The nonprofit shell game
Who is Black Visions Collective and what are they going to do with all that money?
The tragic death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020 produced a cash windfall for certain groups across the nation. The saga of Black Lives Matter and their controversial real estate investments has been well documented.
Less well known is the Minnesota entity Black Visions Collective. The collective does not exist in any separate corporate sense. It is a brand name of the St. Paul-based political nonprofit TakeAction MN—
The efforts of Black Visions Collective and TakeAction MN in financing and running the “defund the police” movement in Minneapolis are documented here.
TakeAction is actually a collection of organizations, each with its own funding purpose.
If you want to donate anonymously and get a tax deduction, then the 501c3 Education Fund is for you. Still want to donate anonymously, but want to fund left-wing politics more directly? Then consider the main 501c4 group. If you don’t mind your name being out there in the public domain, the PAC and Political funds are available, and your money will be used directly in election campaigns.
You may not have heard of this organization, but it is very well funded. From data kept on file at the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, here are the revenue numbers for recent years for each entity:
Notice the big jump for the Education Fund in 2020. That entity’s fiscal year ends on June 30. That extra $30 million in revenue represents the take from Black Visions Collective in the first month following George Floyd’s death. What is unknown is how much Black Visions Collective has received in revenue in the two years since.
The donations button for Black Visions Collective directs you to this page, which does not mention TakeAction MN, nor does it explain what it will do with your donation.
The Black Visions Collective website itself only accounts for $9 million of the original $30 million raised. The other $21 million are unaccounted for. Among the groups listed by name as grant recipients are SEIU Local 26 and MN Youth Collective. That last organization will be discussed in a future post.