CV NEWS FEED // A prominent pro-LGBT nonprofit has covered various “lavish” expenses for its CEO, including first-class flights, a home office remodel, and a skiing resort trip at Davos, in Switzerland, before she went to the World Economic Forum, according to The New York Times.
Internal documents from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) show that GLAAD CEO Sarah Kate Ellis “may have violated the organization’s own policies as well as Internal Revenue Service rules” in her use of the organization’s funds, The Times reported.
Established in 1985, GLAAD was founded “to combat homophobic news coverage of AIDS,” according to the report, but it “gradually expanded its mission to fight for ‘fair, accurate and inclusive’ representation in the media.”
According to The Times, among the expenses for Ellis was a more than $15,000 trip to Davos and a $18,000 home office remodel that included installing a chandelier.
Ellis’s pay package is also much higher than that of CEOs at comparable nonprofits, with “the potential to stretch into the high six or low seven figure,” according to The Times.
The Times elaborated that while these luxuries and paychecks may be standard for a CEO of a for-profit company, “legal experts said they were inappropriate for a nonprofit organization with about 60 employees,” and since the organization is exempt from federal and state taxes, it “must ensure that executive pay is reasonable and aligned with the charity’s mission and the intent of donors.”
Lawyer Michael West, an advisor to the New York Council of Nonprofits, said that the spending could be an “abusive use of charitable funds that would be surprising and insulting to a lot of their donors.”
The Times also reported that GLAAD employees were upset over the way their executive was spending the nonprofit’s money. One employee “who expensed a cup of coffee was chastised for taking money away from the L.G.T.B.Q. cause,” according to a former GLAAD employee who spoke with The Times.
GLAAD’s spokesperson, Richard Ferraro, told The Times that Ellis’s travel expenses were in line with the organization’s policies and that the organization had already had lawyers assure them they were complying with IRS regulations. He also said GLAAD paid for the skiing trip at Davos “due to an administrative oversight,” and Ellis later reimbursed them.
The Times also reported that Ferraro denied any knowledge of the coffee incident and “provided a letter that four longtime GLAAD employees wrote to The Times that voiced support for Ms. Ellis taking advantage of ‘services to make that frequent travel convenient, efficient and safe.’”
Ellis herself said: “I take my role as GLAAD’s financial steward incredibly seriously, and we’ll continue updating our procedures to keep pace with the organization’s rapid growth.”
