This story first started appearing on our feeds last week, and several readers have since sent us various links about it.
Following the fires in and around Los Angeles in January that devastated several communities, most notably Pacific Palisades, a concert, FireAid, was held to raise funds for the impacted communities. You probably remember the concert for the reunion of three members of Nirvana, who played with guest singers.
The funds raised for the concert are managed by the Annenberg Foundation, which has its headquarters at 101 West Elm Street in Conshohocken. According to a press release issued by the foundation following the concert, the effort raised more than $100,000. From that press release:
FireAid, which brought together more than 50 million viewers across 28 streaming platforms, featured moving performances from more than 30 artists at two venues, Intuit Dome and the Kia Forum. The estimated amount raised includes ticket sales for both venues, sponsorships, merchandise sales, and donations from the public including generous private gifts from the Azoff family, the Eagles, Andrew Hauptman and Ellen Bronfman Hauptman and U2. Operating costs were offset by the LA Clippers. Steve and Connie Ballmer also matched every pledge made during the broadcast and VOD viewing of FireAid while Live Nation served as the production partner.
Now that a few months have passed, people in California are starting to ask how the money has been spent. The first reporting we can find on this issue was from Circling the News, which published an article titled, “Fire Aid Concerts Net $100 Million: Fire Victims Ask Where’s the Money?”
This led to others raising the question, such as representatives of the Pacific Palisades Community Council (a non-governmental community group), which has demanded an accounting from the Annenberg Foundation. Most notably, independent journalist James Li, who has over 100,000 followers on X, brought it to the attention of a national audience on May 27th. Watch Li’s video below.
Various charitable watchdogs and associations recommend keeping administrative costs between 15% and 35%. Li shows a non-profit record that lists Annenberg’s administrative percentage as approximately 70%. He then expresses concern that once approximately 30% of the funds are spent on helping communities impacted by the fires, the local organizations doing the actual work will have their own administrative costs, further reducing the effort to help the victims.
If you want to follow this story, it is probably best to follow Circling the News or Li. We will be back if warranted.
Photo: Sgt. 1st Class Jon Soucy. Wikipedia Creative Commons