ORLANDO, Fla. — The onePULSE Foundation has submitted their final documents to the IRS, giving a glimpse into how the nonprofit crumbled after raising more than $20 million in its seven-year history.
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The nonprofit dissolved last December, never achieving its final goal of building a memorial to honor the 49 lives lost in the PULSE shooting massacre.
The documents, called form 990s, are road map, showing how much money was coming into the organization and how much was leaving.
These documents may very well be the last public record we will get on the onePULSE Foundation.
In 2023, the organization reported their expenses added up to $6.5 million, even as the nonprofit only brought in $800,000 dollars, leaving a $5 million net loss.
Former onePULSE executives say, factored into that, is the loss of the proposed museum property that was originally purchased for $3.5 million dollars. It also includes donations and grants returned to the state and OneBlood.
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“It’s heartbreaking. It’s definitely heartbreaking, and it makes me really upset,” Torres said. “They were operating at a deficit for years.”
9 Investigates found in 2020, 2022 and 2023, the Foundation reported it ended the year on a deficit.
Survivors like Darelis Torres are raising concerns on why the Foundation, even in the beginning, was operating with such a large goal, a memorial and museum that’s been described as extravagant.
Records show donations dwindling in the foundation’s final two years just as drama unfolded between onePULSE founder and nightclub owner Barbara Poma and the nonprofit.
Poma sold the nightclub property to the City of Orlando in October 2023.
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It was the site where the memorial was supposed to be.
The Foundation wrote, “Without ownership of the sacred space, the foundation could not complete the core of its mission and lost the basis of requesting public support. Unfortunately, the best intensions are not enough.”
Torres says she feels like OnePULSE Foundation “exploited” survivors and victims’ families by raising millions but spending money “carelessly,” she said.
Torres and other survivors say the Foundation’s financial goal always seemed out of grasp. She pointed to the high salaries onePULSE paid its executives like Barbara Poma who earned $250,000 in 2022.
“When you compare the numbers from 2017, up till now, well, of course, they’re going to be in a deficit in the last few years. What are you expecting?,” Torres said. “There was just no conservative spending, no actual outlook on how to, you know, move forward with a nonprofit that was meeting or responsible enough to accomplish the goal of having that memorial for the families it already.
Survivors like Torres are still pushing for a forensic audit, saying they want to see how each dollar the foundation raised was spent.
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