Two fundraisers donated a total of $6.3M in 2010
The
Washington Independent has scoured through National Organization for Marriage's (NOM) fundraising report to the IRS for 2010. The report shows the anti-gay group's claims to be a grassroots organization are as fictional as are the photos of their events, seen above. Single donations under $5,000 accounted for only 8 percent of the group's, while donors above $5,000 made up more than 78 percent.
Back in July, [NOM Board member Maggie] Gallagher told TAI that NOM has 50,000 donors. But many of NOM’s critics believe the organization is funded by a few wealthy donors.
The accounting would bear that out. Two anonymous donors amount to $6 million of the $9.6 million raised.
Under IRS rules regarding nonprofit entities with 501(c)3 and (c)4 status, all donations above $5,000 must be disclosed. Of the 22 contributions NOM’s (c)4 was obligated to list, all but five were greater than $5,000.
The top five contributions to the National Organization for Marriage, Inc.:
- $3,416,000
- $2,940,000
- $750,000
- $600,000
- $400,000
This fits with a long pattern of shielding donors from public disclosure. And NOM's pleas for secrecy have fallen on deaf ears in federal and state courts across the country, including
Washington,
Rhode Island,
Maine,
Minnesota and others. With regards to political donations, courts have given wide latitude to amounts, but seem short of patience on the issue of secrecy. These battles frequently cost cash-strapped states precious money and resources to enforce laws that have been long on the books, and easily and readily complied with by other political action groups.
NOM is similarly vague with regards to its spending (emphasis mine):
NOM reported spending large chunks of its budget on advertising and promotion ($3 million); employees’ wages, benefits, and taxes ($1.2 million); and on grants and assistance to other organizations ($600,000).
But the largest portion – $4 million, or 38 percent of NOM’s expenditures in fiscal year 2010 – was classified on its federal tax form as “other.”
NOM’s treasurer, Neil Corkery, described its general expenses on the form this way: “The Organization developed and distributed via radio, television, mail, email, telephone, and the world-wide web, a series of advertising and outreach promoting traditional marriage.”
Certainly the LGBT community would like to know who is so generously funding the battle against full equality for all?
But the stakes are greater than just the LGBT community's interest in marriage equality. Who are these super-secret 1 percenters who have such extravagant amounts of cash to pull the strings at NOM? In the 2010 cycle, NOM spent lavishly to flip the Supreme Court of Iowa over to a conservative majority, which will affect far more than just LGBT rights in the future. Small "d" democracy demands National Organization for Marriage cease and desist their end-run around disclosure laws intended to support a transparent electoral process for everyone.
PDFs of NOM's tax forms are available at the Washington Independent site.