GLAAD’S Chief Executive Caught Appropriating Company Money for Personal Use

This is worth a VERY short note, and I’d encourage you to read the article. Basically the head of GLAAD used company money to do the equivalent of buying herself a new wardrobe and a few vacations. But the implications are curious.

A Pattern of Lavish Spending at a Leading L.G.B.T.Q. Nonprofit

This really reminds me of the BLM scandal, when chief executives used donations to buy their own million dollar homes. However, the connection is important because GLAAD is one of the major organizations working on behalf of AIDS activists. Their original inception as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation occurred partly as an effort to reduce stigma against AIDS patients, as early as the 80s.

A few clips from the piece:

When Ms. Ellis traveled for work, there were first-class flights, stays at the Waldorf Astoria and other luxury hotels and expensive car services. Not to mention a Cape Cod summer rental and nearly $20,000 to remodel her home office, which was outfitted with a chandelier, among other accouterments.

These stories are always the same, aren’t they? I love the way a lawyer is quoted as saying “she may have fallen into the trap of excess.”

This is interesting:

By 2013, though, GLAAD’s finances were in shambles. Its assets had dwindled as expenses far outpaced donations, which had declined steeply.

The organization’s future was in jeopardy — GLAAD was in danger of being unable to make payroll — when Ms. Ellis joined in 2014.

[…]

Ms. Ellis made it her mission to elevate GLAAD’s profile and broaden its scope — and in turn to rev up the fund-raising engines that would rescue the group’s finances. Soon she was doing regular TV appearances and gracing the red carpet at awards shows.

The strategy worked. By 2022, GLAAD’s revenue — from donors as well as new programs that she helped create — had quintupled to nearly $19 million.

I’m curious what you think might have happened in about 2013-2015 time frame that might have accounted for this dramatic increase in funding for GLAAD and similar organizations. What happened at that time is highly significant. Let me know your guess in the comments.