GLAAD president under fire for excessive spending
GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis is under fire for excessive spending following a report in the New York Times on Thursday, which suggested the first class airfare, hotel accommodations, and car services booked by the organization’s chief executive for business travel far outpace the expenses of leaders of similarly sized nonprofits.
Quoting legal, nonprofit, and ethics experts, the article suggests Ellis and GLAAD’s actions may also have violated IRS rules, including their decision to not declare spending on Ellis’s home office renovation as income on her personal tax forms.
When Ellis joined in 2014, the article notes, GLAAD was in dire financial straits. Elevating the group’s public profile and expanding its purview, Ellis had quintupled its revenue to $19 million by 2022. “Major donors have included media and tech companies such as Netflix, Google, and the Walt Disney Company; philanthropists like Ariadne Getty; and the New York City Council,” the Times wrote. “In 2022, the billionaire MacKenzie Scott donated $10 million.” GLAAD’s chief communications officer, Rich Ferraro, said the board took Ellis’s performance into consideration when deciding her compensation, as under her leadership the advocacy group had started punching above its weight.
In a statement to the Advocate, Ferraro called the article “deeply misleading,” specifically disputing claims about Ellis’s annual compensation and denying that she ever took home “anything near” $1 million per year.
