Schools and residences were destroyed during the Palisades Fire. Residents need money to rebuild homes so they can return to their communities. They thought FireAid funds might help.
Circling the News asked FireAid media spokesperson Chris Wallace on August 3, “On the FireAid website it notes that in Round 1, $500k in grants went to the restoration of Community Recreational Spaces, and that $5m in grants went to Community Grants. Is there a place to see the breakdown of the money spent and the specific organizations it went to?
Today August 4, Wallace replied “To ensure the community gets a clear and accurate picture of FireAid’s grantmaking, we’ve asked Latham & Watkins to conduct a comprehensive review. Their report will include the details you’re asking about, and we’ll be sure to share it publicly once complete.”
To which CTN replied, “I’m happy that a law firm is looking everything over–but how hard is it just to list the organizations under those categories and just list the money? There’s nothing to hide, is there?”
A reader asked CTN about the money that Clippers Steve Ballmer had donated, so earlier on July 28, CTN reached out to Wallace, “L.A. Clippers Steve Ballmer promised to match all donations through the FireAid Concert and donations made through streams of the concert for a year, how much has he donated so far?”
The next day Wallace replied, “The live concert broadcast and subsequent on-demand streaming raised: $14,114,306 to date. Steve and Connie matched the full $14,114,306, currently received and will continue to match any additional funds received from video on-demand through the end of the calendar year.
Wallace continued, “To most effectively deliver aid to the community as quickly as possible, we partnered with vetted and trusted local nonprofits who had the capacity and infrastructure to directly reach the individuals in need. This assistance provided food security, housing, resources for schools and more directly to individuals in the affected communities.
“To date, FireAid has distributed two rounds of funding totaling close to $75 million to organizations helping people on the ground and expect to distribute the remaining $25 million by the end of the year,” Wallace said. “The funds address the urgent needs from individuals in our communities— from immediate financial assistance, to childcare, groceries, mental health and housing and rebuilding public spaces as well as fire prevention.”
CTN responded, “If the concerts and streaming raised $14 million and it was matched with an additional $14 million–where did the other $72 million come from?”
Wallace said, “In addition to the money generated from the concert broadcast and streaming donations matched by Steve and Connie Ballmer, other sources included corporate sponsors and streamers, concert tickets, merchandise, food and beverage, parking and other miscellaneous contributions.”
I would love to know what the hourly rate Lathan & Watkins is charging.
Its really sad to read about the details of the distribution of money donated to help victims of the wildfires. In the past whenever there was a disaster people (including me) worldwide stepped up and contributed thinking that they were helping the victims. Now I along with 6,000 of my neighbors am a “victim”. No one responsible for distributing the Fire Aid funds has approached me or anyone I know asking if we need help. Makes me wonder if my past contributions actually helped anyone. Obviously my contributions were much smaller then those of Steve and Connie Ballmer but I hope they are demanding an accounting of where their money went.
Vultures, all of them. Hiring lawyers, using non profits to further crazy agendas that had nothing to do with the Pacific Palisades. This money should have helped all of those who were underinsured or had no insurance , that didn’t happen
Why would high-priced Latham and Watkins have to be hired to write out a list of who received the money, and how much they received? That’s a no-brainer. A 10 year old could write out that list.
Definitely a scam situation.
Neither we, who lost our home, nor anyone we know (and we know plenty of people in the Palisades) have received any help nor offer of help nor information on how to apply for help, from the Annenberg Foundation. There has been no outreach to us of any kind. I would like to see people come forward who received direct assistance. So far, I haven’t seen anyone do so. Why didn’t they just give it to the Red Cross to distribute as they did an excellent job of getting money directly to us?