After the national response to protests in Ferguson, the region received donations from all over the nation to organizations working against racial injustice, police violence and poverty. But where has that money gone, and what has it accomplished?
One youth organization said the organizations that received funding to deal with the underlying social problems in Ferguson and the St. Louis region haven’t been transparent about how they have spent the money and what they accomplished.
The Resource Accountability Project (RAP), a project of St. Louis Advocates for Youth, is calling on 10 charities in the St. Louis area to be more open about how they have spent grants they received after the Ferguson protests and how much youth have benefitted.
In a press release, RAP said the organization spent the summer requesting information from 10 organizations that received funding from corporate donations. Only one – the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis’ Save of Sons program – responded.
These organizations had first been contacted by RAP in 2015, when they requested information about how much money each organization had received and what they intended to spend it on.
“It was easy for us to find out how much money each program received and for what purposes,” RAP stated. “Unfortunately, these organizations haven’t been as transparent over the past two years in how they’ve been spending the money.”
The organization’s initial report found that Emerson Electric had donated $7.4 million to youth programs; $1.4 million of that was unaccounted for at the time.
RAP is now calling on the nine other organizations they contacted to provide detailed information on how the money they received from corporate grants has been spent and how many young people have benefitted.
The programs which did not provide their information, according to RAP, are Lutheran North High School Scholarships, North County Christian School Scholarships, Incarnate Word Academy Scholarships, Harris-Stowe State University Emerson STEM Scholarships, STL Youth Jobs, SLATE Youth Jobs League, University of Missouri St. Louis Opportunity Scholars, Cardinal Ritter College Preparatory High School Scholarships, and Ranken Technical College Ferguson Forward Scholarships.
“Too often, agencies receive money that never actually reaches the people it was intended to assist,” RAP stated. “Much of the money provided to these organizations was intended to help and serve young people like us. Therefore as young people, we think it is important that we hold these programs accountable to the intent of the donations they received. These agencies received over $5 million in 2014 but have yet to publicly disclose how it’s been used.”
RAP told The American in 2015 that the goal of the project was to involve St. Louis youth in holding charitable organizations accountable, while teaching young people about civics, budgets and research along the way.
