NOM's Tax Return: Two Major Anonymous Donors and a Self-Enriching Leadership

The National organization for Marriage ("NOM") continues to falsely describes itself as a broad based grass roots organization.  It's 2011 tax return - conveniently file with the IRS just AFTER the 2012 election - shows that two anonymous donors provided 75% of NOM's income in 2011 which was down overall from the year before.  It also reveals that in 20011 NOM's four salaried employees collectively took home a whopping $625,663.00, with Brian Brown and Maggie Gallagher drawing the largest amounts of money.  Who says that there isn't money to be made peddling hatred and lies.  Brian and Maggie have a gig that pays them more than most working class families can only dream of and yet they act constantly as if they are martyrs.  Paid whores and hat merchants might be a more apt description.  

As for the identities of the mystery donors, I know that many of us suspect that NOM is a Vatican/Catholic bishops front organization so it is an interesting question as to whether or not NOM may be using foreign funds to try to influence elections in America.  Personally, I believe that it is far past time that NOM be forced to reveal its donors.  Obviously, as was the case with Mitt Romney's tax returns, you do not hide things - in this case, the identity of donors - unless you know the blow back from full disclosure would be extremely negative.

Here are highlights from HRC's anaylsis of the NOM tax return:

Washington – The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) saw a steep decline in the amount of money it raised in 2011 – dropping to $6.2 million from the $9.1 million it raised the previous year. Just two donors were responsible for funding 75 percent of the anti-gay group – the organization reported two donations of approximately $2.4 million each. The information is available in NOM’s 2011 990, which NOM made available this evening after HRC requested the documents in-person at their Washington, D.C. office earlier this morning.

“The National Organization for Marriage continues to push the notion that there is some sort of grassroots support for their discriminatory anti-gay agenda,” said HRC Vice President of Communications Fred Sainz. “Last week, that notion was soundly rejected by voters in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington State. Now, NOM’s own financial records are serving as the latest proof that support for LGBT equality is common-sense and mainstream. NOM is nothing more than a conduit channeling the anti-gay agenda of a few secretive, wealthy donors.”

 In addition to illustrating that more than $4.7 million of NOM’s total $6.2 million reported came from just two mysterious mega-donors, the documents also reveal some interesting information about NOM’s closest affiliates. For example, NOM paid $870,000 to CC Advertising – a group HRC recently filed an FCC complaint against for spamming unsuspecting cell phone users with anti-gay, anti-Obama text messages. The organization also paid nearly $375,000 to Frank Schubert, their ad guru who makes his living largely off of promoting anti-LGBT propaganda.

More background on NOM, including information on the organization’s leadership and details on its close financial ties to religious institutions such as the Roman Catholic Church, the Knights of Columbus and the Church of Latter Day Saints, is available via HRC’s NOM Exposed project at www.nomexposed.org.