There simply isn't enough scrutiny of all Gay Inc groups, especially the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. They tend to fly under the radar and escape the attention lavished on the likes of the Human Rights Campaign and the leech-on-the-community known as GLAAD.
Other than organizing their annual Creating Change gathering and a large circuit party in Miami, Florida, and issuing statements on big LGBT news of the day, I don't know what the task force does, what it has accomplished that benefits ordinary gays or why it's needed.
A few days ago, I looked at NGLTF's page for their annual reports and was pleased to see they posted three years' worth of tax filings but they were current only until 2012. I emailed their chief financial officer Brian Johnson and he quickly posted their 2013 IRS 990.
Reading the latest compensation level for executive director Rea Carey, I saw she's joined that exclusive club of Gay Inc leaders making more than a quarter million dollars. She was compensated $260,273 for her services.
I don't consider this group to be genuinely community controlled or driven by grassroots concerns. Look at who pays the bills.
They received $875,000 in 2013 from the Haas Jr Foundation, where former NGLTF executive director Matt Foreman runs the gay program and big money is shoveled at them annually.
Then there's the $800,000 from Ford Foundation in 2011 and 2012, and the Arcus Foundation coughed up $260,000 in 2013.
From the David Bohnett Foundation, the task force has raked in $440,000 since 1992, and the most recent annual report for the Gill Foundation for 2012 shows $210,000 was given to the group and in the previous year they received $200,000 from this foundation.
What average LGBT people get from all this money flowing into NGLTF coffers is the big question. Seems to me as with so many nonprofits, the real goal is to keep themselves in business and the top executives well compensated.
Sorry for the late response to this. Thank you for posting this Michael! NGLTF's descent from one of the most active and important groups into a state of complete uselessness is a huge story that is not being covered. If you look at what the Task Force was doing 20 or even 10 years ago and compare it to today, it is shocking. But it certainly hasn't cut into Rea Carey's salary and generous sabbaticals.
ReplyDeletePlease keep on this story in your delightfully relentless way. NGLTF counts on people overlooking them as all the scrutiny goes toward other groups.