Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors is now finding herself in a bit of a tight spot. She is now being tied to a social justice nonprofit that failed to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, according to a recent report.
Patrisse Khan-Cullors is tied to Dignity and Power Now, which is a self-described “Los Angeles-based grassroots organization that has been fighting for the dignity and power of incarcerated people, their families, and the surrounding communities” since 2012. The non-profit also states that it was founded and chaired by Patrisse Khan-Cullors.
“Patrisse Khan-Cullors decided to create a performance art piece highlighting her brother’s story of being badly abused in the county jails and dissolving the disconnect between the conditions inside custody and the community outside,” the Dignity and Power Now “about” page notes. “The piece that Patrisse Khan-Cullors wrote became STAINED: An Intimate Portrayal of State Violence.” The Black Lives Matter co-founder began touring with the piece around Los Angeles County and it immediately became clear to both her and her audience that they wanted to do more than just watch the piece – they wanted to create change in the county jail system.”
That is one of the main reasons why these liberals created what they called the Dignity and Power Now/Coalition to End Sheriff’s Violence in July 2012. They created this project in order to have a multifaceted, trauma informed, motivated, and healing movement to “end state violence and mass incarceration.”
This is where things get interesting: apparently, the New York Post is now reporting that the Dignity and Power Now group was the recipient of donations of “at least $225,000 in 2016, but told the IRS that the charity wasn’t making more than $50,000 that year, according to their public filings.” Moreover, the report also notes that by describing it this way, they were showing that they “were failing to meet that revenue threshold, meaning that Khan-Cullors’ group didn’t need to file a complete federal return, which would completely outline all of the spending and donations of the group.”
First of all, this social just nonprofit was given $100,000 by the Los Angeles-based Resnick Foundation, according to public documents. Moreover, this donation was reportedly on the Resnick Foundation’s 2015 federal tax filing, which is showing the group’s spending from October 2015 to September 2016.
The Resnick Foundation is a charity that is controlled by billionaire couple Stewart and Lynda Resnick, who have a reported combined net worth of $7.1 billion. Resnick is well-known for being the chairman and president of the Wonderful Company, which owns such brands as POM Wonderful, the bottled water company Fiji Water, Wonderful Almonds, and Wonderful Pistachios.
To top it all off, Dignity and Power Now also received $125,000 from the California Initiative in 2016, according to this report.
Tax filings show that the donations to Dignity and Power Now were filtered through Community Partners, which is a nonprofit that provides assistance for administering funds for various grassroots charities.
The report is claiming that DPN failed to disclose the cash donations in their filings to the California attorney general, who regulates charities throughout the state.
“Dignity and Power Now has been registered with the Registry of Charitable Trusts in 2017, and they informed this registry that they first received these funds in 2017,” the statement from the California Attorney General’s office reads.
The National Legal and Policy Center is a conservative watchdog group and they have filed complaints to not only the AG in California but also to the IRS calling for an audit of the finances associated with Dignity and Power Now.
“Obviously, what we want to know is just what happened to the money,” NLPC Chairman Peter Flaherty said. “Given the circumstances, we think that an audit is the best course of action.”
“Dignity and Power Now purports to advocate for the disadvantaged. That is why the IRS should ensure that no one is taking advantage of these funds.”
This is just the latest controversy surrounding Khan-Cullors.
Just last week, Michael Brown’s father joined with the BLM chapters that are demanding that the headquarters have more “financial transparency” regarding their global foundation. The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation actually raked in as much as $90 million in 2020, the Associated Press reported.
Khan-Cullors resigned last month from her leadership position with the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation after the scandalous revelations regarding her binge of buying real estate.
What is your opinion on Patrisse Khan-Cullors’ recent behavior?
