The Tacoma Urban League, a Black community advocacy organization, has placed its CEO on paid administrative leave and launched a third-party investigation into an internal complaint, apparently related to a firing, officials say.

Against the backdrop of the recent moves, the organization also faces allegations raised publicly by a former volunteer questioning its spending of taxpayer dollars. The urban league’s CEO, Desireé Wilkins Finch, denies that those claims are connected to her being placed on leave and disputes any alleged wrongdoing.

“The Tacoma Urban League Board of Directors received a formal written complaint regarding internal matters,” Chair Phyllis McElroy said in a statement provided to The News Tribune on Wednesday. “In accordance with our policies and standard nonprofit governance practices, the Board initiated a confidential, independent review and placed the CEO on paid administrative leave while that review is underway.”

McElroy added that the board would not be commenting on the complaint’s specifics or genesis, or “any external speculation,” to protect the investigation’s integrity and respect everyone involved. The nonprofit didn’t answer The News Tribune’s questions seeking to learn dates for the board’s decisions and the subject that prompted them.

In a separate statement announcing the investigation, posted on the Tacoma Urban League’s website since at least mid-November, the board acknowledged it was aware of “recent community discussion and speculation regarding the organization and its leadership.”

“The Board takes any concern related to the integrity of our operations seriously,” the website’s statement said without providing details.

Wilkins Finch was appointed to her role as CEO and president in October 2024 with more than two decades of experience in union organizing and business development. She said in a statement Thursday that she only recently learned why she had been put on leave.

“The past three weeks have been difficult. Until yesterday, I had not been told by our Board or anyone else why I had been placed on paid administrative leave,” Wilkins Finch said. “Yesterday, I was informed by the Board that I was placed on administrative leave in response to an internal dispute related to the termination of a former Tacoma Urban League employee.”

That employee’s termination was handled appropriately, according to Wilkins Finch, who said she looked forward to the investigation affirming as much.

The Tacoma Urban League, founded in 1968 and headquartered at 2550 S. Yakima Ave., is a nonprofit that says it provides services, training and advocacy for the social and economic betterment of people. It offers classes for homeowners and first-time homebuyers, after-school programs for middle-school students and a Black Empowerment Center that caters to businesses and job-seekers, among other services, according to its website.

Its latest publicly available IRS tax form is from 2022 and indicated former CEO and President T’Wina Nobles, now a Washington state senator, made nearly $136,000 that year. The organization reported eight compensated employees, excluding an unpaid board of directors, the form showed.

As a nonprofit, the Tacoma Urban League is a recipient of donor and grant funding, including slightly more than $5 million from the state in Community Reinvestment Program dollars to support businesses between 2023 and 2025, according to the Washington State Department of Commerce.

State program spending questioned

A spotlight was first pointed on the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle — a different affiliate of the National Urban League — in a news story last month that examined how it spent money from the Community Reinvestment Program.

The Community Reinvestment Program was created in 2022 by the Washington state Legislature to address racial, economic and other disparities created by the historic law enforcement of drug possession. CRP dollars provide individual and business support, assisting with homeownership, workforce development, legal aid and more, according to a 2023-25 implementation report by the state Department of Commerce.

Corey Orvold, a Federal Way-based real estate managing broker and ex-Tacoma Urban League volunteer, said in a recent interview she grew curious about the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle’s distribution of those funds after her clients were repeatedly given the runaround as they unsuccessfully sought access to the assistance through the organization.

For Orvold, the question became: “So, who is getting it?” she told The News Tribune.

Scouring through public records and social media, Orvold said she identified and documented close connections, including family ties, between the Seattle nonprofit and recipients of the pass-through funding. On Oct. 27, conservative commentator Brandi Kruse first reported on Orvold’s findings.

The daughter of the Seattle urban league’s director of Financial Empowerment received $100,000 from the organization toward a Tacoma home, according to the report on Kruse’s “unDivided” website. A HUD-certified housing counselor for the nonprofit was given nearly $50,000 to pay off consumer debt, even allegedly after the organization claimed to have run out of debt-relief funds, the story said. Other alleged favoritism and program malfeasance, including using preferred real estate brokers and lenders, were detailed in the report.

In a statement Wednesday, Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle spokesperson Ashley Pugh said the organization was aware of recent media stories.

“We take all concerns about program administration seriously and remain dedicated to maintaining the public’s trust in every aspect of our work,” Pugh said. “The allegations made about our organization contain false and misleading claims. We deny these assertions and stand firmly by our record.”

Scrutiny reaches Tacoma

Orvold said she spoke to Wilkins Finch in April about the purported issues she saw within the Seattle organization. Orvold claimed that Wilkins Finch told her during the conversation, “our hands aren’t clean,” and admitted to distributing CRP funds to friends. Orvold said the statements prompted her to leave her volunteer position in the organization after roughly eight years of assisting people to obtain homeownership and to enter the real estate profession.

“When I resigned, it felt like that (work) was just destroyed,” Orvold said.

Wilkins Finch said Thursday she was “disappointed” that Orvold would choose to mischaracterize their handful of talks that she could recall, which she contended had covered the Tacoma Urban League’s collaborative approach and state-obligated oversight of public funds. She maintained that she was “confident in my intentions, expertise, and efforts to pursue the outcomes and approach” established in the Tacoma Urban League’s state contract.

“If any errors have ever occurred in my work at this organization or any other, my expectation is always that appropriate accountability is enforced to protect the integrity of the work, the responsible allocation of public funds, and the interests of the communities this work is intended to serve,” she said.

Noemi Cagatin-Porter, the founder of CJK Community Homes, had sought some of those public funds for her group’s work.

Cagatin-Porter confirmed Nov. 14 to The News Tribune that she had been told by the Tacoma Urban League that her affordable-housing nonprofit would receive $1.5 million in CRP dollars, but the money never came, and she doesn’t know where it went. She declined to answer additional questions on the advice of her attorney.

Wilkins Finch didn’t address that claim in her response to questions from The News Tribune.

Wilkins Finch’s alleged conversation with Orvold and Cagatin-Porter’s claim were first reported Nov. 10 by The Center Square, a national nonprofit media outlet.

Dana Hill, a Tacoma Urban League spokesperson, provided The Center Square with additional details surrounding Wilkins Finch’s current departure. Hill said a reporter reached out and suggested money was missing from the Tacoma Urban League, and Hill felt compelled to respond, the outlet reported. Hill said Wilkins Finch was subsequently drafting a community message when the board opted to put her on leave, according to the story.

The Center Square also reported Hill noted that the scrutiny on the Tacoma Urban League was rooted in speculation, unlike a news report on the Seattle organization that had offered specific documentation.

“What we are dealing with in this crisis is a rumor that was thrown our way,” Hill had said, according to the outlet.

Andrea McNeely, a lawyer representing Wilkins Finch, said in a statement Thursday that her client has asked the Tacoma Urban League to “remove all public statements implying any wrongdoing.” McNeely didn’t specify what those statements were.

The News Tribune requested an interview with Hill. In response, Hill provided a statement from the board. It echoed much of McElroy’s comments and expressed support for Wilkins Finch.

“During her tenure, President and CEO Desiree Wilkins-Finch has been recognized for her leadership and dedication to the organization’s mission,” the board said. “The Board values her service and the impact of her leadership on the organization’s growth and visibility as this independent review process proceeds.

“In the meantime, the Board is providing organizational oversight to ensure that all programs, partnerships, and services continue without interruption. The Tacoma Urban League remains fully operational and steadfast in advancing its mission to empower this community through economic opportunity, education, and advocacy.”

Orvold said she is certain that the recent actions taken by the Tacoma Urban League’s board were related to CRP funds.

She told The News Tribune that she has reached out to the state Attorney General’s Office, Department of Commerce and other agencies to request they look into the program. The Attorney General’s Office declined to say whether it was investigating, citing its policy of neither confirming nor denying the existence of such probes.

The Department of Commerce was aware of media reports about CRP spending within the Seattle and Tacoma urban leagues, according to agency spokesperson Rachel Havercroft.

“Commerce takes all complaints and allegations of misconduct very seriously,” Havercroft said in a statement on Nov. 17. “We are reviewing program records and will take appropriate action should malfeasance be discovered.”

This story was originally published November 24, 2025 at 5:00 AM.