Minnesota activist who organized church storming earned over $1M running nonprofit

FIRST ON FOX: Far-left agitator Nekima Levy Armstrong, who was one of the organizers of the storming of a Minnesota church to protest ICE on Sunday, raked in over $1 million during six years leading a Minneapolis civil rights nonprofit that addresses anti-poverty issues.

Armstrong, whose website identifies her as a civil rights lawyer and “scholar-activist,” helped to organize the storming of Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Sunday. 

In a Facebook post, she claimed that one of the church’s pastors is a leader at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The demonstration is one of many throughout the Twin Cities in protest of the federal government’s surge of immigration enforcement officials to crack down on widespread fraud taking place in the state. 

Armstrong, who is currently the founder and CEO of a cannabis company called Dope Roots, led the nonprofit as executive director for at least six years, from 2019 through 2024, according to tax filings by the Wayfinder Foundation, 

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The 2024 tax filing shows that despite the foundation being dedicated to giving grants to anti-poverty community initiatives, it awarded just $158,811 that year, while Armstrong brought in a salary of $215,726. She also took an additional $40,548 in health benefits, benefit plan contributions and deferred compensation, according to the 2024 filing. 

In 2023, a year that the nonprofit awarded $133,698 in grants, Armstrong brought in a salary of $170,726, plus $44,300 in other “compensation from the organization and related organizations,” according to that year’s filing. 

The year before reflects the same pattern, with Armstrong bringing in $175,000 in compensation, plus an estimated $33,126 in other compensation, while the organization gave just $161,325 in grants, per the 2022 filing.

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According to filings ranging from 2019 to 2024, in six years Armstrong made $936,395 as executive director of the Wayfinder Foundation, plus an additional $201,313 in health benefits and other compensation. Meanwhile, during her time in leadership, the Wayfinder Foundation disbursed approximately $700,052 in grants. 

In the same time span, the foundation reported $5,246,387 in revenue. The group has counted Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation as a donor. According to a 2023 Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation tax filing, the group donated $20,000 to Wayfinder “to conduct activities to educate and support Black communities.”

The Walton Family Foundation, which makes charitable donations on behalf  of the family behind Wal-Mart’s founding, is also a major donor. According to 2018-2024 tax filings by the Walton Family Foundation, it donated $2,340,000 to the Wayfinder Foundation during that time period.

While the nonprofit’s website is now defunct, Fox News Digital reviewed some of its archived pages, and it reveals that in its “signature Community Activist Fellowship (CAF) program, we intentionally invest in Black women and Latina activists, organizers, and change agents who are using their social, political, and financial capital to challenge the status quo and to disrupt business-as-usual within systems that perpetuate oppression.”

“Where others see deficiencies, lack, and want, Wayfinder sees opportunity for little revolutions that place demands on power and change systems for the better,” Armstrong says in a message to potential donors on the defunct website of the Wayfinder Foundation. “We get there by investing directly in the most basic unit of change in a child’s life, their mother.”

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Before the Sunday service disruption, Armstrong caused controversy through her far-left views and activism. She has also been a key organizer of the boycotts against Target over its decision to scale back its diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

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In a September 26 post, Armstrong had high praise for Joanne Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur, who was convicted of the murder of State Trooper Werner Foerster in 1977. Armstrong called her “a brave, wise, powerful, and revolutionary Black woman.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Armstrong and the Wayfinder Foundation for comment but did not immediately receive a response. Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation and Wal-Mart also did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.