Occupy Wall Street has raised more than $500,000 in New York alone to support anti-greed demonstrations and, seven weeks into the movement, protesters are finding that having money creates headaches. The challenges have included how to become a non-profit entity, how to deal with credit card companies withholding donations, choosing a bank that shares the movement’s philosophy and budgeting what to spend cash on. The totals raised — more than $500,000 in New York and around $20,000 in Chicago, Richmond and other cities — have surprised everyone from the protesters to those overseeing their finances. “I figured they would bring in maybe $10,000, maybe $20,000 and it would be no big deal. They were quickly bringing in that much and more a day,” said Chuck Kaufman, the Tucson-based national co-coordinator of Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ), the movement’s fiscal sponsor. “We were surprised and unprepared so it was a scramble to get our end of the system functioning at the volume the money was coming in.”
AFGJ is a non-profit group with roots in Nicaraguan solidarity activism of the 1970s that has since used its tax-exempt status to be a financial umbrella for other groups. Occupy Wall Street pays 7 percent of its takings for AFGJ’s support — book-keeping, tax returns and donation processing. Although the Occupy Wall Street finance committee’s website lists 87 members, Kaufman said the core was about six people, including a lawyer, an accountant and a tattoo artist. They deal with more than 400 donations coming in daily via credit card, averaging less than $50 each. Actually getting those donations has proved hard.
CREDIT CARD WOES: In the early days, before switching providers, the alliance took in some $250,000 in donations. Kaufman said credit card processors have held back $75,000 of that, claiming they expect an abnormally high level of disputes on the charges.
He expects the funds to be released in $25,000 increments every two weeks, once October credit card statements start going out. None of the major credit card networks returned calls for comment on any unusual reserves being taken.
Since the movement switched to the online donation site WePay, another $196,000 has come in, which gets routed like the rest of the money to Occupy Wall Street’s bank account. A survey of Occupy camps across the country reveals each protest is relying on local donations.
