(The Center Square) – Atlanta’s city government gave a Muslim activist group that raised money for Gaza a $35,000 donation on top of $250,000 in federal grants, a continuing investigation by The Center Square has found.
The donation came from taxpayer funds and was among four payments made to the Chicago-based Inner-City Muslim Action Network and three other nonprofits in 2023. The City Council voted to approve, its resolution saying the money was to “support public safety patrols and other public safety initiatives” by aiding community organizations that hire off-duty police officers, organize neighborhood watches and take other steps to protect residents and businesses.
Each nonprofit signed a contract requiring them to submit detailed annual reports on how they spent the money, a combined $205,000. The Buckhead Public Safety Foundation ($100,000), the MLK-Ashby Merchants Association ($35,000), and the Cascade Business Association ($35,000) received the remainder.
The required spending reports could answer questions of how exactly nongovernmental organizations spent taxpayer money on public safety. But once the checks passed hands, the city apparently never followed up. The Center Square found no evidence the reports were ever collected – or that any city department was responsible for enforcing the requirement.
The missing records came to light through more than a half-dozen requests filed under the Georgia Open Records Act. According to the responses, the reports are not on file with the Mayor’s office, Contract Compliance, Finance, Procurement, the Law department, City Council, or the Atlanta Police Department.
City payment records describe the checks as donations – which a legal expert said raises questions about compliance with the Georgia Constitution’s prohibition against local governments giving away assets without receiving something of value in return.
“The job of enforcing the contract should be the city executives’ who entered into the contract,” said attorney Lester Tate, a former president of the State Bar of Georgia who has litigated cases involving the Gratuities Clause barring unconditional donations. “But it appears that they’re just not doing their job.”
Money for Muslims
The Center Square reported earlier this year how the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) received a quarter-million more dollars from Atlanta in Federal Emergency Management Agency grants to accommodate “unhoused immigrants.”
Those payments went out later, during the final year of the Biden administration, when Washington was still doling out hundreds of millions of dollars to local governments and NGOs to shelter, feed, clothe, transport, and provide other services for migrants pouring through the U.S. border.
At least seven other nonprofits also received FEMA grants from Atlanta for that purpose totaling $5.7 million, city payment records show. The Center Square raised questions about payments to the Muslim group because, at the time, IMAN was itself raising money for a “Benefit Concert for Gaza” held in Chicago, which benefitted another NGO that has been accused by Israeli watchdogs of aiding Hamas.
That other nonprofit, Anera, strongly denies any links to the terrorist organization responsible for the Oct. 7 massacres.
IMAN’s founding Executive Director Rami Nashashibi did not respond to a request for comment, and the organization’s Chicago and Atlanta offices have not responded to multiple calls and emails this year, including a message left in person at the group’s Atlanta branch on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. IMAN also did not respond to specific questions about the $35,000 donation or the missing spending reports.
Written agreements
The city’s 2023 donations came out of general funds, with each recipient organization signing a contract titled a “Donation Agreement.”
On each, a page 2 stipulation required reports to be submitted before the end of each calendar year “detailing the use of all disbursed funds and work performed including but not limited to the allocation of funds, expenditures for programming, and other related costs.” The annual reports were to continue until the money was all spent.
With no evidence those reports were ever filed – and with only one of the four groups willing to speak with The Center Square – it’s difficult to trace how the donations benefitted the city.
Buckhead Public Safety Foundation Executive Director Debra Wathen signed an agreement “to make significant investments in improvements for off duty police patrols in APD Zone 2.” She was the only representative of any of the four nonprofits who would explain what that meant.
Wathen said the foundation combined the city’s $100,000 donation with $400,000 in other fundraising to pay off-duty officers to beef up patrols in the Buckhead section of Atlanta, using donated patrol cars. “The visibility was so much better” and crime went down, she explained.
She said she does not recall submitting any annual spending reports to the city.
“I don’t know if they ever asked for them,” Wathen said.
In the case of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network, the agreement required the group to “carry out all project activities” and “make significant investments in improvements to protect and enhance the quality of life for inner-city communities across the Atlanta area.”
The two other nonprofits that received donations, MLK-Ashby Merchants Association and Cascade Business Association, did not respond to phone or email messages from The Center Square. Representatives of those two groups also signed agreements to use the money for such work as “investments in improvements and employment opportunities for the youth and businesses” or “investments in improvements for minority and small business owners.”
The Georgia Constitution has a Gratuities Clause that bars local governments from giving away money or resources without receiving something of value in return. But Atlanta’s charter – approved by the Georgia General Assembly – allows the City Council to donate tax money “for purely charitable purposes.”
Tate, the former Bar president, said state law supersedes city charters, and that the donation agreements appear to have been drafted to keep the payments legally defensible. Without enforcement of the reporting requirement, he said, that defense weakens.
“I think if the city’s got the contract, and they’re not requiring that, then they’re complicit in just making a donation,” Tate said.
The Center Square found no city officials willing to talk about the donations, who at the city came up with the list of recipients, or the missing spending reports.
The city’s in-house lawyers wouldn’t talk about the Gratuities Clause, with attorney Amber Robinson saying in an email that “the Department of Law cannot provide legal advice to persons or entities outside of City government, or disclose legal advice provided to the City of Atlanta which is protected from disclosure under the Attorney/Client Privilege.”
The office of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens did not respond to The Center Square – his spokesman Michael Smith did not answer email or phone messages from a reporter. As an executive press secretary, Smith’s salary with the city is $155,000, according to 2025 personnel data.
IMAN would get more money
The Center Square also reported this year that the Atlanta mayor’s office wouldn’t release records under the Open Records Act of how the Inner-City Muslim Action Network and other NGOs spent the FEMA grant money, unless the newswire paid production fees ranging from hundreds to more than a thousand dollars. The mayor’s spokesman said all records had to be reviewed to remove any personal or confidential information, which drove up the cost.
The Center Square has since obtained a limited tranche of records on IMAN’s spending, for a price of just $50.
Among the receipts and invoices produced, it showed taxpayers paying for landscaping work, heating and air system repairs, Home Depot purchases, restaurant bills, Instacart orders, gasoline costs, mileage, and Georgia Power bills.
