Two days after the Key Bridge fell, its twisted wreckage still draped across the cargo ship Dali, the Baltimore Community Foundation launched a major fundraising campaign to, among other causes, help the survivors and families of the six construction workers who died in the collapse.

• UPDATE: Foundation CEO on Key Bridge fund backlash: ‘This issue now has my full attention.’

Named after a turn of phrase from Gov. Wes Moore, the Maryland Tough, Baltimore Strong Key Bridge Fund drew wide support. Billed as the preeminent relief fund, donations came flooding in from local businesses, nonprofits, churches, philanthropists and Baltimore’s sports teams.

A year later, the Baltimore Community Foundation acknowledged that it awarded none of the $16 million it raised to those survivors or families, and instead directed it to port workers, a human services center in Dundalk and a forthcoming museum exhibit about the catastrophe, among other things. A spokesperson said the foundation decided to change its areas of focus after learning the mayor’s office had launched a separate fund, through the Baltimore Civic Fund, solely for the benefit of the two survivors and families of the deceased.

But in the days, weeks and months after the bridge fell, the foundation mentioned support for the victims prominently on its website and in other communications.

“BCF’s focus will be on addressing residual and long-lasting effects for children of the deceased and survivors,” a community foundation fundraising email sent a week after the disaster read.

The hallmark gift to the relief fund, a $10 million donation from the owners of the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, was done with the understanding, at least publicly, that some of it would go to help the victims’ families.

“Our heartfelt condolences are with the victims of this tragedy and their families,” Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti said in an April 5, 2024, statement announcing his team’s gift. At that point, three of the construction workers’ bodies were still lost in the wreckage.

The Baltimore Community Foundation spokesperson said the organization pivoted to other areas of support not long after the Orioles and Ravens’ gift. An April 19, 2024, email to donors, after $15 million had already been secured, did not mention the victims’ families. The areas of focus mentioned in that email were port workers and their families, first responders and their families, and “affected communities.”

The shift was made out of respect to Mayor Brandon Scott’s office, said Becky Eisen, associate vice president of marketing and public affairs for the Baltimore Community Foundation.

“When it was very clear they were handling this and their sole responsibility was for the families and for taking care of the families, we were like, ’Great we will not try to do things for the families’ because we are also respecting them for taking the lead,‘” Eisen said.

Scott’s office raised just north of $1.1 million, with donations from people around the world and local groups embedded in the region’s immigrant community. Although far less than the $16 million the Baltimore Community Foundation raised, the city’s nonprofit money has been used to pay for rent, food, utilities, child care, and funeral costs for the families and survivors, according to a report from the civic fund.

Eisen said the mayor’s office did not make a grant request, but had they done so, the Baltimore Community Foundation would have “entertained that proposal.”

The Baltimore Community Foundation stated on its website and in fundraising emails that it would be working with the mayor’s office to “strengthen the immediate relief provided” to the families.

A Scott administration official, who requested anonymity to speak freely, said the foundation did not tell the city it needed to apply for a grant despite repeated conversations about how the mayor’s office was helping the victims’ families.

In a May 20 message posted to the foundation’s website, Vice President of Philanthropy Ashley Mancinelli wrote: “Whatever the needs, BCF will respond,” in apparent reference to the six families.

The webpage for making donations to the Maryland Tough, Baltimore Strong fund also mentioned the victims’ families through the summer. “BCF’s focus will be on addressing residual and long-lasting effects for children of the deceased and survivors,” the section read.

The webpage was updated, sometime in September or August, and any reference to the families was removed.

Eisen acknowledged the “murky” nature of the foundation’s initial messaging in the fundraising effort, but said in an interview that the organization had acted with integrity.

“We have always acted with full transparency about what we are using this money for, what our funding priorities are, all of that, throughout this process,” Eisen said.

Some donors, however, were surprised to learn that no portion of their gifts reached the victims’ families. Jennifer Glose, a Towson woman who gave $10,000, said she understood her donation would be used for a wide array of relief, including the victims.

“That makes my stomach upset actually,” Glose said when informed the families had not received any of the money.

Asked about the funds not reaching the victims’ families, a spokesperson for the Ravens and Bisciotti said they were “unable to comment.” The Orioles and team owner David Rubenstein declined to comment.

The Baltimore Community Foundation is a donor to The Baltimore Banner and the foundation’s CEO, Shanaysha M. Sauls, sits on The Banner’s board of directors.

Two weeks ago, at an event commemorating the one-year anniversary of the bridge disaster, a special secretary for the governor said the city-managed funds would run out by year’s end. The families are suing the owners of the ship that hit the bridge, but any potential settlement or damages are likely years away. Efforts to reach the victims’ families for this article were unsuccessful.

One of the widows of the construction workers said last year that money from the mayor’s office had been a lifeline as she and her family figure out how to navigate life without a husband and father.

“They didn’t just help me pay a bill,” the woman said. “They made it so that I could have time to be with my kids and take care of them.”

Although the Baltimore Community Foundation said on its website that it was coordinating with the mayor’s fund to help meet the families’ needs, it provided no financial support.

That came as a shock to Odette Ramos, the City Council’s only Latine member. Ramos, like many, presumed the Maryland Tough, Baltimore Strong fund would be used in part to help the victims.

“Whoever made this decision to not assist the families, especially after fundraising with that purpose, should be ashamed of themselves,” Ramos said. She demanded that the community foundation allocate “significant dollars” to the families over the next two years.

“If there is an opportunity to reopen the process and BCF wants to get additional money in the hands of families, we are willing to help facilitate that,” the Scott administration official said. “Our focus is on the families and how we can most effectively help them moving forward.”

It seems any discussion about that is a moot point, however, because all the Maryland Tough, Baltimore Strong Key Bridge Fund money has been allocated.

“I think this is an unfortunate timing issue because we have committed all the money,” Eisen said.

Not all of the awards have been announced — Eisen said the foundation would not publish a grant recipient’s name until after all the paperwork had been formalized — but the almost $8 million in funds already sent out correspond to other relief efforts.

Of the grant recipients so far, the three largest the Baltimore Community Foundation awarded are: $4.4 million in cash assistance to port workers; $1 million to Associated Catholic Charities to establish a human services center in Dundalk; and $570,000 to the Baltimore Museum of Industry for an exhibit memorializing the bridge collapse.

Banner reporters Hallie Miller and Danny Zawodny contributed to this article.