Major blow after major blow appears to be knocking Black Lives Matter off of its feet in recent months as the organization hides its finances and how it spent its $60 million in charitable donations. Amazon, an online website retail giant, kicked BLM off of its charity platform called AmazonSmile amidst the public and internal turmoil.
The Washington Examiner reported that Amazon itself had donated $10 million to BLM and other social justice causes after the death of George Floyd in police custody in 2020.
As background, AmazonSmile allows Amazon customers to donate a part of their purchase towards a charity of their choice, which charity must be recognized by AmazonSmile. It is an easy, simple way for charities to earn small proceeds from a major online retail giant.
AmazonSmile’s statement said, “Charitable organizations must meet the requirements outlined in our participation agreement to be eligible for AmazonSmile.” It continued, “Among other eligibility requirements, organizations are required to be in good standing in their state of incorporation and in the states and territories where they are authorized to do business. Organizations that don’t meet the requirements listed in the agreement may have its eligibility suspended or revoked. Charities can request to be reinstated once they are back in good standing.”
When asked by the Examiner, Amazon did not say how much Amazon donated to BLM, but its public break from BLM is one of the few public break-ups of corporations with the BLM movement.
For example, Intel promised to donate $1 million to social justice groups, but it claimed that it did not fund BLM. The same could be said of Cisco, which made a pledge of $5 million in 2020.
However, BLM is facing major charity non-compliance issues in many states because it never filed its full 2020 tax filings. It also does not have leadership figures willing to talk to the media after its cofounder, Patrisse Cullors, resigned amid a scandal sparked by her multimillion-dollar house-buying spree.