While the threat of LIV Golf simmered, threatening its financial stability, the “non-profit” PGA Tour was pledging $100 million to the BLM movement-related causes, according to a newly-released report titled: “Americans Deserve To Know Who Funded BLM Riots.”
Most Americans have happily moved on from the 2020 Black Lives Matter (BLM)-driven ransacking of some 200 American cities, which resulted in as much as $2 billion in property damage and at least 25 deaths. But that time must be remembered for more than rioting and destruction. The BLM pressure campaigns, harassment, and moral blackmail also amounted to possibly the most lucrative shakedown of corporate America in its history.
Today the Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life published the most comprehensive database to date tracking corporate contributions and pledges to the Black Lives Matter movement and related causes from 2020 to the present. Companies and corporations pledged or contributed an astonishing $82.9 billion to the BLM movement and related causes. This includes more than $123 million to the BLM parent organizations directly. These figures, while shocking, likely underrepresent the true magnitude of the shakedown as some companies failed to make known their contributions, and many BLM organizations remain unknown.
The billions in donations were used, in part, to fund Black Lives Matter’s political action committee with a goal to “elect progressive community leaders, activists, and working-class candidates fighting for black liberation,” the Claremont Institute reported.
Content published on PGATour.com offers a window into the tour’s leftist corporate mindset that seemed to prioritize Wall Street’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) standards over the fiduciary needs of its stakeholders, i.e. players, sponsors, charities, and tournaments. (ESG refers to non-financial standards, or a corporate social credit score, used by asset managers and investors in financial decision-making.)
For instance, in a section called “Inclusion,” the following copy appears: “We have been working with our tournaments and their local communities to build on the incredible impact they are making already through increased understanding, support and engagement with nonprofits leading equity and inclusion work.”
Another section, titled “Sustainability,” sounds more like a politician instead of a professional golf tour: “The PGA TOUR is committed to being intentional in implementing sustainability efforts that drive positive environmental change.”
Ahead of the 2020 Tour Championship, just three months after the racially-charged riots, which caused billions in property damages – including many family-owned small businesses, the tour virtue signaled its “commitment” to be part of the “much needed ongoing conversations about racial and social injustice.”
“In essence, how do we use the platform that we’ve established over the past 80 years to make deeper and more specific commitments around social justice efforts in our communities,” said PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan.
“There are specifics to come in this space, and the work may never be complete, but as we close out this season of change, I felt it important to reinforce our commitment.”
A year later, during a press conference at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Monahan confirmed that the billion-dollar non-profit was working to “weave diversity, equity, and inclusion” into its business model.
“At the 2020 Tour Championship, I sat here and pledged that the PGA Tour would be part of the conversation and the solution surrounding racial and social injustices in our society,” said Monahan.
The woke commish added, “Our goal is to weave diversity, equity, and inclusion into all fabrics of the PGA Tour’s business.
“In fact, we recently launched the Office of Social Responsibility and Inclusion led by Neera Shetty, who’s been an instrumental leader of the Tour’s Inclusion Leadership Counsel.
“The creation of an Office of Social Responsibility and Inclusion is the next step in our foundational commitment to this area.
“We will work across our tours and with our tournaments, sponsors, and partners to identify ways to have a positive impact both socially and environmentally in the communities where we play.”
The $100 million figure, confirmed by the report, places the PGA Tour inside the top portion of pledgers, alongside publicly-traded brands such as Apple, Pepsi, and Netflix. They are the only “non-profit” among the “nine-figure” pledgers.
In addition to Ponte Vedra HQ, many of its “title sponsors” and “partners” also chipped in millions (and even a billion in one case) to the leftist political movement, resulting in the “most lucrative shakedown of corporate America.”
Some of those title sponsors include, PNC Financial ($1 billion), Mastercard ($500 mil), Wells Fargo ($210 mil), Comcast ($165 mil), RBC ($111 mil), Sony ($100 mil), 3M ($50 mil), American Express ($50 mil), Morgan Stanley ($30 mil), AT&T ($21.5 mil), Coca-Cola ($4 mil), Travelers ($1 mil), and John Deere ($1 mil).
In total, over $2.4 billion from the PGA Tour and partners were funneled to the Marxist political movement.
These revelations arrive after the PGA Tour was caught flatfooted in 2022 with the launch of LIV Golf, and exodus of some of its biggest stars, due to a dispute over money.
“Imagine if the tour used that $100 million to “elevate” its tournament purses back in 2021 or 2022, instead of giving it to the woke mob?” said a LIV star via text.
We reached out to the PGA Tour for comment.