BLM and ActBlue. Where is the money going?
Short version is that BLM uses ActBlue to collect donations. ActBlue has several disclaimers that allow them to keep funds for their own purposes if the recipient does not cash or otherwise rejects the donation.
Where does ActBlue spend it's money? Campaign contributions, mostly. https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/expenditures.php?cmte=C00401224&cycle=2020
Current 2020 cycle has over $1 billion in contributions to federal candidates alone.
Where does this get interesting? The Restriction of Political Campaign Intervention by Section 501(c)(3) Tax-Exempt Organizations. Further, during yesterday's BLM AMA with Kailee Scales, when asked about where the money would go, she was very vague about how they would use funds.
https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-organizations/the-restriction-of-political-campaign-intervention-by-section-501c3-tax-exempt-organizations
I think there are two absolutely vital questions that need to be answered.
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Has BLM accepted all of their donations and, if not, to what percentage have they left those donations to ActBlue.
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If any contributions to BLM has not been delivered, how were those funds distributed? Were they ever sent as ActBlue campaign contributions?
This final question is critical as international organizations and persons donate to BLM and would, in effect, allow international campaign contributions. Also, would it be a loophole that if BLM does not accept the donation, would it allow ActBlue, a non 501(c)(3) to use the funds as they see fit? It's not a 501(c)(3) giving money to someone else to then be contributed. It's an intermediary receiving money to be donated to a 501(c)(3) that doesn't receive it (for various reasons) and then claims those funds. Can that intermediary organization do with those funds as they deem worthy seeing as the funds never made it to a 501(c)(3) in the first place?
I think the premise is that people who are donating money to BLM, in the hopes of achieving racial justice, are having their money rerouted to Democratic politicians, through ActBlue, for purposes of financing reelection campaigns.
I would venture to guess many donors to BLM would not be happy to learn their donations were being used in this manner.