Some groups of people and the word “charity” do not seem to naturally go together. We are not sure which group is responsible for this FirstAid charitable concert event debacle but the first group to come to mind as parallel was the Clinton Foundation. The Clinton’s collected charitable donations to rebuild Haiti after their earthquake of 2010 with the actual Haitian people seeing but a small fraction of the donated money arrive to their shore. The Clinton Foundation has never had a required 501(c)(3) audit.
Country crooner Luke Bryan came out with a song a few years back titled “Most People are Good”. The $100 million raised during the FireAid concert for the victims of the California wildfires which occurred about a year ago on September 10, 2024 seems to prove Bryan’s song true. Matter of fact, Americans are said to be the most charitable people in the world according to the Charities Aid Foundation’s (CAF) World Giving Index, which surveys global giving trends. Credit needs to be given to both the donors and performing artists of this event.
The only problem is, some of the people involved with these charities handling the donation money behind the scenes are not so good. Some of the elected politicians who are responsible for making sure that donated money gets into the hands of the needy are also not so good. This is why people like Donald Trump and Elon Musk are so focused on NGO fraud.
The FireAid concert was held and aired on January 30th of this year and yet, two months ago it was widely reported that little of the money had come through to help LA County people rebuild their homes after the wildfires of last September. Some independent journalists did a deep dive to determine where that $100 million went.
Journalist Sue Pascoe is widely credited with exposing the alleged fraud related to the FireAid concert. Pascoe, of Circling the News, began investigating the distribution of the $100 million raised by the concert after a reader questioned where the money was going. Pascoe’s resultant investigation suggested that the funds were not reaching the victims of the Los Angeles fires directly, but rather were being diverted to non-profits, some of which had no connection to fire relief and had a tremendous overhead operating expense as high as 70%!
Another journalist with a wide following who went viral on the Internet exposing the scandal of FireAid is James Li. Li is an independent investigative journalist and contributor to Breaking Points. A video short clip of Li was picked up by other big podcasters of the Internet such as Jimmy Dore and Joe Rogan. This version is the longer version from his own podcast.
“The $100M FireAid “SCAM” — Victims Got NOTHING!” – 51-49 with James Li
CONCLUSION:
If you are one of those people who gives your time, talents, and treasures, to charitable causes, God bless you. I too enjoy charitable giving but not all of the giving I do is related to Christian charities such as my church and those who help the homeless. I also donate to outfits like Judicial Watch, Wounded Warriors, and the Trump Republicans. I fully get and respect those who do not give any charitable donations and quote the old adage, “Charity begins at home.”
I get these people because too many giving experiences seem to go south these days such as this one of FireAid. What turns out to begin as a noble cause ends up as a disgusting sham. Before you donate to any nonprofit 501(c)(3) charity, you should check them out online to see how they are rated. When journalist Li did this, he determined that the FireAid’s Annenberg Foundation out of Pennsylvania who ran this event only gives about 33% of donated money to the cause they work for. This means the remaining 67% goes to overhead costs of the charity such as the $7.35 million dollar annual salary of its executive director Cynthia Kennard!
President Donald Trump has spoken to this FireAid scandal himself. Trump heavily criticized FireAid and Governor Newsom’s handling of the wildfire response, calling the benefit concert “a total disaster” and alleging mismanagement of funds and the fire response by Newsom. Our mainstream media, once again, was negligent in following up on President Trump’s disdain for these events, both fire and concert.
Republican Congressman Kevin Kiley (R-CA) has requested the Department of Justice to investigate FireAid’s grant disbursement, claiming the funds did not go directly to L.A. victims and went to nonprofits not directly involved in fire relief.
The Bible says, “For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.” – Luke 8:17
With that in mind, this interview gives you another reason to want to investigate the Clinton’s.
“Follow the Money: Whistleblower SHREDS Clinton Foundation in Explosive Interview!” – Lionel Nation
© 2025 by Mark S. Schwendau
