Whites Denied Help After Wildfires

Millions of dollars collected to aid victims of the 2025 California wildfires ultimately ended up in the coffers of NGOs supporting progressive causes. Some of the groups that received funding explicitly exclude white people from their services, while others run programs exclusively benefiting illegal immigrants.

The devastation of the 2025 California wildfires (Photo: AFP)

Wildfire Relief Money Directed to Illegal Immigrants

Other groups that received FireAid funding provide assistance to illegal immigrants in California. The Alliance for a Better Community, which describes its work as advancing “social, economic and racial equity and justice for the Latino community,” received money from the “disaster relief” fund as well as an additional $5.9 million for “continued relief to wildfire victims and communities.”

The group distributed FireAid’s money through its “Fuerza Fund,” described on FireAid’s website as an initiative of the Alliance providing “immediate, direct cash aid to essential workers and households impacted by wildfires in Los Angeles.”

But on its own site, the group stated that it would “double down on its commitment to immigrant and undocumented families — to ensure they not only survive but regain security, power and peace of mind.”

The Fuerza Fund’s page also states that, in addition to wildfire relief, it is focused on "confronting the fear caused by raids and displacement" through "delivering direct cash assistance, trauma-informed healing programs, and legal empowerment resources where they’re needed most."

Home Grown, a nonprofit that supports home-based childcare providers, received cash from a $3.5 million allotment for "children & families." The organisation’s website states that it is committed to steering funds to "undocumented providers" as well. The Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California, which received FireAid money, also runs programs for illegal migrants.

This Is Nothing New

In 2020, $10.6 billion was pledged to causes and organizations linked to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Corporate donors included Amazon, Gatorade, Microsoft, 23andMe and Tinder, while beneficiaries ranged from the small guerrilla media group Unicorn Riot to the large Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF). What happened to that money remains a mystery, as no financial audit was ever carried out. Looking at the past record of one group — BLMGNF — offers some insight into what may have happened.

The BLMGNF received more than $90 million in 2020, the year of George Floyd’s death. By the end of 2020, according to the New York Post, the group still had around $60 million left after spending $8.4 million on unspecified expenses and committing $21.7 million to local chapters.

Soon afterward, scandal erupted when a coalition known as #BLM10 publicly criticized BLMGNF for a lack of “financial transparency, decision-making, and accountability". “To the best of our knowledge, most chapters have received little or no financial support from BLMGNF since its inception in 2013,” a #BLM10 spokesperson claimed in an open letter. The natural question arose: where did the money go if not to the grassroots movement?

Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Mitgründerin von #BlackLivesMatter, hat jüngst in Los Angeles ein Haus für 1,4 Mio $ gekauft. Sie besitzt drei weitere Immobilien für unterm Strich gut 3 Mio $. Sie versteht sich als Marxistin und setzt sich für die Abschaffung des Kapitalismus ein. pic.twitter.com/07kxEMyfpM

— Richard Meusers v.W. (@maternus) April 12, 2021

Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of BLM — who has since resigned from leadership — admitted that the organisation’s $6 million Los Angeles mansion, secretly purchased, was used for personal purposes.

The mansion included six bedrooms, a party room, a swimming pool and office space.

Cullors was heavily criticized, even from within the movement, as many saw her lavish lifestyle as antithetical to the mission of social justice that BLM purported to represent. Despite the enormous donations, the family of Michael Brown — whose death originally sparked the movement — said they never received support from BLM.

Cover photo: The devastation of the 2025 California wildfires (Photo: AFP)