Oregon opens investigation into Portland nonprofit Brown Hope

The Oregon Division of Justice mentioned it plans to open an investigation into Portland nonprofit Brown Hope, a celebrated racial justice group solid into sudden turmoil final week.

Spokesperson Ellen Klem confirmed that the company’s Charitable Actions Part will launch a probe of the group within the coming days however supplied no extra particulars Monday night.

In response to questions from The Oregonian/OregonLive, Klem additionally mentioned the group had failed to supply its 2021 tax filings by Nov. 15 as required by state regulation.

“I wouldn’t say that’s frequent,” she mentioned. “However I additionally wouldn’t say it raises any enormous alarms.”

The pair of disclosures come lower than per week after Brown Hope board president Gregory McKelvey mentioned he positioned Cameron Whitten, the group’s CEO and a fellow board member, on go away amid a sequence of unspecified allegations.

McKelvey mentioned the choice was beneficial by the nonprofit’s exterior human assets agency and had the help of “leadership-level” workers on the group. The board president has additionally mentioned Brown Hope plans to rent an unbiased agency to conduct its personal investigation into the allegations.

“This information is a reduction,” McKelvey mentioned of the pending state Division of Justice probe in a press release Monday. ”I welcome any fact-finding mission to ascertain what has occurred.”

Whitten has beforehand mentioned they didn’t have any data on what was being investigated and disputed they have been on go away from the group. They might not be instantly reached for remark Monday evening. In a latest social media put up, Whitten mentioned they deliberate to go away city quickly till mid-January and can host a vacation celebration and get-together this weekend.

“I’ve by no means let concern or uncertainty carry me down earlier than,” Whitten wrote. “That’s positively not altering right now. Tis’ the season for prime spirits!!!”

An activist and Black chief in Portland for greater than a decade, Whitten based Brown Hope in 2018.

The motion towards the nonprofit chief by McKelvey landed a day after the group marked a milestone with considered one of its greatest and best-known applications, the Black Resilience Fund.

The fund, which fashioned amid town’s racial justice protests following the 2020 homicide of George Floyd, has raised greater than $2 million to help Black Portlanders all through the pandemic.

Final Tuesday evening, the fund launched a brand new common fundamental revenue program that it mentioned will present $2,000 a month to 25 Black households over the subsequent three years.

Brown Hope acquired practically $3 million in 2020, together with greater than $800,000 in authorities grants, in keeping with its most up-to-date publicly obtainable tax submitting.

— Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632

Electronic mail at skavanaugh@oregonian.com

Comply with on Twitter @shanedkavanaugh

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