The Minnesota Freedom Fund is being scrutinized for lack of transparency after spending only $200,000 on bailouts for protesters and rioters after raising over $30 million in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
The Minnesota Freedom Fund is a non-profit organization whose purported mission is to pay “criminal bail and immigration bond[s] for those who cannot afford to as we seek to end discriminatory, coercive, and oppressive jailing.”
Since the death of George Floyd, the Minnesota Freedom Fund has seen an influx of donations from around the world, particularly within the past month after celebrities promoted the organization on Twitter. Rapper “Noname” challenged other celebrities to match her donation.
Just gave $1000 to @MNFreedomFund. Celebrity accounts that follow me... match 🤝https://t.co/qMW7GnTpJs
— Noname (@noname) May 28, 2020
Seth Rogan and others soon followed suit.
Matched. https://t.co/qhwGUtrywc
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) May 28, 2020
But after receiving over $30 million in donations, the New York Post reported that the Minnesota Freedom Fund revised its goals to include the expansion of legal support for “those incarcerated protesting the murder of George Floyd” which they claimed is a part of their “core values and mission.”
Upon hearing this change, the Twitter mob quickly moved to criticize Minnesota Freedom Fund’s change in policy and demanded transparency from the organization.
This white run organization allegedly collected $35 million, and only used $200k to actually bail out protesters.
— Tariq Nasheed 🇺🇸 (@tariqnasheed) June 16, 2020
Those of us in the real Black grassroots have been getting folks out of jail on our own.
This is why we have to stop the coopt#NoAntiBlackRacism https://t.co/UPOxDaCI4O
Why are there so many white people in charge? Why is there no diversity shown? Especially when you’re supposed to be giving preference to black people with the bails? Please explain.
— 🦂 (@kahtyaRambles) June 16, 2020
Where’s all that money going? SHOW US!!! Don’t you DARE profit off of these people and their pain and break the promises you swore to keep. We ALL want to see proof that you will be spending every last penny to bail everyone out
— 🦠Quarantined Uncut King🦠 (@thegaycashier) June 16, 2020
The Minnesota Freedom Fund responded with a Twitter thread this morning.
Good morning. Let's talk about "where the money went" and where it's going. All protest-related bail so far that has come our way has been paid and we're going to keep that up. At the onset of all this we set aside $10K for protesters, because it's what we had - not enough (1/??)
— Minnesota Freedom Fund (@MNFreedomFund) June 16, 2020
That clarification (or lack thereof) was still not enough for the Twitter mob.
If you want to do it right then you should just show us receipts of where the money is going or at the very least an exact breakdown of how you're spending it 🤔
— Octo|1312|COMMISSIONS OPEN! (@octospecter) June 16, 2020
Spending only 200K in two weeks is just ridiculous. That’s not even 1% of the funds. They need to do better, quickly. This is a time sensitive issue and people need that money and help now, not later.
— mina (@minaXminaX) June 16, 2020