Organizers of the Women's March on Portland are embroiled in a dispute about donations raised in support of the event.

The January march, which drew estimates of between 70,000 and 100,000 people to downtown, was, by most measures, a success. But in the weeks since, activists who hastily joined forces to organize the event have begun to fight publicly over what happened to donations that could total thousands of dollars.

It's unclear precisely how much money the event took in through T-shirt sales and other donations. But at least one organizer says the money hasn't been accounted for. The Oregon Department of Justice confirmed this week that it is looking into a complaint but stopped short of saying it has launched an investigation.

This isn't the first rift among organizers. Weeks before the march, the original leaders were replaced after accusations of racism and transphobia led the NAACP to pull its support for the event.

Lead organizer Margaret Jacobsen and PDX Trans Pride's Rebekah Katherine Brewis, as well as a group including Kat Lattimer, Nora Colie and Erica Fuller, took the reins.

According to a Facebook post from Jacobsen, Brewis agreed to have PDX Trans Pride act as "fiscal sponsor" of the event so the Women's March could collect donations and raise money to pay for costs associated with the march. But there was no written contract laying out how the fiscal sponsorship would work, according to Jacobsen.

Now, Jacobsen wrote in the Facebook post, PDX Trans Pride is refusing to account for the funds. Jacobsen said the group is keeping money the Women's March had hoped to use for future Women's March-related activities. Jacobsen also contends that PDX Trans Pride is only one person: Brewis.

And, due to complicated tax designations for nonprofits, it appears many of the Women's March donations may not have been tax-deductible after all.

In a phone message left with The Oregonian/OregonLive, Brewis said, "The allegations are absolutely unfounded."

The fight went public last week when the post from Jacobsen began circulating among Portland activists on Facebook. In it, Jacobsen alleged that PDX Trans Pride was holding at least $22,000 raised via T-shirt sales.

"I was one of the lead organizers for the Women's March on Washington: Portland," Jacobsen wrote in the post. "We sought a fiscal sponsor for the event. Rebekah Brewis, the Executive Director of Portland Trans Pride ('PTP'), agreed to have PTP serve as the fiscal sponsor."

Jim White, executive director of the Nonprofit Association of Oregon, said Friday that fiscal sponsorship is a relationship between two organizations, where one nonprofit with the ability to collect tax deductible donations extends that fundraising ability to a nonprofit that does not have the same designated status.



The organization that can raise money is then legally responsible for accounting for the donations on behalf of the other organization. The group acting as a fiscal sponsor generally charges a fee for doing its work.

"There usually is some kind of agreement around a little bit of cost recovery," White said. "You absolutely should have a written agreement."

But no such agreement existed for the march, Jacobsen acknowledges.

"We did not have a written agreement with PTP, but we expected it would receive some portion of the funds raised for acting as our sponsor," Jacobsen wrote. "People who advanced funds for expenses for the event were to be reimbursed. If there were additional funds left over we hoped to apply those to other events down the road."

Jacobsen said via the Facebook post that the organizers don't know exactly how much money in the PDX Trans Pride PayPal account was earmarked for the Women's March.

Jacobsen declined to comment further when contacted by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Brewis hasn't responded to The Oregonian/OregonLive's request for comment about how much money was collected through the account and what was spent. But there are some indications.

T-shirts for the march were sold through a separate website, Bonfire. According to the site, $5 from every shirt was supposed to go to the march organizers. Bonfire has sold 3,559 shirts. At $5 per shirt that would equal $17,795.

Facebook posts, and an FAQ from the Women's March asking for direct donations had linked to a now-closed PDX Trans Pride PayPal account. An additional $1,630 was raised on a GoFundMe page to pay for ambulances and a defibrillator.

"We do not know how much was raised from direct donations because we do not have access to those records," Jacobsen wrote in the Facebook post.

There were some expenses associated with the march. PDX Trans Pride paid $4,901 for a one-day permit for the event, according to Cary Coker of Portland Parks and Recreation. Planned Parenthood covered the cost of 65 portable toilets at $2,337.

There's another wrinkle. PDX Trans Pride is not itself a 501c3 and is fiscally sponsored by Media Alliance, according to that group's executive director Tracy Rosenberg.

Rosenberg said Tuesday that Brewis approached her California-based organization in late December about a fiscal sponsorship arrangement.

"We said OK," Rosenberg said over the phone Tuesday. "They were sort of in a rush."

Rosenberg said Media Alliance offered what it frequently offers in terms of fiscal sponsorship: the ability to collect tax-deductible donations through a PayPal account. Media Alliance also covered the liability insurance for the march, according to Portland Parks and Recreation.

Here's where it gets complicated. The link for Women's March donations went to a PDX Trans Pride PayPal account that was not associated with Media Alliance. The donation link had been shared on Facebook by both the Women's March and PDX Trans Pride. It was also included in a Women's March FAQ.

The link from the PDX Trans Pride website to the PayPal account used for the Women's March now leads to a notice that says it is currently unable to receive money.

After Jacobsen's post last week, PDX Trans Pride fired back on Facebook with its own post, accusing Women's March organizers of "transphobia ... through their recently published false narrative about our organization and it's [sic] leaders."

PDX Trans Pride wrote on Facebook that it "fully permitted, insured, and fiscally sponsored" the January march.

In a phone message Saturday, Brewis said that other Portland leaders are "jealous of the success of the event," adding that the march "was controlled and led by our organization."

"We have an active legal investigation into certain matters" around the Women's March, she added, referencing "transphobic events" and "interpersonal violence."

Portland police say they are not involved. The state Justice Department said it is looking into one complaint related to funding the march.

Another Portland trans organization, Greater Portland Trans Unity, meanwhile, distanced itself from Brewis.

"Ms. Brewis has a long history of contentious and harmful interactions with individuals and organizations in our communities," wrote Greater Portland Trans Unity on Facebook. "As connected individuals and organizational leaders, we have for several years held a quiet consensus that PDX Trans Pride, represented by Ms. Brewis, is not a safe advocate or representative of our communities."

In 2000, Brewis, then known as Jorey Brewis, was sentenced to 70 months in prison for robbery in Ashland. A Statesman Journal article from 2011 detailed complaints that led Brewis to unsuccessfully sue the state. Brewis, who was transferred to the Oregon State Hospital after getting caught with a razor, unsuccessfully sued the state twice, according to Willamette Week.

Brewis posted on Facebook last week that she was at the Canada-U.S. border and was claiming "refugee status." In the post, which included pictures of her at the border patrol gate, Brewis wrote, "I have surrendered my citizenship." In a follow-up post, Brewis wrote, "Okay, just spoke with the Border agent at length, actually I am returning back tonight then leaving back to Canada."

"I need to get my cat and a few things," she added.

Those posts have since been deleted.

Brewis and Jacobsen have not responded to follow-up calls, emails or messages from The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Rosenberg, of the Media Alliance, said that it will refund any donations made through its PayPal account if requested.

PayPal said it can't help people concerned about what happened to donations through the PDX Trans Pride account. Ashley Lowes, a spokesperson for PayPal, said via email that the company has looked into the issue, and anyone with questions about their donations "will need to contest these transactions with their credit card company or financial institution." Due to company policy, PayPal will not disclose how much money PDX Trans Pride raised.

-- Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052

lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker