Posted on 02/01/26
| News Source: FOX45
Baltimore, MD - Feb. 1, 2026 - A nonprofit tied to Mayor Brandon Scott’s wife stopped operations after receiving roughly $100,000 in taxpayer money, leaving unanswered questions about whether those funds will be returned.
Hana Scott worked as the director of operations at Bmore Empowered from September 2021 to September 2025, according to her LinkedIn profile. Her employment there ended the same month the organization announced it was undergoing an “organizational pause.”
It is unclear if the nonprofit will resume operations. Bmore Empowered, which has a stated mission of “empowering Black women and girls through mindfulness and entrepreneurship,” is behind on its tax filings and was sued for unpaid rent. It is also listed as “delinquent” on Maryland’s charity database. The nonprofit has not responded to Spotlight on Maryland’s questions.
Bmore Empowered received an influx of taxpayer money after the Scotts went public with their relationship in July 2023.
One day before the Scotts’ relationship announcement, Bmore Empowered was awarded an $80,000 grant from the taxpayer-funded Downtown Partnership of Baltimore at an event attended by the couple, who met in 2022. The Baltimore City government started sending Bmore Empowered taxpayer money in January 2023, totaling $34,950 by 2024. The taxpayer-funded Baltimore Children and Youth Fund (BCYF) sent $62,500 to Bmore Empowered, according to its latest tax form covering July 2023 through June 2024.
Bmore Empowered did not respond to questions about how it plans to utilize its taxpayer money and why it has yet to file a tax form for fiscal year 2024, which was due to the IRS in May 2025.
Attempts to reach Hana Scott for comment were unsuccessful.
The mayor’s office did not respond to the following questions:
Linda Parsons, a professor at the University of Alabama who specializes in nonprofit accounting, described the tie between taxpayer dollars and the mayor’s wife as a “conflict of interest” mired in “giant red flags.”
“It's definitely a conflict of interest. I'm not saying that it's a problem necessarily, or that it's not allowed. However, when there are conflicts of interest, they need to be acknowledged,” Parsons told Spotlight on Maryland. “There was no communication about the conflict. There's been no communication about where the funds are. There's been no communication about what this pause means, or how long it's going to be. There's no [financial] reporting that is required. To me, those are all giant red flags.”
Parsons said it is not common for nonprofits to pause operations. She emphasized that nonprofits that stop operations are required to file a tax form showing how their remaining funds are used, which is often resolved through returned grants or transferring funds to other nonprofits.
“This one is a bit of a head-scratcher,” she told Spotlight on Maryland. “If I had taxpayer dollars and I said, ‘I'm just going to stop what I'm doing,’ then I would expect that the money providers would be asking me questions. I would have to be very clear with them about where their money was and how long I expected to need before I was back fully operating.”
Bmore Empowered received $25,000 from the Baltimore City government in 2023, according to the city’s open checkbook database, which listed the funds as coming from the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). In 2024, Bmore Empowered received $9,950 through the city's YouthWorks program, which is run by the mayor’s office to provide youth and adolescents with paid summer jobs.
The Downtown Partnership grant was part of the Black Owned and Operated Storefront Tenancy (BOOST) Program, with funds allocated to Bmore Empowered to open an office in downtown Baltimore on North Howard Street. However, Bmore Empowered never opened at that office; instead, it moved to office space on North Charles Street, as previously reported by Spotlight on Maryland. The organization was sued in September – the same month it announced a pause in operations – for failing to pay rent on that office, which it has since vacated.
Downtown Partnership was awarded $28 million from the Maryland state government through fiscal years 2024 and 2025.
Scott announced in 2022 that Baltimore City was sending $1.6 million of its federal ARPA funds to Downtown Partnership, with BOOST listed as one of the funded programs.
A spokesman for Downtown Partnership said the BOOST program is funded by private donations and taxpayer dollars — a combination that he said varies depending on the grantee. The spokesman declined to share Downtown Partnership’s contract with Bmore Empowered but said an internal review found its $80,000 in awarded money was spent as intended.
“As a general practice, [Downtown Partnership] does not publicly release detailed expenditure documentation for individual grantees,” a spokesman told Spotlight on Maryland. “In general, we can confirm that Bmore Empowered utilized the grant funding according to the terms and conditions of the program, namely, lease/rent costs, programming development, and related operational costs.”
Parsons said that Downtown Partnership should be able to provide documentation of its taxpayer-funded program.
“When you have government funds, the contract being unavailable is not an option,” she told Spotlight on Maryland. “Once you agree to take government funds, whether from your city or state or federal government, it's your obligation to be as transparent as possible.”
Shelonda Stokes, the president of Downtown Partnership, earns $317,060 in salary, according to the organization’s latest tax form for fiscal year 2024. Stokes has posted several photos and videos on Instagram of her alongside Hana Scott, including attending a Beyonce concert together in July in a group that also included Dawn Moore, Maryland’s first lady and the wife of Gov. Wes Moore.
A spokesman for BCYF, which is more than 99% funded by Baltimore City tax dollars, told Spotlight on Maryland that it sent $62,500 to Bmore Empowered in fiscal year 2024 to operate as the fiscal sponsor for one of its grantees. Fiscal sponsors manage the finances of smaller nonprofits that oftentimes do not have a tax-exempt status.
"BCYF did not choose Bmore Empowered as a fiscal sponsor,” the organization’s spokesman said. “The grantee programs who utilize fiscal sponsorships choose their own fiscal sponsor who then provides financial management and oversight for their grant."
The BCYF spokesman did not respond to questions about whether Bmore Empowered spent all its awarded funding, and whether it continued to receive funding in fiscal years 2025 and 2026.
Parsons expressed concern about how Bmore Empowered’s last filed tax form, from 2023, omits mention of Hana Scott’s position and salary.
“There's not a way for the taxpayers or any overseer to understand what's going on,” Parsons said.