GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis is under fire after a bombshell New York Times report accused her of lavish spending, including expensing a $22,000 first-class flight to Cannes Lions and using the nonprofit’s funds to renovate her home office.
According to the article, penned by investigative journalist Emily Steel, Ellis’ spending pattern could be in violation of not just the LGBTQ organization’s own policies, but those of the Internal Revenue Service. The Times reported that GLAAD’s internal travel policy recommended that employees fly economy, use public transportation and “be cost conscious.” GLAAD said that, at the advice of lawyers, they did not report Ellis’ home office renovation as income on her tax returns.
After reviewing GLAAD expense reports, employment agreements, tax filings and other paperwork, the Times found that Ellis had expensed first-class flights (including a Delta One trip to Cannes Lions that totaled $21,743), luxury hotels and private car services. The Times alleges that Ellis also worked into her contract $20,000 to remodel her home office and $25,000 to rent a summer home in Provincetown, Mass. This was all in addition to Ellis’ annual pay, which the Times reports totaled between $700,000 to $1.3 million a year when factoring in her base salary and various bonuses.
The Times reported that former GLAAD chief financial officer Emily Plauché had warned Liz Jenkins, the chairwoman of GLAAD’s board of directors, about excessive spending and believed it was not being properly reported to the IRS. An outside law firm looked into it, the Times wrote, and suggested the organization update its travel policy to allow executives to upgrade their flights under special circumstances. Plauché departed GLAAD last summer.
A GLAAD spokesperson, Richard Ferraro, denied many of the Times’ claims in the piece, saying that Ellis’ travel arrangements complied with their updated travel policy. He defended Ellis’ home office renovation and rental of the summer home in Provincetown, asserting that these costs enabled her to advance the mission of GLAAD, and said the org had consulted lawyers and accountants to make sure the IRS’ rules were followed.
In a statement to the Times, Jenkins said she stood behind Ellis “with respect and appreciation for how she and her team are leading the movement at a time when our community is under attack. We have full confidence that they’re doing so with integrity and that they share the board’s commitment to irrefutably strong governance and business practices.”
Ellis added: “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.”
Representatives for GLAAD did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for further comment.