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NOM Ran A $1 Million Deficit Last Year, But Maggie Gallagher Still Got A Raise

maggie-gallagherHere’s news to cheer your day: the National Organization for Marriage not only burned a giant pile of cash last year in its unsuccessful attempt to stop marriage equality at the ballot, but it actually incinerated $1 million more than it had.

According to filings NOM made to the IRS, the group and its affiliated (and laughably titled) Education Fund spent more than $16.5 million in 2012. More than $6 million of that went directly to fighting marriage equality in seven states. As a measure of NOM’s success, six of those states now have allow same-sex marriage.

By the end of the year, the Education Fund, which is registered as a nonprofit, had about $1.6 million in the bank. The primary NOM account was $2.7 million in the red. While the filings don’t disclose the names of NOM’s donor, the single largest contributor forked over $2.6 million for the privilege of being on the wrong side of history. Two other donors gave $1.9 million and $1.5 million respectively.

In its unending quest to throw good money after bad, besides wasting money on the state ballot measures NOM contributed to the legal defense of California’s Proposition 8, to the failed effort of Iowa Family Leader president Bob Vander Plaats to remove a pro-marriage judge from the bench, and to the legal group that led the unsuccessful effort to keep gay conversion therapy legal in New Jersey. 

Needless to say, all this failure meant the staff had to get raises. Maggie Gallagher, who according to the filings is now working just five hours a week for NOM, earned $160,000 in 2012, more than she made the previous year as a full-time employee. That works out to about $615 per hour.

We would be happy to drive NOM into the ground for a lot less money than that. In fact, we’ll do it for free. The end result will be the same as if they keep their current direction.

 

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