BLM Sues Tides Foundation

Can both sides lose a lawsuit?

Please?

Earlier this week, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) sued the Tides Foundation in Los Angeles superior court.

BLMGNF – started in 2017 but it really sprang to prominences in 2020 with the George Floyd riots – is suing Tides – a massive progressive foundation – for more than $33 million.

Just a reminder – BLMGNF and local BLM groups are not the same thing and that BLMGNF co-founder, Patrisse Cullors, went on a bit of spending spree after the charity raked in about $90 million dollars in and around their period of significant notoriety (note – we’re linking to a negative NPR story about a progressive organization so it has to be true.)  

And just a reminder about Tides – it is part of the “Big Woke” conglomeration of progressive funding outfits, has worked with and accepted money from George Soros, and has given money to organizations that are currently supporting pro-Hamas student demonstrations on campuses across the country.  Oh, and Tides gets much of its money from its endowment and from “donor advised” funds, which are donations that do not really have to have their origins disclosed publicly. And Tides has somewhere between $900 million and $1.4 billion under management in one form or another and pays its CEO about $750,000 a year.

But besides being a particularly pernicious example of woke do-goodery, Tides also acts as what is called a “fiscal sponsor.”  If, for example, you want to start a non-profit of your own but don’t have the time, wherewithal, or sense of legitimacy to bother to go through the process to get your own “5013(C)” tax paperwork done, you can turn to groups like Tides and ask them to be your charity’s sponsor.  In other words, you can say you are a non-profit and go collect funds and disburse funds, with Tides acting as your “back office” – for a fee – Tides charges anywhere between 3 and 9% of your take to manage your fund.

BLMGNF claimed in its suit that Tides isn’t really a foundation but is more like an unregulated bank. Tides has denied all wrongdoing.

If the whole thing sounds shady that’s because it is, although I will personally withdraw that suggestion if, when I send it in, Tides agrees to act as the fiscal sponsor of my new charity “Wicker Baskets Full of Yawning Golden Retriever Puppies for Equity.”  

That Vegas trip won’t wait.

Back to the lawsuit – BLMGNF alleges that when Tides became their fiscal sponsor they told them “that Tides would return the donations to BLM GNF upon BLM GNF’s request and that Tides would honor all grants BLM GNF requested to be paid to a particular donor.”

In other words, Tides would hold the money for them to spend as they saw fit.  But the suit alleges that not only did Tides not properly manage the funds, it even improperly “granted $12.6 million from the Support Fund to groups, including BLM Grassroots, a breakaway group helmed by activist Melina Abdullah.”

Abdullah had been with the group but left to become leader of BLM Grassroots.  She has tried to sue BLMGNF and has called the outcome of the most recent Super Bowl a “right-wing, white-supremacist conspiracy.” 

She is also independent presidential candidate Cornel West’s vice presidential running mate.

And you thought this wouldn’t be an incestuously complicated article.

To be blunt, nobody should care who wins the lawsuit – it would be like “this time, why not choose the greater of two evils?

But beyond its BLM and campus ruckus ties, Tides funds and/or acts as sponsor for and/or “incubates” (office space) hundreds of charities, almost all intent on doing the same thing, carrying the same message: west bad, capitalism bad, etc. blah blah etc.

Let’s a take a look a few from its latest tax filing, December, 2002, shall we?

There’s the Wisconsin Alliance for Infant Mental Health.  They got $400,000, presumably  to make sure newborn Billy doesn’t go on a murderous rampage after his mom adds a kitty cat to the mobile above his crib.

By the way, the Alliance is “committed to promoting self-reflection to increase awareness of our respective personal roles and responsibilities in systems of oppression, acknowledging privilege, and taking action to combat discrimination ​and inequities in all forms” and you can download an intersectionality/diversity poster from their website if you want.

Then there’s FAIR, which stands for “FAIRNESS & ACCURACY IN REPORTING” but in fact promotes the exact opposite.  They call themselves an anti-censorship organization, but also believe that “(A)s a progressive group, FAIR believes that structural reform is ultimately needed to break up the dominant media conglomerates, establish independent public broadcasting and promote strong non-profit sources of information.”

If you want, here’s a link to FAIR’s media activism kit.   Pretty much rather unfair, actually.

The Alliance for Youth Organizing got $1.55 million dollars – here’s what they say they do: “The Alliance) grows progressive people power across America by empowering local young people’s organizations to strengthen our democracy, fix our economy, and correct injustices through on-the-ground organizing.”

Translation – it’s mostly a get out the woke vote scheme.

From Accelerate Change in Boston to the Institute of Afrofuturist Ecology to You Grow Girl! in Seatle, a tour of Tides’ tax return will take you through the netherworld of progressive money, of who is funding the culture wars, and what may be next.

One last note – while I am sure they are not using AI to generate website content, it is astonishing how almost all of the groups – pick a link, I dare you – belch out the same words, the same phrases, the same ideas no matter the cause.

From food to Congress to roads to seaweed to dirt to whatever, everything must reflect and/or involve equity, sustainability, centering, being seen, diversity, social justice, inclusive, regenerative, restorative, dialogue, self-care, systemic, partnerships, collective action, buzzzzzzzzzz…. 

And, thanks to Tides and other vast foundations sloshing money at anything with a progressive pulse, that drone could continue forever.

Here’s the lawsuit:  https://aboutblaw.com/bdXg 

And here’s Tides latest tax form:  https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/510198509/202400469349300305/full 

And Tides’ web page:  https://www.tides.org/