and end white supremacy forever,” the now-shuttered ActBlue fundraising pages said Thursday afternoon.
Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, the name of the charity that represents the national BLM movement, said Wednesday it had engaged “compliance council” to right its ship following a Washington Examiner investigation that exposed that the group has had no known leader in charge of its $60 million bankroll since May and that the address it listed on previous tax forms is incorrect.
BLM’S MILLIONS UNACCOUNTED FOR AFTER LEADERS QUIETLY JUMPED SHIP
BLM is currently out of compliance in California, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Virginia, and Washington state due to its failure to report its 2020 finances, which were due to the IRS on Nov. 15.
Washington state officials notified BLM in a Jan. 5 letter that the charity faces fines upward 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 not clear if BLM or ActBlue is responsible for taking down the fundraising pages. BLM and ActBlue did not return requests for comment.
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 appear to still be active as of Friday afternoon.
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.
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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.
