The national Black Lives Matter organization raised more than $90 million in 2020 in its efforts to fight against police brutality and racism as protests over the deaths of George Floyd and other Black Americans occurred nationwide for months.
Financial documents shared with The Associated Press revealed that much of the donations came through the organization’s main fundraising platform, with donations averaging around $30. Members of the organization declined to say if any prominent donors were among those who supported the cause last year.
Drawing from its impressive fundraising haul, Black Lives Matter spent around $8.4 million in total expenses, including staffing and other administrative costs, and paid out more than $22 million in grants to local chapters and Black-run organizations around the U.S.
“We want to uplift Black joy and liberation, not just Black death. We want to see Black communities thriving, not just surviving,” reads a statement shared with the AP regarding the movement’s fundraising and spending habits.
“One of our biggest goals this year is taking the dollars we were able to raise in 2020 and building out the institution we’ve been trying to build for the last seven and a half years,” added Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter, in an interview with the news outlet.
The deaths of Floyd and other Black people at the hands of law enforcement officers, including Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky., drew widespread protests and outrage against police brutality and racial injustice throughout the summer of 2020 and calls for justice saw support from many mainstream politicians, including some Republicans, whose party has previously been hesitant at best to embrace the movement.