Kellogg Foundation Provided Nearly $1 Million to Support Black Lives Matter

(DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty)
DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which maintains strong financial ties to the Kellogg Company, has provided at least $930,000 in support of the controversial work of the Black Lives Matter organization.

The financing is listed on the Foundation’s website. It includes a June 1, 2016 grant to the International Development Exchange, which is in a contractual relationship with Black Lives Matter to process donations for the group.

The Associated Press reported the International Development Exchange, also known as IDEX, “has been acting as a mostly unseen financial arm of Black Lives Matter, with the ability to receive grants and tax-deductible donations on the group’s behalf.”

“More recently, the relationship evolved into a contractual partnership that will run through at least mid-2017,” the AP reported.

According to the Foundation’s website, the purpose of the $900,000 grant was to:

Enhance local and place-specific interventions to address issues impacting the lives of Black community members, families and children by building the infrastructure and capacity of the national #BlackLivesMatter to support and strengthen their local chapters’ organizing capacity.

On June 1, 2015, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation provided $30,000 to the Praxis Project, Inc. to support, according to the charity’s website, “the inaugural BlackLivesMatter Chapter Retreat.”

On Tuesday, the Kellogg Company announced its decision to pull ads from Breitbart News, explaining its 45,000,000 monthly readers are not “aligned with our values as a company.” In response, the news agency launched a #DumpKelloggs petition and has called for a boycott of the famous food manufacturer.

dumpkelloggs

 

Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alexander Marlow encouraged the boycott of Kellogg products:

Breitbart News is the largest platform for pro-family content anywhere on the Internet. We are fearless advocates for traditional American values, perhaps most important among them is freedom of speech, or our motto “more voices, not less.” For Kellogg’s, an American brand, to blacklist Breitbart News in order to placate left-wing totalitarians is a disgraceful act of cowardice. They insult our incredibly diverse staff and spit in the face of our 45,000,000 highly engaged, highly perceptive, highly loyal readers, many of whom are Kellogg’s customers. Boycotting Breitbart News for presenting mainstream American ideas is an act of discrimination and intense prejudice. If you serve Kellogg’s products to your family, you are serving up bigotry at your breakfast table.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, meanwhile, was founded in 1930 by breakfast cereal pioneer Will Keith Kellogg, and has gone on to become one of the largest philanthropic foundations in the U.S.

Kellogg himself set up an endowment for the foundation by donating Kellogg Company stock and other investments to fund the charity.

The stock continues to fuel the foundation.

The foundation’s website relates some of the strong ties between the charity and the company, both of which are based in Battle Creek, Michigan:

The foundation receives its income primarily from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Trust, which was set up by Mr. Kellogg. In addition to its diversified portfolio, the trust continues to own substantial equity in the Kellogg Company. While the company and the foundation have enjoyed a long-standing relationship, the foundation is governed by its own independent board of trustees. The foundation receives its income primarily from the trust’s investments.

Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.

With additional research by Joshua Klein and Brenda J. Elliott.

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