Earlier this year, after the Los Angeles wildfires destroyed thousands of homes, a show called ‘FireAid’ was organized, featuring a number of celebrities and local officials.
The event managed to raise upwards of $100 million, but according to independent investigative journalist Sue Pascoe, the actual victims of the fire have not seen any of the money.
After doing a little digging, Pascoe found that most of the funds had been distributed to various local non-profit organizations, using a questionable vetting process. Some of these non-profits have nothing to do with fire recovery.
Townhall has more details:
FireAid Fallout: $100 Million for Wildfire Victims—But Where’s the Money?
Weeks after the devastating Eaton and Palisades Fires, Hollywood and the music industry boasted about their multi-million-dollar fundraising effort called FireAid to support the victims. Yet, six months later, almost none of that money has actually reached the people who desperately need it. This delay raises serious questions about the whereabouts of the donations…
Pascoe reported that the Annenberg Foundation was responsible for managing the FireAid donations. She reached out by email asking how much of the funds were specifically allocated to the Palisades area and which local nonprofits were receiving the money. However, she received no response and had difficulty getting through when she tried calling multiple extensions. Eventually, Pascoe managed to speak with someone at the foundation and was passed on to Chris Wallace, the foundation’s chief communications officer. To her surprise, Wallace told her that the FireAid funds would not be given directly to residents affected by the fires. Instead, the money was being distributed to several nonprofits connected to the Annenberg Foundation.
Pascoe pressed Wallace for more details, asking why none of the funds had been directed to residents living in rent-controlled apartments or the nearly 700 people residing in mobile home parks. However, she never received an answer.
Watch this video report from FOX 11 in Los Angeles. It’s maddening:
Joel Pollak of Breitbart News looked into it and found a few of the recipients:
FireAid Money Went to Group in Newsom’s Office; ‘California Native Vote Project’, Too
One group that has received funding is the California Native Vote Project, a political non-profit that exists to encourage Native Americans to participate in the political process. The FireAid website reports that the cash was intended for “[f]inancial assistance for displaced and affected Native families, expanded healing and mental health services, and distribution of critical health & safety resources.”
According to Census data, there were 16 Native American residents of Pacific Palisades, out of nearly 23,000 people. There were slightly more Native Americans in Altadena, affected by the Eaton Fire: 46 out of about 43,000 residents.
The California Native Vote Project is officially nonpartisan, but its political ideology is radical. It boasts of its success in removing statues of Christopher Columbus, and it opposes the enforcement of federal immigration law, standing with the “undocumented” population against Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
This feels like the Kamala Harris 2024 campaign all over again. Liberals raise a massive amount of money, but at the end of the day, the money doesn’t accomplish what it was meant to and no one really knows what happened to it.
Then we find out that certain members of the progressive inner circle profited from the windfall.
And liberals think Trump is the problem.
***Correction from Breitbart: This article initially identified a recipient as California Volunteers, Office of the Governor. The recipient was in fact the California Volunteers Fund, a nonprofit entity independent of that office. “Neither Governor Newsom nor the State of California have received any funding from FireAid,” according to the governor’s office.
Featured image via YouTube.
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Comments
Migrants need it more. Thanks for playing!
Well, it’s California after all and Newsom is the governor and Bass is the mayor of LA. Why be surprised?
Well,,this is California after all. With Newsom and Bass involved, I’d be surprised if any of the donations reached the people they were were given to help. (And if you audited them, you should not be surprised to find out that a substantial percentage was raked off for “Administration and Overhead” for which no itemized receipts are required. Go figure.
Since Trump turned off the left’s USAID money launder scam, they’re forced to come up with new money launder scams.
I thought the very same thing!
Underlying news story – Investigative journal learns the Democrat meaning of never letting a crisis go to waste.
Crisis == Grifting opportunity!!
Therefore create more crisis!!
Fire, Flood, Climate. Riots, – More grifting!!!
Fraud department hirings go up after any lefty run “benefits” activities occurs
Not surprising, but still outrageous and disgusting.
Seems all of the money went to various NGOs, some with little or no connection to Pacific Palisades or the fire victims. The typical favorites of Democrats.
You can bet a week’s salary a significant chunk of that money – maybe all of it – found its way to the campaign coffers of the democrats you mention.
The way the money was distributed, even if any of it eventually benefits the fire victims themselves, a portion of the money pays the salaries of the people running and staffing those NGOs, all likely good friends of the Newsome administration.
NGO stands for NonGovernment Organization but I can think of a couple of other expansions of it.
New Government Organization
New Grifting Organization
Next Grifting Organization
Worthwhile to give the original source of the report.
https://www.circlingthenews.com/fireaid-state-receives-fireaid-money/
I don’t think the Kamala comparison works.
This is how 99.999% of all charities work with cash.
I didn’t give jack to any charity after Helene, I did physically go to a family business for 2 days with tools and stood up a couple of barns with a dozen other guys who know how to screw together lumber. They had received some “donated” lumber. It was 90% garbage. No nice pallets of plywood coming from Lowes in this batch… it was shit. I did notice some of these big box stores claiming to be giving though.
If I don’t see the eyeballs of the person my help is going to, I’m not giving.
Also note- a lot of businesses hurt by Helene didn’t get a red freaking cent to rebuild. FEMA did homes. Those barns and shops…. they were all wiped out w/out any coverage from anywhere.
Another link to follow
https://www.circlingthenews.com/category/fireaid/
everything always leads back to the dnc
they hide it in plain sight b/c no one is going to do jacsh about it
It was the Fyre Festival of fundraisers…which should surprise no one.
I wonder if donors could pursue a fraud action to, at a minimum, get their money back?
Sounds like the event should have been named “WokeAid.”
Wonder if Ms. Bondi and Mr. Patel could be stirred to review….
This is why I don’t contribute to these fundraisers
Liberals have no respect for money.
Oh, they love money. It’s the people who earn it they disrespect.
Gavin Newsom and the Democrats. Where they steal the money donated to the victims of disasters caused by their mismanagement and seize their land. Start calling Democrats what they are: Totalitarians aspiring to be Big Brother.
I wonder how much went to Newsom’s 2028 presidential campaign?
We should hire Stacey Abrams to look into this.
If ANYONE knows about the misappropriation of funds, she does.
More like the Biden campaign that raised money for Joe’s campaign that was then shuffled over to Harris’ campaign. This type of switcheroo is exactly what has happened here. How many of the donors understood that the money they were donating would never go directly to the fire victims? Probably pretty close to zero.
Should have known something was up when I learned the concert was being produced by Hillary and her Puerto Rican team.
This entire episode may open some more eyes to how bad the ruling class in CA performs. I suspect not enough to swing election results away from d/prog control.
This is California. While they are not alone in this as it happens in other Leftist ruled polities; in California the sole and exclusive purpose of any “charitable” contributions gathered in response to a disaster is to be stolen by the Left and their accomplices. Something to think about when you are asked for money when a fire/earthquake/hurricane/volcano/or plague of vampire bats strikes a Leftist-ruled area.
Subotai Bahadur
It’s reminiscent LiveAid concert debacle, in which lefties raised money for the “starving people in Ethiopia” that instead went to arm and feed the “brutal Marxist–Leninist military dictatorship” of Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam.
“Bob Geldof and Live Aid’s organizers were explicitly warned by multiple relief organizations, including Médecins Sans Frontières, that the Ethiopian government had a record of weaponizing aid and conducting brutal resettlement policies, which caused tens of thousands of deaths. Despite the warnings, the aid was handed directly to the government.”
–perplexity.ai
Well…
Ya know, after the bills were paid there was barely enough for the hired help.
It’s the thought that count though…. right?
According to Wikipedia “the Annenberg Foundation has focused on educational programming, and its efforts have also included environmental stewardship, social justice, and animal welfare.”
So the charitable entity responsible for handling the FireAid funds is a Woke entity that passed grants to other Woke, Left, andor Democrat interest groups.
And some folk wonder why other folk are skeptical about random charitable causes!
I don’t know California law, but it seems likely that there is either criminal behavior evolved here or civil violations of the law regulating charitable activities. The California AG is charged with enforcing these laws. Unfortunately, he is almost certainly a Democrat. If any of the donors are brave enough, they could file a civil lawsuit.
I am still waiting on FEMA from the hurricane that blew through south Georgia last year.
It would have been nice to deduct the money of taxes I paid on what I spent repairing my home and on cleanup. I still have a few pine trees that need to come down because of their damage but I have gone through my digressionary funds on my fixed retirement income.