The music industry rallied around victims of the Southern California fires in January and organized FireAid, two concerts that sold out an NBA and an NFL arena, featuring more than 25 of the most famous bands and musicians on the planet, including Stevie Wonder and Bono of U2.
Eight Days of Hope (EDOH) responded to the fire and decided to put on a fundraising concert of its own: Jordan Feliz and an up-and-coming Christian artist Terrian.
FireAid raised $100 million for those who lost homes, but an investigation picked up by a local Fox TV station finds that seven months later, not a single victim has received a dime.
Sue Pascoe, a journalist and editor of online newspaper Circling the News, discovered where the money was actually going.
“This FireAid money is not helping the people. It's helping nonprofits, many of them who have executives that are getting a six-figure salary,” reports Pascoe. “The money is not going to the victims that you wanted the money to go to.”
The non-profit Annenberg Foundation was responsible for handling the money, but despite saying they have dispersed the first set of grants to local organizations, none of the residents have seen it. James Li posted on X a breakdown of what happened, starting with the Annenberg Foundation only directing toward charity 33% of its annual expenses.
EDOH president Steve Tybor says they raised about $150-thousand dollars – not even two percent of the FireAid haul, but they got the money to the victims the night of the concert.
“After the concert, every family came forward, and they got an envelope with a card and information about the local church, and each family got roughly $2000 in gift cards,” Tybor states.
