Donations to Black Lives Matter Do Not Go To Democratic Campaigns Or The Democratic Party

The donations that are made to the #BlackLivesMatter movement do, in fact, go to the #BLM organization, not the Democratic Party.

There has been a slew of online rumors going around that donations to the Black Lives Matter movement get sent to the Democratic Party because the group uses ActBlue Charities, an online fundraising platform. According to factcheck.org, that’s totally false, and in reality, the money donated is first transported through a nonprofit that sponsors the group, and then it is sent to the Black Lives Matter Global Network.

The “where is the money going” questions started to emerge after an Instagram page for the website WokeHub.com posted that “donations made to Black Lives Matter website go directly to the DNC” and that BlackLivesMatter.com “appears to be an international money laundering program used by the Democratic National Committee.” Conspiracy theory website InfoWars.com also made the same claim on its platform. Conservative, Pro-Trump activist Candace Owens spewed lies about BLM donations on her Instagram, as well, saying, “BLACK LIVES MATTER FUNDING GOES DIRECTLY TO WHITE DEMOCRATS AND THEIR VARIOUS INITIATIVES TO GET DEMOCRATS INTO OFFICE.” Other doubters generally wondered where exactly the money they contributed to the fund went.

BlackLivesMatter.com is managed by its holding organization Black Lives Matter Global Network, which was founded after the acquittal of #GeorgeZimmerman, who murdered unarmed Black teen #TrayvonMartin. There are several groups with the Black Lives Matter name, but they are not to be confused with the actual organization. According to factcheck.org, BlackLivesMatter.com uses ActBlue Charities to collect the donations it receives. ActBlue is also used for many Democratic and progressive organizations, BLM.com just happens to also be one of the organizations that use the site.

In one of Owen’s IG videos, #BernieSanders, #JoeBiden, and other Democratic officials are seen being the main recipients of the donations BLM.com receives. The video shows an OpenSecrets.org breakdown of expenditure by ActBlue that was made in the 2020 cycle. However, ActBlue isn’t itself donating money and only acts as a holding center for campaigns and groups to give out and collect donations. Campaign finance experts say its wrong to say that BLM donations are going directly to the Democratic Party or politicians just because they use the same website for donations.

“ActBlue lets candidates and liberal nonprofit organizations set up their separate accounts. There’s no crossing from one account to another. If you give the money to Sanders, it does not go to Biden,” said Michael Malbin, director of the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute, in a phone interview with FactCheck.org