Singer Mary J. Blige admits that her foundation has suffered from a few missteps.
Previous mismanagement resulted in a $250,000 lawsuit being filed against her Foundation For Advancement of Women Now, but Blige insists that she has a new team in place that will get FFAWN back on track.
TD Bank filed suit over an unpaid loan that was taken out a year ago and was supposed to have been paid back by December.
The bank will get its money, though, according to a statement from Blige, reports E! News.
“FFAWN is not closing down,” Bligesays. “FFAWN is working as quickly as possible with a new team of experts that includes a philanthropic consulting firm, a non-profit law firm, and a forensic accountant. Their goal is to get the Foundation back on track, rectify outstanding issues, and make good on all of FFAWN’s obligations.
“As soon as I was informed of the issues at FFAWN,” Blige continues, “I immediately called my advisors and lawyers to get to the bottom of what was happening. As Founder and CEO of FFAWN, I am ultimately responsible for anything that goes wrong. The problem is that I didn’t have the right people in the right places doing the right things. This should have never been allowed to happen, but it did and now we are fixing it. The good news is that we have been in touch with the MJB Center in Yonkers and the scholarship program, and both are in good shape.”
Blige and record exec Steve Stoute launched FFAWN at New York City’s Roosevelt High School in 2008, and the Mary J. Blige Center for Women opened in Yonkers the following year.
