A representative for the social justice organization, which has been under fire for its financial transparency, told the New York Post that monies raised on AmazonSmile will be withheld 'until they're back in compliance.' The amount of money raised on the platform was unknown.
The ban, first reported by the Washington Examiner, deprives the BLM of money, which has given $306 million to charities in the United States.
It comes after charity auditors expressed concern about BLM's contribution management after no one could tell who was in charge of the funds and the organization's unwillingness to share information.
Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement who quit in May, stated this week that the unaccounted millions her organization received in 2020 stemmed from 'white corporation guilt.'
'It's important for people to understand that we didn't go out and seek money,' Cullors added. 'This money came from white guilt, white corporate guilt, and they just poured it in, California and Washington threatened the nonprofit with legal action earlier this month for failing to record what it did with millions of dollars in donations in 2020.
The organisation received more than $65 million in donations from the charity Thousand Currents, according to paperwork filed with the California Attorney General, but has failed to clarify what happened to the money.
The charity's most recent tax filing, dated 2019, lists a location in Los Angeles that does not exist, and the two surviving BLM directors identified by The Washington Examiner were unable to assist, with one even removing BLM references from his social media after the paper approached him.
'To be qualified for AmazonSmile, charitable organizations must meet the conditions listed in our participation agreement,' an Amazon official told the Washington Examiner.
Organizations must be in good standing in their state of incorporation as well as the states and territories where they are authorized to do business, among other conditions. Organizations whose eligibility is suspended or revoked because they do not meet the agreement's conditions may have their eligibility suspended or revoked. Charities have the ability to be reinstated once they are back in good standing.
The problem began in earnest in May 2021, when BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors stepped down as director of the Black Lives Matter Global Network, the national body representing all the individual local chapters.
Cullors co-founded BLM in July 2013, after a Florida jury acquitted George Zimmerman in the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
Garza and Tometi are no longer affiliated with the network, and Cullors was its figurehead and leader throughout the George Floyd protests - which saw huge donations flood in.
The organization's finances had been managed by a group called Thousand Currents, which says it has a 'mission of supporting grassroots movements pushing for a more just and equitable world.'
