Report casts doubt on achievements of Shaun King’s leftist nonprofit, which paid him generous six-figure salaries

Shaun King, the 43-year-old BLM activist who melted down last month over a report claiming he bought a $40k guard dog with donation money, was recently the subject of an investigative report published by the Daily Beast. After reviewing a multitude of financial records, legal documents, and other data, the liberal publication characterized King’s nonprofit Grassroots Law Project as “shadowy” and ineffective, and its initiatives as “stagnant.”

Grassroots Law Project: Promises and stagnation

The report discussed previously-undisclosed tax documents from King’s nonprofit Grassroots Law Project, which took in over $6.67 million in contributions in 2020 and has spent approximately $2.65 million “to bridge the gap between grassroots organizing and legal expertise to reform the American justice system.”

Part of this “bridging” entailed the GLP working with progressive district attorneys in Boston, Philadelphia, and San Francisco to set up South Africa-styled “Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commissions” in its offices.

All three offices were helmed by George Soros-linked progressive attorneys.

In Philadelphia, the GLP worked with District Attorney Larry Krasner, who took nearly $3 million from George Soros-linked entities between 2017 and 2021. In San Francisco, the GLP worked with then-D.A. Chesa Boudin, son of leftist terrorists and with links to Soros. In Boston, the GLP worked with then-D.A. Rachael Rollins, who has also previously benefited from Soros support.

These so called commissions were announced in July 2020. According to the GLP, “White supremacy, bigotry, greed, and corruption are at the center of police violence and mass incarceration … Dismantling them … will be the work of our lives.”

It may take a lifetime, granted two years later, the initiative and its online presence are reportedly “stagnate.” These commissions reportedly never fully launched.

Blame for the initiative’s failure was attributed to the pandemic as well as to Krasner’s preoccupation both with the crime wave he has overseen and his re-election bid. Krasner is the only one of the three district attorneys still in office.

Notwithstanding the commissions’ reported stagnation, the initiative allegedly ate up $500,000 of the $2,654,434. The remainder allegedly went to “various policy pushes and campaigns for prosecutorial leniency, phone-banking, donations to other groups, and legal defense funds.”

While gaps may not have been bridged, according to the report, 2020 tax filings indicated King received a salary of $104,167 as the GLP’s executive director during the group’s first 12 months. Representatives from the GLP told the Daily Beast that his salary increased to roughly $250,000, far in excess of the median compensation for nonprofit executives.

Money also made it around to other entities in King’s nonprofit ecosystem.

Documents obtained by the Daily Beast indicated the GLP paid $135,486 to a consulting firm called the Social Practice, which handles the financials of King’s nonprofit. There may be some question as to boundaries between the entities, as the Social Practice is based out of a box in the same San Francisco mail drop as the GLP.

The Social Practice also happened to be on the payroll of Krasner’s D.A. campaign whilst the Soros-backed prosecutor faced trouble in Philadelphia for “coordinating with King’s PAC and failing to report it.”

The web of nonprofits and PACs appears tangled. For instance, the Daily Beast noted that the Social Practice’s co-founder Becky Bond is also treasurer of the PAC with which Krasner was embroiled, the Real Justice PAC. Bond had co-founded that PAC with King in 2017.

Previous ‘shadowy’ initiatives and failed projects

Although his birth certificate indicated he was white and there were various contentions to that effect, King claimed that it was his alleged black parentage coupled with a disputed hate crime that prompted him to want to help people.

King, who was accused by Tamir Rice‘s mother of trying to profit from her son’s 2014 death, touts himself as a “civil rights leader.” Formerly a mega-church pastor, he rose to prominence as a BLM activist and “justice columnist” for Daily Kos, particularly after the death of Michael Brown.

The Daily Beast’s Goldie Taylor previously indicated that King had collected millions of dollars “for everyone from Haitian orphans to the families of black men and children killed by police across America,” but that while some “of that money went to survivors or victims’ families … much of the largess either went into failed projects, King’s own pockets, or is unaccounted for.”

For instance, an Internal Revenue Service filing indicated that King’s HopeMob, said at the time of its formation to be “the largest, most active, effective, innovative community of generosity in the world,” took in $419,000 in 2013. While the company paid out $198,000 in grants, King reportedly received a cash compensation of $160,000.

One BLM activist, DeRay McKesson, wrote in 2019, “It is my hope that Shaun refrains from attempts at organizing and fundraising furthermore.”

In February of 2019, King and progressive journalist Benjamin Dixon announced a reboot of Frederick Douglass’ newspaper, the North Star.

— The North Star (@The North Star)
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Initially claiming over 30,000 subscribers, with some paying $5 a month, others $10, and handful far more, such as black philanthropist Robert Smith who gave $10,000 monthly, The North Star ultimately took in a considerable amount of cash.

However, the Daily Beast indicated that 14 months later, in 2020, the site had yet to make good on King’s promises. Its headquarters were shuttered and its Atlanta-based staffers were laid off. Part of the paper’s failure was attributed to King’s “radical incompetence.” As the site underperformed, #ShaunKingLetMeDown trended on Twitter.

In August 2021, King reportedly begged for donations to help him move out of his $842,000 five-bedroom, lakefront New Jersey home.

In August 2022, the New York Post reported that GLP and King’s Real Justice PAC spent $524,778 in donation money on legal fees in a defamation case, in which King and his PAC were sued by former Philadelphia prosecutor Carlos Vega.

Earlier this year, King was accused of running a scam clothing line, when his $165 “organic” hoodies failed to ship to numerous buyers.

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