Tidal to Donate $1.5 Million to Black Lives Matter and Other Nonprofit Organizations

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Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Roc Nation

Jay Z's music streaming service Tidal has announced that it will donate $1.5 million to Black Lives Matter and other nonprofit social justice organizations, according to Mic. The donation is in association with Jay Z's Roc Nation entertainment company. The money was raised at Tidal's October benefit concert in Brooklyn, Tidal X: 10/20. The announcement comes on the day that Trayvon Martin would have turned 21 years old.

Tidal's donation will be administered through New World Foundation later this month. In addition to Black Lives Matter, Tidal is donating to national organizations Opportunity Agenda, Hands Up United, and Sankofa.Org, as well as local organizing groups in California: Community Coalition; Florida: Dream Defenders; Illinois: Black Youth Project; Maryland: Baltimore Justice Fund; Empowerment Development Corporation; New York: Million Hoodies; NY Justice League, and Ohio: Ohio Students Association/Organizing Collaborative.

Tidal will also donate to the Trayvon Martin Foundation, the Michael O.D. Brown We Love Ours Sons and Daughters Foundation, and the Oscar Grant Foundation.

Dania Diaz, managing director of philanthropy at Roc Nation, told Mic:

The process of acquiring recommendations [for nonprofits] was collaborative and inspired by the message that speaks to racial and social inequities and injustice in our society. Each year we will support a different initiative. Our ideology is to have a hifi level of consciousness in everything we do.

Tidal said in a statement:

Tidal X: 1020 was the first of a series of philanthropic music events curated by Tidal in order to raise awareness, funds, conscious engagement and dynamic action for transformative and positive social impact. All of the organizations selected work to uphold the purpose of the Tidal X: 1020 Fund, which is to support nonprofit organizations dedicated to advancing positive community relations and effecting systemic change for the development and sustainability of just societies.

In addition to the donation, Tidal has announced Tidal College's Social Wave for Change, Rap-Up points out. It's a contest that encourages college students to "impact [their] community through service" by posting photos of community service acts to Instagram or Facebook. Judges will select a group of finalists, and the public will vote on a winner. The winner will then receive a Lil Wayne concert at their school.

Watch Usher's police brutality-addressing "Chains" video, launched with Tidal:

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