Is NOM bankrupt? Not, of course, morally bankrupt — we know the answer to that question — but financially bankrupt?
The organization’s 2012 tax returns, which after two federal extensions and a visit from Fred Karger‘s Rights Equal Rights group that found they were not available as required by law, finally have become available, and they show disturbing results.
In “National Organization For Marriage Ended 2012 With A $1 Million Deficit,” Buzzfeed’s Chris Geidner is reporting NOM “found itself in the red at the end of a year in which it found itself on the losing end of four major state marriage fights, federal records show.”
According to reports filed with Internal Revenue Service, The National Organization for Marriage, which has been a leader in the fight against same-sex couples’ marriage rights, was more than $2.7 million in the red because of of its political advocacy arm’s spending, while the organization’s educational arm ended fiscal year 2012 with just over $1.6 million in the bank.
Peering into the tax filings, we learn Brian Brian, NOM’s president, was paid $230,000 last year, and NOM co-founder and former Chair, Maggie Gallagher, supposedly still works for NOM — five hours per week — and was compensated for that work a whopping $160,000.
(Note: NOM is actually two organizations, and files two separate tax returns. Oddly, they both list compensation for Brown and Gallagher for the same amounts. We’re assuming this is an accounting detail and that Brown is not actually paid $460,00 and Gallagher is not actually paid $320,000.)
Perhaps this is why NOM’s Ruth Institute is now “independent,” and no longer a part of NOM. Ruth Institute head Jennifer Roback Morse was paid $125,000 to tell lies about gay people.
The filings also show NOM spent over $650,000 for “robocalls,” over $300,000 to OpusFidelis, the social media company for the religious right, and almost a half-million dollars on “legal” expenses.
Geidner adds, “the largest donor to NOM was a person who gave the organization’s political advocacy arm more than $2.6 million. Another donor gave $1.9 million to the political advocacy arm, while a third gave $1.5 million.”
The second largest donor to the organization gave $2 million to the education arm, while another gave a little more than $1 million.
Yesterday, HRC accused NOM of being in “direct violation of federal law” for failure to make its tax returns publicly available.
“NOM’s inability to meet one of the most basic accounting standards for any organization makes you wonder what exactly is going on – are they simply demonstrating the same flagrant disregard they have for numerous state campaign finance laws, or is there something in these documents that reflects even more poorly on the organization and their failed work?†said Fred Sainz, HRC Vice President of Communications. “Brian Brown apparently had enough time on Friday to pull together a fundraising email feigning outrage at the marriage equality victory in Hawaii, but didn’t have time to ensure his organization was running in accordance with the law. NOM should do the right thing and immediately release these financial documents that the public has a right to see.â€
Remember, these are the people accusing the IRS of bad form.
So, is NOM bankrupt? No, and sadly, they’ll probably have major religious groups funneling money to them for years.