Prominent charity serving Black business community paid $1.5M to 2 board members' companies, records show
"We demand an immediate independent audit of the awarding and use of government, sponsorship, and all other funds," said Chandran Fernando, one of the BBPA members raising concerns, in a statement. "Moving forward with good governance, leadership and service to the Black community a special election must happen immediately following the above process."In response to questions from CBC Toronto last week, a lawyer for the BBPA said the board has recently become aware of these allegations and is taking them seriously.
The companies were paid for services marketing and administrating charity programs and events like the Black African and Caribbean Entrepreneurship Leadership Training Program and the BBPA's annual Harry Jerome Awards celebrating Black excellence.. She remained CEO until she left the non-profit at the end of November 2023. Over the course of those six years, internal records show Spencer's company was paid more than $1.1 million by the BBPA for its services.
In a written statement to CBC Toronto, Spencer said she's proud of the work she did at the BBPA to lift up others in her community and "any suggestion I did so to benefit myself is false, and frankly, absurd.""I was a volunteer and financial supporter of the BBPA, long before I received even a cent for my role as CEO. This included providing more than two years of pro-bono marketing support, both personally, and through my company," said Spencer in her statement.
In a March 21 email to BBPA membership addressing concerns about these payments, then board chair Ross Cadastre wrote that the charity faced financial difficulties from 2017 to 2019, and Spencer provided "vital pro-bono marketing services." In the email to members, Cadastre writes that the board engaged BrandEQ without a request for proposal process due to urgent needs at the time. The email also says that Spencer recused herself from decisions concerning her own compensation, that of Brand EQ, and she told the board she had placed BrandEQ in a blind trust managed by others when she assumed the role of CEO of the BBPA.
"The fact that these contracts were allegedly awarded to people that are already tapped in and have access is really disappointing," she said. "There are not enough organizations like this within the Black community," Williams told CBC Toronto. Kate Bahen, managing director of Charity Intelligence, says any payments made to directors, staff or others who are not at arm’s length from a charity are considered related party transactions.
Based on those transaction records, the BBPA didn't disclose roughly $869,000 in related party transactions on financial statements submitted to the CRA for 2022 and 2023.Just last week, after CBC Toronto contacted the board about its financial filings, the BBPA's audited financial statements for 2023