There they were: the fire victims up on stage, speaking passionately about how they’d lost their homes, businesses, schools, and livelihoods, and how they were grateful to be getting direct help from FireAid donations. Former Microsoft exec and Clippers owner Steve Ballmer vowed to match the FireAid donations from the extravaganzas held at the two huge nearby venues. It was the biggest of love-fests.
But the love fest reportedly has devolved into a woke, racially-inspired giveaway in which recipients of that $100,000,000 FireAid are chosen by their skin color. That’s what used to be called race discrimination.
I’ve reported that the Annenberg Foundation, which was saddled with giving the money away, doled out cash to some very questionable organizations, including, of all things, The National Day Labor Organizing Network, the group that helped organize the June Los Angeles anti-ICE riots. Now, the Washington Free Beacon reports that things are even more divisive than that, if that’s possible.
The FireAid concert featured families, community members, blind kids, and others hoping to get some direct help from the generosity of donors and the Ballmer match. Backing up those sad stories and expectations of individual help were musicians whose presence commanded the $99-to-$5,000 entry fees to two venues — everyone from Stevie Wonder and Lady Gaga to Billie Eilish.
Related: LA’s Worst Problems Just Collided to Put Fire Victims Into a NEW Ring of Hell
It was a night of collaborations and reprises. Gwen Stefani rejoined her No Doubt bandmates for their first concert in forever, and the reclusive Krist Novaselic joined his old bandmates Dave Grohl and Pat Smear in a surprise televised reprise of Nirvana hits. Joan Jett sat in for an electric performance.
It was a rocking time to give back to the people of L.A., who had helped those starving artists when they were nothing but vapor, hair, and hope.
All the bands got back together. The city was back together. And then came the realization: “Sorry, L.A. Fire Victims, the NGO Borg Ate Your FireAid Money.”
No one ever said anything about a blood-drop test to qualify for FireAid grants.
The money was always advertised as going to charities deemed by the Annenberg Foundation, as I’ve reported, but the expectation and unspoken assumptions were that the people hurt most by the fires would be helped. No one ever said they’d be made whole, but the expectation was that all would get something.
Alas, as I reported, a bunch of non profits that have very little to do with helping fire victims got the first tranche of money. The Annenberg Foundation played God and decided which groups would get the grants.
What they got instead, or have gotten so far, since $75 million has been handed out already, is a non-profit free-for-all.
We’re very happy to report that a Sonoma, Calif. organization, based hundreds of miles from the fire zone, got a grant. An organization that cleans pre-school bathrooms was spiffed by the Annenberg Foundation.
Baby2Baby is probably a very fine foundation. Charlize Theron and Chrissy Teigen are featured on its webpage. The organization “single-handedly raises millions of dollars each year to make Baby2Baby’s work for children living in poverty possible.” Did Baby2Baby cut checks to fire victims or something? Did they match the grant money to double the gift to the victims? No idea.
The National Day Labor Organizing Network was given fire victim money. We’re unclear what giving money to the organization that riots and protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement has to do with giving money to fire victims. [emphasis added]
We’re sure the Flintridge Center is a fine Pasadena organization, but why do fire victims need apprenticeship programs? Perhaps they do. But how was that determined by the Annenberg Foundation?
Let’s appreciate how $100 million could be used to help the 17,000 heads of households burned out of their homes—with no clothes, no place to go, maybe a burned-up Tesla sitting in what used to be the garage, and no idea where their kid is going to go to school next week
Related: Now Comes the California Fire Sale: China-Based Company Is Buying Up Land Incinerated by Firestorms
The Beacon found that other Annenberg grant recipients practice race discrimination.
Greenline Housing Foundation, for instance, received funds from a $4.8 million pool dedicated to health and housing. It noted on its website that no whites need apply.
“In order to qualify for a grant through Greenline Housing Foundation, applicants must be a Black or Hispanic person,” the group stated.
Greenline told the Free Beacon that “anyone is welcome to apply for and receive” its fire-specific programs. But the wildfire section of its website clarifies that the organization “will focus [its] efforts on helping Black and Hispanic communities.”
The same is true for the Black Freedom Fund, a Black Lives Matter-era nonprofit dedicated to fighting “systemic racism” and promoting “Black power-building.” The organization—which received money from a $7.6 million pool dedicated to “disaster relief”—stated in a 2023 grant proposal document that it would only assist groups “led and controlled by Black people” and “primarily serving Black people.”
That’s outrageous, that’s what that is.
My personal “favorite” is the organization that celebrates L.A. street gangs.
My Tribe Rise, which also received cash from that pool, has a similar mission. Founded in 2019, the organization states that its mission is “to take the stigma out of gangs and to educate people about the positive changes that are possible when people come together to end violence and meet the needs of Black and Brown communities.”
Why are these donations for fire victims going to support tribal voting groups?
FireAid’s website lists numerous progressive activist groups, including the California Native Vote Project, which bills itself as a “first-of-its-kind statewide effort to engage Native American communities across dozens of counties to build political power through an integrated voter engagement strategy.”
The California Native Vote Project’s website reveals what it means by “voter engagement.” Emblazoned across the home page is a sign reading, “NO ONE IS ILLEGAL ON STOLEN LAND,” and the group has urged resistance against ICE raids on illegal aliens in the Golden State.
I just want to know who lost their minds at the Annenberg Foundation and thought these grants were a good idea.
This FIREAID scam is going to be a big problem for Gavin Newsom, especially since it’s not the first one of these charity concerts they have put on.
The politicians, the presenters all claim that the money donated will go DIRECTLY to people who were victims of the fires. They… pic.twitter.com/6ityUWj6zs
— MAZE (@mazemoore) July 26, 2025
What should have been done instead was to name a Special Master to dole out the proceeds equally or close to that. But instead of equality, fire victims have been treated to politically poisoned, DEI-inspired “equity,” aka color-based discrimination.
There’s good news, however. The expenditures are under investigation by the Central California U.S. Attorney’s Office in L.A.
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