Petrelis Files

Freedom to Marry's Evan Wolfson Smashes Salary Ceiling

(Credit: Aspen Ideas Festival.)

For years, I've pushed the executive director of the gay marriage group Freedom to Marry, Evan Wolfson, pictured, to get with the voluntary transparency agenda and he has steadfastly refused. It's a shame he won't join the likes of G/L Advocates and Defenders, which shares eight years' filing on their site; HRC, GLAAD, National Center for Lesbian Rights, and GMHC all of which post five years' of IRS 990s, and Lambda Legal, three years' worth are shared on its site.

FTM stands alone in that it posts not a single 990 on its financials page. (Ok, not quite true because National Organization for Marriage currently also doesn't post any 990s, like they once did. Isn't weird to think FTM and NOM would share anything in common?)

I obtained Wolfson's 2012 IRS 990s, for FTM's 501(c)3 and 501(c)4 arms, from their chief operating officer Scott Davenport recently and here are the listed names and salaries:

Wolfson:
$269,000

Marc Solomon, national campaign director:
$188,000

Thalia Zapatos, director of public engagement:
$165,000

Davenport:
$162,000

Scott Kongslie; development director
$162,000

Wolfson has smashed the quarter million dollar salary ceiling and this week I asked Davenport to explain why their group keeps their 990s off their site, and he replied:

Our rationale is that Freedom to Marry provides 990s swiftly to anyone who requests them, as required by law and with complete transparency. As a campaign, we like to know who is requesting the data, as permitted by law and reciprocal transparency. 

Sounds like they're nervous over who is requesting public info and may be too invested in keeping fiscal matters private. After reading the New Yorker magazine paywalled profile on DOMA's successful lesbian litigant Edie Windsor, and an alleged quote from Wolfson, I have a better understanding of why his group isn't fully and voluntarily transparent like so many Gay Inc organizations:

Some of [Robbie] Kaplan's movement colleagues felt that Windsor's finances, conversely, were overly sound. "Evan Wolfson would call me and tell me, 'Ooh, don't talk about the money,'" she said. They thought Edie would seem too rich. I mean, they're so condescending in their thinking."

Wolfson said, "Robbie's misremembering." But, he allowed, "There were some people who felt that, while Edie is a wonderful and compelling person, the story of an estate tax bill might not be as compelling as a more relatable injury."

After years of battling with Wolfson to just post FTM's 990s to his site and the explanation from Davenport, yes, I believe Kaplan was accurately remembering what Wolfson said to her.