Los Angeles was devastated by wildfires back in January, and the area is still feeling the impacts of the disaster.
So when $100 million was raised by two FireAid concerts at the Intuit Dome and Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, featuring acts such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, Billie Elish, and Jelly Roll, you'd have thought the money would make its way to fire victims.
Well, it's not that simple.
Sue Pascoe, editor-in-chief at Circling The News, has the story of how this money ended up not going to fire victims, but instead making its way to non-profits with high-salary executives.
This editor reached out to the Annenberg Foundation, which was tasked with distributing funds, in April to find out how fire victims could receive direct financial help.
The answer was the money was intended for nonprofits, no individual could receive money even though it was intended for fire victims.
The money was doled out to non-profits such as Pathways LA, After the Fire, California Native Vote Project, Instituto de Educatcion Popular del Sur de California, and the state's very own CalVolunteers.
A bit about CalVolunteers:
Round 2 of grants handed out in early June, $25,000 million [sic] was given to various nonprofits, including the State of California's CalVolunteers.
California Volunteers is the state office 'tasked with engaging Californias in service, volunteering and civic action to tackle our State's most pressing challenges.['] Jacqueline Yannacci, the head, appointed by Newsom, receives a salary of $141,420, and this group serves under the office of the governor.
There is a 25-member Board of Commissioners for CalVolunteers, appointed by the Governor. The first lady Jennifer Siebel Newsom serves as the honorary chair.
So instead of fire victims receiving money from FireAid itself, FireAid gave the money to non-profits who we are supposed to trust to funnel the money to fire victims.
It's USAID all over again.
Let's take a look at those other non-profits mentioned above:
If you're an individual, you're out of luck. Californians must rely on these non-profits to send them relief.
Sue Pascoe appeared on Fox 11 to share her story:
So maybe next time, instead of sending donations for fire victims to non-profits, we could send the money to fire victims.
Seems like a fair solution.
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