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Ashley Banjo has become of the nation's favourite faces on TV since first appearing on our screens back in 2007.

Rising to fame as the leader of dance troupe Diversity and winning the third series of Britain's Got Talent, Ashley has gone on to forge a career for himself as talent show judge and popular presenter.

In addition for standing in for Simon Cowell as a judge during the live-shows for Britain's Got Talent in 2020, the street dancer and choreographer has enjoyed stints on shows like Dancing On Ice, the Sky1 talent show Got to Dance and was one of the co-presenters of the Saturday night BBC game show Can't Touch This.

Away from his thriving career Ashley is a doting father to two children from his romance with long-time love Francesca Abbott, but the former couple stunned the showbiz world when they announced their split at the end of last year.

Ashley and Francesca, who is a member of another dance troupe called Out of the Shadows, announced their engagement and tied the knot the following year, going on to welcome kids Rose (born 2019) and Micah (born 2020) into their family.

But the pair, who met and fell in love as teenagers, shocked fans when they announced the end of their marriage with a moving statement shared publicly in December 2022.

The statement read: "Nearly 18 months ago, we took the difficult decision to separate. After being together for over 16 years, since we were teenagers, this is not a decision that has been taken lightly.

"It has not been easy and the processing of the situation has not been fast by any means. But we feel that as we approach the new year it is time to share the news with others."

The two dancers continued to state how their main focus was on their "beautiful children", three-year-old Rose and two-year-old Micah, adding that they want to ensure they can "continue as a loving family and give the very best of ourselves as parents".

"Raising Rose and Micah in a healthy happy environment is the most important thing to both of us," the statement continued, before concluding by saying they wouldn't be offering any further comment.

The former couple have seemingly remained on good terms despite going their separate ways, but that didn't stop a online row erupting earlier this month as Francesca celebrated her birthday.

As the mum-of-two celebrated her 36th birthday with a sweet selfie at the start of March, sharing a picture of herself wearing a metallic bustier and mini skirt, ex-husband Ashley was one of the first to comment and wish the mother of his children well.

"Happy birthday dude x," the Diversity star quipped in the comments, alongside a hands up and prayer emoji.

As fans lashed out at Ashley over what they perceived to be a very casual message for his former partner, the dad-of-two hit back at critics who were slamming him for referring to Francesca as 'dude'.

He fumed: "For those of you who wish to comment in outrage. This is what we've called each other for over a decade and a half.

"But your input is very much appreciated."

Francesca then penned: "Thanks dude," with a heart Emoji icon, before adding: "Shut down lol hes right thoughwe really have."

In 2021, Ashley revealed he had spoken to people who complained to Ofcom about Diversitys Black Lives Matter performance on Britain's Got Talent the year before.

Diversity performed a powerful routine at the 2020 final of the TV show that propelled them to stardom, which commented on the then-ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests that had been taking place across the world.

Despite many applauding Ashley and his fellow dancers for using their platform to highlight the reality of the world, the performance attracted 24,000 complaints to broadcasting regulator Ofcom.

"The performance had a lot of attention on it. The Bafta was another angle, and this documentary will be another angle," Ashley confessed in 2021 when speaking ahead of the release of his ITV documentary, Ashley Banjo: Britain in Black and White.

"Its not just about me and the group and what happened, its actually looking at it from both angles, so Ive actually been doing interviews with people who complained, people who think opposite to me, and its been really interesting."

When asked by Metro if the interviews had been tough to conduct, the dancer replied: "No, not really. I would say it was interesting, but not difficult.

"Im so set in my opinions but also massively open to new ways of thinking so when people say things to you that you feel are slightly nonsensicalits been interesting."

Addressing the backlash in September 2020, Ashley took to Instagram to share headlines surrounding the row of the 'politicisation' of the show.

He penned: "Art: The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.

"My truth, my platform, my art.

"I've always tried to create not only to entertain but also to inspire... That will never change."

The dancer then went on to quote civil rights icon Martin Luther King and showed his love for his fans.

Ashley's originally broke his silence regarding the Ofcom drama in 2020 with the help of one of his adorable children.

At the height of the drama in September 2020, as the powerful BLM performance was close to becoming the most complained about TV moment of the decade, Ashley ignored critics and took to Instagram to share an adorable snap with his young daughter Rose.

"Just me and Rosie patiently watching as we head for the number 1 spot in other news though, I was out and about today and felt so much love from people," Ashley wrote.

"Never let the minority warp the reality... This country really is Great #Diversity #ofcom."

Ashley previously opened up about life as a father, telling The Sun: "Kids are the best thing that has happened to me in my life. But oh my gosh, I feel like I experience dad guilt 24/7, if I am honest.

"All you want to be is a good dad and its trying to get the right balance that I have probably found most challenging. Trying to make sure my kids feel like I am present, but also trying to provide for them. Its knowing that you have to walk out the door."

Away from dancing and reality TV, Ashley has also conquered the stage thanks to announcing a surprise career move earlier this year.

The multi-talented star is set to make his West End debut as he takes on the role of Tin Man in Andrew Lloyd Webber's new production of The Wizard of Oz.

Announcing the news at the star of February on Instagram, Ashley wrote: "Im honestly so excited about this one

"Bringing my creations into a whole new world, working alongside some of the best on the planet including @jasonmanford as the Cowardly Lion and the absolute legend that is @andrewlloydwebber."

The upcoming production will see comedian Jason Manford play The Cowardly Lion and Gary Wilmot take on the roles of The Wizard and Professor Marvel.

The show will run at the London Palladium from June 23 to September 3, with more casting to be announced at a later date.

Do you have a story to sell? Get in touch with us at webcelebs@mirror.co.uk or call us direct 0207 29 33033.

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Diversity's Ashley Banjo - ex-wife row, cute kids, big career move and THAT Ofcom storm - The Mirror

England women's rugby union team

England flanker replaced her idol in last years World Cup final and has earned a starting place in Six Nations opener against Scotland

Fri 24 Mar 2023 11.30 EDT

When Sadia Kabeya was learning her trade as a No 7, there was one person she wanted to play like and it wasnt Courtney Lawes, or Peter OMahony, or Siya Kolisi. I had no interest in watching mens games, she says, shaking her head. Her inspiration was Marlie Packer, the woman who has been wearing the No 7 jersey for England for nearly a decade.

Last November, for the final half-hour of the World Cup final, Kabeya filled Packers shoes, in only her eighth international appearance. Its a huge validation of the 21-year-olds talent that she will start alongside her in Saturdays Womens Six Nations opener against Scotland playing at No 6 for the first time in her life.

Ive been learning all the lineouts and they said they wanted to have me and Marlie play together so I knew it was something that could potentially happen, says Kabeya, who has played at blindside only a handful times during her single season at Wasps. Itll be like having two sevens on the pitch the big difference is the lineouts. Ive always been a lineout jumper but playing seven you dont usually use those skills!

By Kabeyas own admission, shes someone happy to go with the flow. Im quite a head-down person, she smiles, I just get around the pitch and do my job. It makes her particularly suited to life as a flanker. In that position you can never complain, you can never do too much work.

Her aggressive tackling is another reason: its been turning heads since she made her Premier 15s debut in 2019. She topped the leagues tackle count last year and leads this seasons, and last year she was the Rugby Player Associations player of the year in only her third season.

The responsibility she has been handed in Englands defensive line has taken her aback. I dont think of myself as a leader, so its something I was nervous about. But defence is a big part of my game and the coaches think I have the knowledge to communicate that to the rest of the squad. But then the story of Kabeyas career is packed with people who have appreciated her skills far quicker than she has.

As a south London schoolgirl she followed her older brother into tumbling and gymnastics before swapping to athletics. And if there was ever a ball game going on in the playground, me and my brothers joined it, says Kabeya. Her older brother, now 24, has moved to Canada to compete at the highest level of cheerleading; her younger brother plays flag football because he loves American sports but hates contact. Perhaps having such a hard-tackling sister is the reason why.

Their mother runs marathons and a 10-year-old Kabeya would beg to join her on her practice runs although, she admits, she cant imagine doing the same today. Her first taste of rugby came at Harris City Academy where her PE coaches and early champions were Englands twin forwards Bryony and Poppy Cleall (real rugby nerds, as Kabeya describes them). With their encouragement she soon joined her first club and the age-group pathway.

Even stepping up to top-flight rugby, the relaxed Kabeya was just in it for fun I had no ambitions, I wasnt one of those people who set their sights on playing for England and rejected Bryonys plea to join her at Saracens, because the vibe was too serious. Instead she made three-hour round trips to train and play at Richmond, somewhere I could learn and felt comfortable to make mistakes. Facing women older and bigger than her for the first time was a shock I was definitely achey for the majority of the season but she was surprised to find herself starting every game.

There have been two moves since, to Wasps and then to Loughborough, where she also studies sports science. Moving up rugbys performance ladder has been an education in more ways than one. It has taught her both about herself and the socio-racial stratification of the country she represents. Growing up in Crystal Palace, playing club sport in Croydon, she had been surrounded by people of colour. The rugby heartland of west London was new territory.

I was suddenly meeting different people, and being quite young it was easy to feel I needed to change to fit in, she remembers. Not my physical aspects so much but the music I listened to, the jokes I made. Im quite an expressive sassy person, which is typical for a girl from south London, where youve got to have some street cred growing up. When I moved to Richmond I was quite quiet, trying to tone that down. She would never have thought to play her own music Afro beats, R&B in the changing room.

But when her season at Wasps coincided with both lockdown and the Black Lives Matter protests, the club put on a Zoom call that invited the six black women in the squad to speak about their experiences. It was my first time realising people do want to listen to you. I realised its not about being the same as everyone else, and I really felt Id found my people. That was the first turning point.

Shaunagh Brown, the England and Harlequins prop, offered more support and friendship. When I got my first call-up to play in Englands 2021 autumn internationals against Canada and the US she said dont be afraid, dont quiet your voice, be yourself. Ill be here, and not everyones going to like you but that doesnt matter. Just make sure you dont dim your light.

The two ended up as roommates at the World Cup just a year later, even if Brown did have to move out when Kabeya caught Covid just 10 days before Englands opener against Fiji. I felt like poo so I went to bed, tested and fell asleep before I saw the result. When I woke up at 3am and checked there was the hard line

Kabeya knew that her best chance of a start was in the Fiji game, so it was a rush to get over the illness and then get fit. An exercise bike and dumbbells were delivered to her hotel room, and added motivation came when she saw her name on the team sheet while still isolating. The first 10 minutes against Fiji turned out to be the toughest she had ever experienced on a rugby pitch.

I was like: wow, this is what proper international rugby feels like. After our first or second try I dropped the kick-off. I said to myself, Oh my God Sadia, you need to switch on and get your head in the game. She finished it as player of the match.

Last month, she was named Rising Star at the inaugural Rugby Black List awards an honour she ranks highly for coming from people you relate to, who only want to lift you up. She believes that players have proved themselves more progressive than coaches in that regard: Theres a misconstrued idea within the coaching scene that we want to take any player of colour and chuck them to the top. But she also sees improvements in coaches awareness of issues surrounding race, and a willingness to deal with them. In the past people were often uncomfortable, so things got brushed under the rug.

If she continues her trajectory with England in this tournament, a contract in the summer seems almost inevitable. Until then, her Test match fees have been paying her rent, and her friends refuse to buy her drinks at the bar, joking that shes the richest student they know. And her move to No 6 has already blindsided plenty of onlookers: rugby omens dont come better.

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Sadia Kabeya: I was like: wow, this is what international rugby feels like - The Guardian

After Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, some pundits and news organizations suggested without evidence that "woke" investments contributed to the collapse.

"Silicon Valley Bank "donated $73M to BLM Movement," one March 15 Newsmax headline circulating on social media read.

Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Jesse Watters also made similar claims.

"Silicon Valley Bank brace yourself spent more than $73 million on donations to BLM and related organizations," Carlson said March 14.

The Newsmax article and similar posts were flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

The Newsmax article pointed to a database from the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank. The database tracks pledges and contributions to the "BLM movement and related causes," according to the institute.

In the databases "explanatory notes," the institute said its definition of the "BLM movement" includes organizations such as Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation; Movement for Black Lives; "grassroots" groups; "independent BLM chapters;" the "fiscal sponsors of BLM organizations;" and "BLM partners" such as the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The Claremont Institute defined Black Lives Matter "related causes" as "organizations and initiatives that advance one or more aspects of BLMs agenda." However, Black Lives Matter is not one entity with a set agenda. It is a decentralized international activist movement with no formal hierarchy.

The Claremont Institute and Silicon Valley Bank did not respond to PolitiFacts requests for comment.

An institute spokesperson told MarketWatch that most of Silicon Valley Banks roughly $70.5 million in contributions fell in the "related causes" category. He also said the bank donated to the NAACP and ACLU.

The banks charitable contributions included in Claremonts $70 million-plus total went primarily to groups and initiatives with no clear tie to the Black Lives Matter movement:

A 2021 pledge to "invest more than $50 million" over five years into the banks Access to Innovation program, which works to connect people who are often underrepresented in the "innovation economy" including women, Blacks and Latinos with hiring, mentorship, educational and networking opportunities.

A $20 million donation that the bank said would be used to support COVID-19 relief; a needs-based scholarship program; economic development; and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

A 2-to-1 matching campaign the bank created in 2020 for employees who donated their money or time to social justice organizations.

A $250,000 allocation from the Silicon Valley Bank Foundation to support grants for social justice organizations where bank employees volunteer.

A prominent Black Lives Matter organization, Black Lives Matter Global Foundation Network, told PolitiFact in a statement that the Black Lives Matter movement includes thousands of organizations, so there is no way for the group to say with certainty whether Silicon Valley Bank donated to any one of them. The group also said the banks possible contributions to Black causes are irrelevant to what caused the banks collapse.

Flags fly in Black Lives Matter Plaza as President Joe Biden is sworn in during 59th Presidential Inauguration, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021, in Washington. (AP)

A report in the newsletter Popular Information found an error in the databases calculations: Nearly $3 million in contributions that the database had initially counted occurred in 2019, not 2020. The Claremont Institute, which started tracking this data in 2020, updated the database to reflect that information, meaning the banks total contributions for 2020 were $70.65 million, rather than over $73 million, as the initial claims said.

As of March 22, Newsmax had not corrected its headline to reflect that change.

Our ruling

Facebook posts claimed Silicon Valley Bank "donated $73M to 'BLM Movement.'"

The claim stemmed from a database kept by the Claremont Institute. It showed that since 2020, Silicon Valley Bank had donated or pledged to donate more than $70 million to causes "related" to the Black Lives Matter movement. The institute defined "related causes" as "organizations and initiatives that advance one or more aspects of BLMs agenda."

Black Lives Matter is not one entity with a set agenda; it is a decentralized international activist movement with no formal hierarchy.

A close look at the Claremont list shows that Silicon Valley Banks charitable contributions went primarily to groups and initiatives with no clear association to the Black Lives Matter movement.

We rate this claim False.

RELATED: Was Silicon Valley Bank demise caused by Trump easing regulation, 'woke' efforts, or something else?

Read more from the original source:
Claim that Silicon Valley Bank donated $73 million to Black Lives Matter is unsupported - PolitiFact

After Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, some pundits and news organizations suggestedwithout evidencethat woke investments contributed to the collapse.

Silicon Valley Bank donated $73M to BLM Movement, one March 15 Newsmaxheadlinecirculating on social media read.

Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson andJesse Wattersalso made similar claims.

Silicon Valley Bank brace yourself spent more than $73 million on donations to BLM and related organizations, CarlsonsaidMarch 14.

The Newsmax article and similarpostswere flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about ourpartnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

The Newsmax article pointed to adatabasefrom the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank. The database tracks pledges and contributions to the BLM movement and related causes, according to the institute.

In the databases explanatory notes, the institute said its definition of the BLM movement includes organizations such as Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation; Movement for Black Lives; grassroots groups; independent BLM chapters; the fiscal sponsors of BLM organizations; and BLM partners such as the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The Claremont Institute defined Black Lives Matter related causes as organizations and initiatives that advance one or more aspects of BLMs agenda. However, Black Lives Matter is not one entity with a set agenda. It is a decentralized international activistmovementwith no formal hierarchy.

The Claremont Institute and Silicon Valley Bank did not respond to PolitiFacts requests for comment.

An institute spokespersontold MarketWatchthat most of Silicon Valley Banks roughly $70.5 million in contributions fell in the related causes category. He also said the bank donated to the NAACP and ACLU.

The banks charitable contributions included in Claremonts $70 million-plus total went primarily to groups and initiatives with no clear tie to the Black Lives Matter movement:

A prominent Black Lives Matter organization, Black Lives Matter Global Foundation Network, told PolitiFact in a statement that the Black Lives Matter movement includes thousands of organizations, so there is no way for the group to say with certainty whether Silicon Valley Bank donated to any one of them. The group also said the banks possible contributions to Black causes are irrelevant to what caused the banks collapse.

A report in the newsletterPopular Informationfound an error in the databases calculations: Nearly $3 million in contributions that the database had initially counted occurred in 2019, not 2020. The Claremont Institute, which started tracking this data in 2020, updated the database to reflect that information, meaning the banks total contributions for 2020 were $70.65 million, rather than over $73 million, as the initial claims said.

As of March 22, Newsmax had not corrected its headline to reflect that change.

Facebook posts claimed Silicon Valley Bank donated $73M to BLM Movement.'

The claim stemmed from a database kept by the Claremont Institute. It showed that since 2020, Silicon Valley Bank had donated or pledged to donate more than $70 million to causes related to the Black Lives Matter movement. The institute defined related causes as organizations and initiatives that advance one or more aspects of BLMs agenda.

Black Lives Matter is not one entity with a set agenda; it is a decentralized international activist movement with no formal hierarchy.

A close look at the Claremont list shows that Silicon Valley Banks charitable contributions went primarily to groups and initiatives with no clear association to the Black Lives Matter movement.

We rate this claim False.

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Claims that Silicon Valley Bank donated $73 million to Black Lives ... - Poynter

Quick Take

A database that claims to show corporate contributions to the BLM Movement & Related Causes doesnt show any contributions from Silicon Valley Bank to Black Lives Matter. But some conservative commentators are citing it to falsely claim that the bank gave more than $73 million to the organization.

The failure of Silicon Valley Bank has drawn commentary from across the political spectrum. But some conservatives have highlighted a false claim connecting the bank to Black Lives Matter.

Shortly after federal regulators took control of SVBs assets on March 10, making it the second-largest bank failure since at least 2001, some conservative commentators began claiming that it had donated millions to BLM, the social justice organization that began after the vigilante murder of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2013 and gained widespread attention after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020.

Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson, for example, told his audience on March 14, Silicon Valley Bank brace yourself spent more than $73 million on donations to BLM and related organizations. Wow. And this is not personal funds, apparently these were bank funds. Might be kind of nice to have that money now.

And the conservative website Breitbart ran a headline claiming: Failed Silicon Valley Bank Gave Black Lives Matter over $73 Million.

But thats not true.

Those claims and many others like them are based on an analysis from the conservative Claremont Institute. The organization recently posted a database purporting to show corporate contributions to the BLM Movement & Related Causes.

Despite the name of the project the BLM Funding Database direct donations to BLM groups account for about 2% of the total amount included in the database for all corporations.

So, the vast majority of the funding went toward related causes. In the case of SVB, all of it did. The bank didnt donate anything to BLM, according to the database.

The Claremont Institute defined related causes as organizations and initiatives that advance one or more aspects of BLMs agenda.

In a March 14 opinion piece announcing the database, the institute described BLM as encompassing the full range of leftist causes, saying, its goal is to undermine capitalism, the nation state, and Western civilization.

Thats a broad mandate. After looking into what met that threshold for SVB, we found that the institute had included a need-based scholarship program, a commitment to lend to and support underserved borrowers, and a program to match employees charitable donations.

Its also worth noting that, while its true that the database had originally listed SVB as having donated about $73.5 million to the BLM Movement & Related Causes since 2020, Claremont Institute later amended the entry and removed funds that went toward an internal program within the bank to support diverse, emerging talent and gender parity because the spending predated 2020.

That brought the total to about $70.7 million, which is what well examine below.

SVB announced a plan in 2021 to invest $50 million in its diversity and inclusion programs over the following five years. In its 2021 Corporate Responsibility Report, SVB touted its Access to Innovation program, which had started in 2019 with the aim of increasing opportunities for underrepresented individuals in the innovation economy.

The program focuses on women, Black and Latinx individuals, according to the 2021 report. This includes hiring and mentoring, educational and networking opportunities, expanding access to capital and diversifying the venture capital (VC) ecosystem.

The report then said, We plan to invest $50 million in our programs and partnerships in the next five years to change more than 25,000 lives.

So, more than two thirds of the total amount the Claremont Institute listed was a pledged contribution to the banks effort to diversify the innovation economy through investments to underserved small-business owners and increase training and hiring opportunities for disadvantaged young people, specifically women, Blacks and Hispanics.

And, on top of that, the commitment was to spend $50 million on the program over the course of five years, but the bank folded just two years after making the pledge.

The next largest chunk identified by the Claremont Institute was $20 million, although its description of it is unclear. We asked for details about how they calculated the total, but the institute responded only with a prepared statement and didnt respond to follow-up questions.

Heres what the institute wrote in its explanation included in the database: SVB donated $20M in net fees paid to them by the Small Business Administrations Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to support additional COVID-19 relief; a new $5M, full-ride, needs-based University Scholarship program to students at four universities, including two HBCUs; economic development; and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts through 2022.

Well unpack that.

The Small Business Administration paid processing fees to lenders, like SVB, that provided Paycheck Protection Program loans to businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, a bank received a 5% fee on each loan of up to $350,000.

At the end of 2020, SVB gave $20 million of the amount it had collected in processing fees to its charitable foundation, the Silicon Valley Bank Foundation, for diversity and community causes over the next two years, according to the proxy statement issued by the bank ahead of its 2021 shareholder meeting. The proxy statement was included in Claremonts database.

The SVB Foundations 990 tax form, which is required of all registered nonprofit organizations, shows that the foundation in 2020 did receive a $20 million donation from the bank. But none of the foundations grants that year went to Black Lives Matter. According to the 990 filed for 2020, the foundation gave a total of $132,000 to 10 organizations, including a group supporting wildlife affected by the wildfires in Australia, a hospice care project and various childrens organizations. There are no more recent 990 forms available yet.

Later, in May 2021, SVB announced another initiative funded by fees it collected from the SBA for PPP loans. The bank said in a press release that it would commit $5 million to fund 25 full undergraduate scholarships at four universities Arizona State University, Tulane University, Florida A&M University and Xavier University of Louisiana. The last two, as the Claremont Institute noted, are historically Black universities.

The scholarships were open to anyone who met the financial need and academic performance criteria, according to the press release. SVB also said that it chose those four universities because of their direct and measurable impact to students, the majors and programs that align with SVBs future employment needs and their geographic distribution.

Its possible that the scholarship fund came out of the $20 million given to the SVB Foundation. But we cannot tell without reviewing more recent 990 forms, which are not available.

In any case, SVB did use money that it received for providing PPP loans for charitable causes, but theres no evidence that any of it went to Black Lives Matter.

Finally, the last portion of the total amount listed in the database for SVB was $650,000 in donations from SVB and its employees to various social justice organizations.

According to the Claremont Institutes explanation, SVB also created a 2:1 employee charitable gift matching program for donations supporting justice and equity for Black Americans, which raised nearly $400K. It allocated a further $250K from the SVB Foundation to support grants for social justice organizations including the NAACP, ACLU, and National Urban League. Notably missing from the institutes list is Black Lives Matter.

That breakdown is largely supported by SVBs 2020 Diversity, Equity & Inclusion brochure and its 2021 Corporate Responsibility Report, which the Claremont Institute included as support.

Corporate responsibility reporting is standard business practice in the Banking sector, according to a report from KPMG.

SVBs 2021 Corporate Responsibility Report said, In 2020, our employees rallied behind causes important to them and the communities they serve. Through one of several two-to-one giving opportunities, SVBers donated $401,188, which supplemented SVBs corporate donations to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, American Civil Liberties Union, National Urban League and Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

But neither the institute nor the bank show that any of the money from the matching program went to BLM.

And, regarding the $250,000 spent on supporting social justice organizations, that number comes from the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion brochure, which said, We also allocated $250k from the SVB Foundation to support grants for social justice organizations where SVB employees volunteer. The institute included the brochure in the database for support.

But, similarly, none of the organizations listed by either SVB or the Claremont Institute specify that Black Lives Matter was a recipient.

So, while its possible that some of the employee matching donations may have gone to BLM, none of the evidence provided by the Claremont Institute supports that.

When we reached out to the institute for more details, as we said, we were provided with a statement that said, in part (emphasis theirs), Claremonts BLM Funding Database tracks contributionsand pledgesmade to the BLM movementand related causes, which we define on our database as organizations and initiatives that advance one or more aspects of BLMs agenda, and which were made in the wake of the BLM riots of 2020.

Even so, its a stretch to include a needs-based college scholarship fund as a donation to the BLM movementand related causes. Similarly, including a pledge to increase economic diversity through a program the bank, itself, initiated also suggests that the threshold for what goes into the database is overly broad.

And, importantly, the database shows no contributions from SVB went to BLM.

So its just plain false to claim, as Breitbart did, that the total amount shown in the database more than $70 million represented how much SVB Gave Black Lives Matter.

Editors note:FactCheck.orgis one of several organizationsworking with Facebookto debunk misinformation shared on social media. Our previous stories can be foundhere. Facebook hasno controlover our editorial content.

Farley, Robert. What to Know About Trump-Era Bank Deregulation and Bank Failures. FactCheck.org. 16 Mar 2023.

Americans Deserve To Know Who Funded BLM Riots. Newsweek. 14 Mar 2023.

Center for the American Way of Life. Claremont Institute. BLM Funding Database. Accessed 15 Mar 2023.

Center for the American Way of Life. Claremont Institute. BLM Funding Database. Accessed 16 Mar 2023.

Silicon Valley Bank. Corporate Responsibility Report 2021. 2021.

Silicon Valley Bank. Press release. Silicon Valley Bank Introduces Access to Innovation to Increase Opportunities for Underrepresented People in the Innovation Economy. 1 Oct 2019.

Claremont Institute. Email response to FactCheck.org. 16 Mar 2023.

U.S. Department of the Treasury. Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Information Sheet Lenders. Accessed 16 Mar 2023.

Silicon Valley Bank. 2021 Proxy Statement. 4 Mar 2021.

Silicon Valley Bank Foundation. 990 2020. 8 Nov 2021.

Silicon Valley Bank. Press release. Silicon Valley Bank Expands COVID-19 Response & Community Support. 27 Apr 2020.

Silicon Valley Bank. Press release. SVB Financial Group Announces Full-Ride Undergraduate University Scholarship Program. 12 May 2021.

Silicon Valley Bank. Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Aug 2020.

Silicon Valley Bank. Corporate Responsibility Report 2021. 2021.

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Diversity Programs Supported by SVB Wrongly Labeled as ... - FactCheck.org