Sue Pascoe from “Circling The News” reports how approximately none of the money raised by two “FireAid” fundraising concerts has directly reached people impacted by the Los Angeles fires earlier this year. Despite $ 100M raised, Pascoe says many affected families have received nothing. Instead, it went to a constellation of 120 nonprofit groups, many of which seem to have nothing to do with the situation. Artists like Green Day, Billie Eilish, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Stevie Wonder, Sting, and Alanis Morissette performed at the fundraiser, collecting $ 100 million. Read more: “State Receives FireAid Money Read more: “After raising $ 100M for wildfire recovery, where did the FireAid funds go?”

MARLA TELLEZ, FOX11: Fire Aid-that star-studded concert that raised $ 100 million for wildfire victims. But where did all that money go? Investigative journalist SUE PASCOE has been digging for answers, and what she’s discovered might just surprise you. Sue Pascoe is the editor of Circling the News. Thanks for the work that you’re doing. This is personal and professional for me because I lost my home in the Palisades Fire. But that’s not necessarily how this story landed in my lap. How did this all come to be? SUE PASCOE, CIRCLING THE NEWS: A reader sent me a note and said, I’ve never seen any Fire Aid money. How do I apply for fire aid? I realized: there are 12,000 homes gone. Those people want to know where the money is. I thought it would be easy to find out, so I contacted the Annenberg Foundation-they never responded. They’re overseeing the wildfire funds. I emailed them several times and called several times; no response. Almost two weeks later, a woman finally replied and said the person I needed to speak to was Chris Wallace, media spokesperson for Fire Aid. I asked, Victims want to know when they can get their money. That seems like a simple question. He said, basically, they don’t. All this money goes to nonprofits, and those nonprofits distribute it. Initially, they gave $ 50 million to about 120 nonprofits. I looked at the list-one nonprofit said they help mobile home parks. There were two low-income mobile home parks in the Palisades. I contacted them; they’d never received any money and had never heard of it. I would urge everyone to go through the list of nonprofits, if you want a good laugh. One of them cleans preschool bathrooms. Well, after a fire, who knows, maybe there’s a preschool bathroom that needs cleaning. But that’s not helping fire victims. … TELLEZ: There’s still another round of funding coming. If you’re a nonprofit, you fill out a six-question form. What’s the vetting process? PASCOE: I think they’re not helping the victims at all. They don’t disclose how much each nonprofit gets. So there are two nonprofits that are for homeless people in Los Angeles — of course, we’re all homeless now. TELLEZ: Yes. We’ve contacted Attorney General Rob Bonta to see if this is on his radar. You’re well-connected in your community and you don’t know anyone who has received fire aid money. What’s your advice for victims watching tonight who lost homes like yours? PASCOE: This needs public attention. People across the country want to help-they ask, Where do we give money? How can we help? This FireAid money isn’t reaching victims; it’s helping nonprofits, many of whose executives earn six-figure salaries. The money isn’t going to the victims.

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