The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation is suing progressive nonprofit the Tides Foundation for allegedly defrauding the BLMGNF and holding back around $33 million in donations, according to documents filed Monday in California Superior Court.
BLMGNF accused Tides of refusing “to honor its promises” to the network and alleged that Tides "continues to commandeer BLMGNF’s donations" in the lawsuit.
Instead, BLMGNF alleged, Tides was handing out money that was supposed to go to BLMGNF to what the New York Post called a "radical BLM breakaway group run by anti-police activist Melina Abdullah."
Abdullah had previously lost a “frivolous lawsuit" against the BLMGNF, the Post reported.
Tides is a left-leaning donor-advised fund that disburses money from anonymous contributors to other organizations. The organization notably has received close to $14 million from billionaire George Soros and his son, Alex Soros, through their Open Society Foundations, according to the Post.
The fund reportedly functions as a clearinghouse, collecting donations on behalf of organizations that may be lacking a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. The organization also acts as an incubator for startup progressive groups, the Washington Examiner noted.
The organization, the Post reported, takes a cut of three to nine percent from the donations it manages on behalf of other groups.
Tides has been a major bankroller of pro-Palestinian organizations that have been instigating the pro-Palestinian riots and encampments on campuses across the country, according to the Post and the Examiner.
“Tides has engaged in deceptive business practices and has operated in a quasi-banking capacity without appropriate regulatory oversight of licenses,” the BLMGNF alleged in the lawsuit.
The organization further alleged that “Tides operates with a level of autonomy and minimal regulatory scrutiny that is starkly at odds with the regulatory framework imposed on traditional financial institutions."
The relationship between the two non-profits dates back to 2020, according to the lawsuit, when BLMGNF began receiving millions of dollars in donations following the death of George Floyd, which sparked political activism throughout the United States.
Lacking tax-exempt status at the time, BLMGNF went to Tides, asking the organization "for support in managing and holding millions of dollars in donations based on Tides’ representations that Tides would return the donations to BLM GNF upon BLM GNF’s request."
The lawsuit alleged that Tides even committed to paying all the money due to BLMGNF "to a particular donor."
BLMGNF ended its relationship with Tides in 2022 upon receiving tax-exempt status, the Post reported. However, Tides, the lawsuit alleged, failed to hand over the funds -- an estimated $33 million -- it owed to BLMGNF, according to the news outlet.
Although the organization, on June 9, 2022, claimed to have handed $7.4 million from the collective fund to BLMGNF, it instead disbursed around $4.75 million to a BLM chapter in Oklahoma City that was not affiliated with BLMGNF, the Post reported.
“Resources in the Black Lives Matter [collective action fund] were never intended to be granted to large, well-funded national organizations like Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, and were always intended to be granted to local Black Lives Matter chapters,” Tides said in a statement shared with the Post. “BLMGNF’s lawsuit seeks to circumvent the intent of the Fund’s donors and deprive grassroots Black Lives Matter chapters critical resources, for its own benefit."
“This lawsuit against the Tides Foundation is not just about financial discrepancies but the principle of rightful ownership and transparency that should govern partnerships in social justice funding,” BLMGNF’s attorney Byron McLain said Wednesday, the Post reported.
“There is an expectation for Black Lives Matter to challenge systems, break barriers and uphold the truth, no matter how uncomfortable,” BLMGNF said in a statement shared with the Examiner. “Today, that extends into non-profit operations as we call out Tides Foundation and other so-called ‘fiscal sponsors’ who exploit their role.”
