A year of change in the name of racial justice is hard to quantify.
But in the 2020 Impact Report released this week by the Black Lives Matter Movement, historic numbers speak volumes.
The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) said in the report that it raised over $90 million in 2020 alone, giving about a quarter of it — nearly three times the industry norm — to BLM chapters and local organizations.
The report comes after a year of nationwide protests calling for racial justice and police reform.
“This has been a record-breaking year for fundraising, which has been matched with just as historic an amount in campaign budgets and grant disbursements,” the foundation wrote.
Donation averages were around $30 through the foundation’s main fundraising platform, and over 10% of donations were recurring.
The foundation is investing in the grassroots
Thirty local organizations, with 23 led by Black LGBTQ people, have each been committed a six-figure grant from the foundation, according to the report.
Official and unofficial BLM chapters also received funding, totaling almost a quarter of the year’s donations that went to local organizations.
“That is $21.7 million that will go towards the sustenance of Black communities and Black movement-building — towards creating a world in which Black lives matter,” the foundation wrote.
In 2020, BLM launched a sister organization to the foundation called BLM Grassroots, which focuses on local-level activism.
“Though our movement in its entirety continues to be driven by a deep sense of purpose and commitment, BLM Grassroots will remain fundamentally connected to our work on the frontlines — where it all started,” the foundation wrote.
On Giving Tuesday, the foundation raised over $80,000 for six local organizations by sending a single email.
Its online presence is stretching far and wide
BLM’s reach grew to historic proportions last year.
On June 2, 2020, the seventh day of protests over the death of George Floyd, the foundation’s website drew 1.9 million visitors — a near-5,000% increase from its most trafficked day in March 2020, according to the report.
And a quarter of the movement’s online presence is international.
The foundation wrote that the BLM website draws people from the United Kingdom, Germany, India, France, Brazil and more.
Moving forward, the report said that one of the movement’s focuses for 2021 and beyond will be economic justice, given the socioeconomic consequences of Covid-19 on Black communities.
