The House Judiciary Committee released a report on Tuesday. after my own investigation to FireAid, a charity founded by Clippers executives that raised $100 million to fight wildfires in Los Angeles last January.
The investigation, led by Rep. Kevin Keeley (R-Rocklin) with committee chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), began in August when Keeley “sent a letter to FireAid requesting a detailed description of all nonprofits that received money from FireAid.” Keeley expressed concern that the money went to local nonprofits rather than direct assistance to affected residents.
FireAid promptly published a detailed document detailing its fundraising and grant distribution. After reaching out to each nonprofit named in the document, The Times reported that groups that successfully applied for grants were quickly given money to spend in their areas of expertise, as outlined in FireAid's public mission statements. An audit conducted by a third-party law firm confirmed the same.
A new report from the Republican-led committee is skeptical of the nonprofit work being done under FireAid's umbrella but cites relatively few examples of groups deviating from FireAid's stated goals.
FireAid representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.
Of the hundreds of nonprofits that received millions in FireAid funds, “in total, the committee identified six organizations that provided FireAid grants for labor, salaries, or other related expenses,” the report said.
The committee singled out several local nonprofit organizations dedicated to helping and developing minorities and marginalized groups for criticism. He named several long-established organizations, such as NAACP Pasadena, My Tribe Rise, Black Music Action Coalition, CA Native Vote Project and Community Organized Relief Efforts (CORE), whose firefighting efforts they found “unclear,” without providing specific allegations of misuse of FireAid funds.
The report, which widely cites articles from Fox News, Breitbart and the New York Post, claims that “FireAid is prioritizing and issuing grants to illegal aliens.” However, the only example of this is a grant that was given to CORE, citing its mission to help respond to crises in “underserved communities,” one of which is “undocumented migrants” facing “high risks of housing instability, economic hardship, exploitation, and homelessness.”
The report said $500,000 was used by the California Charter School Association, Los Angeles County Area Legal Services, Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, Los Angeles Disaster Relief Navigator, Association of Community Clinics. Los Angeles County and the Los Angeles Conservation Corps “for labor, salaries, or other related expenses,” which the committee said was contrary to FireAid's stated goals.
However, examples they call suspicious include NLSLA's use of its FireAid grant to pay the salaries of attorneys providing free legal aid to fire victims, the Los Angeles Community Clinic “expanding training in mental health and trauma-informed care” through grants to small local health centers, and the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank devoting its funds to “mobilizing resources to fight hunger.”
The report singled out one group, the Altadena Talks Foundation, from Toni Raines' humanitarian Team Rubicon. The Altadena Talks Foundation received a $100,000 grant from FireAid, but the report said Altadena Talks' work on a local news podcast, among other efforts, “remains unclear” as it relates to fire response.
The report's claims that “instead of helping fire victims, donations made to FireAid helped fund causes and projects completely unrelated to the fire, including Native American voting, illegal immigrants, podcast shows, and mushroom planting” sound incendiary. However, the evidence he cites overall shows that there are a number of established local nonprofits tackling specific community problems in a fast-moving disaster, with some small amounts of money perhaps going toward salaries or overhead, or groups whose mission the committee was skeptical of.
FireAid still plans to distribute an additional round of $25 million in grants this year.
