Convoy Finance: Creating Corporate Structures
In this convoy finance update, I look at the corporate structure established as part of the protest / movement, and explore some of the implications for protest and extremist financing. As always, a huge thank you to all of you for reading this newsletter and for sharing it with people who will find it interesting. And don’t forget to subscribe to get the full, un-paywalled experience.
Updated 10 February 2022Establishing a not-for-profit
On the 30th of January 2022, the organizers of the convoy / protest / occupation in Ottawa incorporated a not-for-profit entity. This was likely established in order to satisfy the terms of the original crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe. On February 4th, 2022, GoFundMe cancelled the fundraiser and is issuing refunds, citing breaches to its terms of service. GoFundMe specifically cited section 8 from their terms of service, “which prohibits the promotion of violence and harassment”.
The organizers immediately established a separate GiveSendGo campaign (in addition to the one already established), and it has since raised over $4 million dollars; based on the previous campaign, we can expect this crowdfunding campaign to grow further, potentially even reaching the $16 million goal established by the organizers.