Hannah Lutz

Many people are looking for ways to support the Black community and to encourage police reform following the death of George Floyd and others by police. One of the most common ways to provide support has been to organize fundraisers and donate money to nonprofits and grassroots organizations coordinating these efforts. Unfortunately, organizations sometimes adopt similar names or slogans, and donations can be misdirected. In one recent example, donors who thought they were donating to the Black Lives Matter movement—operated under the name Black Lives Matter Global Network (BLMGN)—mistakenly designated funds to an unrelated nonprofit called the Black Lives Matter Foundation. The Black Lives Matter Foundation has a very similar name to the Black Lives Matter movement, but a different mission. Donors were dismayed to discover that they had inadvertently committed funds to the wrong organization.