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Exclusive: NOW meets to elect new leadership - we've got the financial info and membership figures

by: Alegre

Fri Jun 19, 2009 at 13:55:10 PM EDT


(Some friends have sent me financial info that details the plummeting membership of NOW – something that shows a serious failure of the folks running to replace Kim Gandy.  The figures and analysis are posted below the jump.)

NOW kicks off their 2009 conference today in Indianapolis, IN and during this 3-day conference, NOW’s members will elect a new leadership team.  Outgoing president Kim Gandy – who’s headed NOW for the last 8 years – has endorsed a slate of candidates who represent a continuation of the current leadership’s effort to work inside the beltway with few if any challenges to the current administration. 

Now I’ve made no secret of my disappointment with NOW and their failure to speak out loudly and forcefully when the White House lets us down.  From the appointment of an anti-choicer to a top HHS post, to the complete sell-out of poor women when it comes to access to affordable birth control – NOW has failed to lead us in opposing these attacks on our rights at every turn.  The current leadership has gotten too cozy with the White House and their comfort means a less forceful voice in Washington and on our streets.

As NOW prepares to elect new leadership it’s time we ask ourselves a fundamental question about this defender of women’s rights:  what does NOW hope to accomplish in the years ahead, and how will they get that done?   What’s their role in the fight for our rights????  Patricia Ireland is backing the other slate of candidates, and she speaks for thousands of feminists in her recent post at HuffPo…


What Now? Terry O'Neill for NOW President
Only one of the leaders vying to become the new NOW president is running on the promise of restoring NOW's prominence and rebuilding NOW's activism by taking NOW back out into the streets and into the public eye. Terry O'Neill vows to use a broader array of tactics to improve women's lives from lobbying to non-violent civil disobedience, blogging to picketing. O'Neill also has a broader list of targets in her sites: government to be sure, but also Wall Street and Wal-Mart, education and religion, the military and the media... every institution that shapes women's lives, including our roles in our families. …

During the early months of the Obama administration and the new Democratic Congress, NOW's leaders seem to have been relishing their new roles as "friends" of the administration. Certainly, they once again have access to the White House and are invited in for meetings and ceremonies. But how does that access pay off for women? It won't if we don't have an outsider strategy to strengthen the insider role.  …

NOW has always been the one group that women could count on to take action to improve women's lives. NOW has historically been willing to hold friends and foes alike accountable and to keep up the public pressure for women's rights.

Terry O'Neill and her team offer more than hope; they offer a concrete plan to fight at all levels of government but also in the streets to win for women's rights. NOW needs to reinvest in and reinvigorate its grassroots. And Terry O'Neill is the candidate who is willing to dig in and make that happen.

Make the jump to see those figures and Dr. Long’s analysis.  You won’t believe what’s been going on…
Alegre :: Exclusive: NOW meets to elect new leadership - we've got the financial info and membership figures

THE CURENT ORGANIZATION AND OFFICERS

The National Organization for Women, Inc - Status – 501c(4)
Kim Gandy, President
Oldga Vives, Exec. VP
Latifa Lyles, Membership VP
Melody Drnach, Action VP

The National Organization for Women Foundation – Status, - 501c(3)
Kim Gandy, President
Oldga Vives, Exec. VP
Latifa Lyles, Secretary / Treas.
Melody Drnach, Education  VP

The National Organization for Women PAC
Kim Gandy, Chair
Latifa Lyles, Treasurer

The National Organization for Women Equality PAC
Kim Gandy, Chair
Latifa Lyles, Treasurer

Analysis: NOW is a complex multifaceted organization and the officers of NOW hold leadership positions in multiple inter-related organizations.  The new leadership will require extensive organizational and administrative skills and experience, and a clear record of achievement to meet the challenge of the coming years.

BUDGET– NOW INC
Membership Revenue From Dues
2005 - $3,076,461
2006 - $2,744,803
2007 - $2,431,944

Total Revenue
2005 - $4,869,844
2006 - $4,426,365
2007 - $3680,200

Total Expenses
2005 - $5,684,150
2006 - $5,157,765
2007 - $4,057,347

Excess or Deficit
2005 -  -$814,306 
2006 -  -$731,400
2007 -  -$377,147

Analysis:  NOW is a membership organization and exists on revenues provided by membership dues, and currently does not solicit grants from corporations or foundations.  During the two year period from 2005 to 2007, total revenue declined $1,189,644 or almost 40%. For the past three years, NOW’s expenditures have exceeded income, and NOW Inc. has been forced to borrow money from The NOW Foundation to stay solvent.   NOW declines to provide accurate membership figures, however these numbers can be extrapolated by dividing the membership revenue by the average membership fees. During the last election cycle (2005-2009), NOW’s membership declined approximately 10% per year and current membership figures are probably around 60,000.  NOW consistently reports a membership of 500,000 members but if that were accurate membership revenue would be at 17.5 million dollars per year.  The current Membership VP (Latifa Lyles) and her five-member team are directly responsible for a catastrophic 40% decline in membership and corresponding decline in revenues that imperils the continued operation of NOW.


NOW FOUNDATION - FINANCIALS
Total Revenue 
2005 - $1,773,410
2006 - $778,362
2007 - $770,517

Total Expenditures
2005 - $615,907
2006 - $506,194
2007 - $894,645

Analysis: Revenues of NOW Foundation, the tax deductable arm of the organization, have declined over one million dollars (or 57%) in the two year period from 2005 to 2007 mostly as a result of the failure or “Major Gifts” area to secure any major bequests.  Much of the money raised by the NOW Foundation is loaned to NOW Inc., compromising the mission of the Foundation.

NOW PAC - FINANCIALS
Total Receipts 
2006 - $201,720 
2008 - $252,008 
2010 Designated - $5,825

Total Spent 
2006 - $247,518 
2008 - $241,184 
2010 Designated - $18,173

Cash on Hand 
2006 - $46,822 
2008 - $57,646 
2010 Designated - $45,297

Con. to Federal Candidates 
2006 - $93,476 
2008- $50,039 
2010 Designated - $1,000

% to Democrats 
2006 - 100% 
2008 - 100% 
2010 Designated - 100%

% to Pro-Choice Republican Women 
2006 - 0% 
2008 - 0% 
2010 Designated - 0%

Analysis: In 2008 the NOW PAC received $252,000 in contributions.  During this same year, a new PAC which focused on Women’s issues, WOMEN COUNT PAC, received contributions of $443,000.  WOMEN COUNT PAC had no full-time employees yet raised almost twice as much as NOW PAC.  EMILY’S LIST raised over $35 million in 2008.

TOTAL NOW RECEIPTS
NOW INC. 
2005 - $4,869,844 
2006 - $4,426,365 
2007 - $3,680,200 
2008 - N/A

NOW FOUNDATION 
2005 - $1,773,410 
2006 - $778,362 
2007 - $770,517 
2008 - N/A

NOW PAC 
2005 - N/A 
2006 - $201,720 
2007 - N/A 
2008 - $252,008

TOTAL 
2005 - $ 6,643,254 
2006 - $ 5,406,447 
2007 - $ 4,450,717 

Analysis:  NOW receipts declined over 30% in the two year period from 2005 to 2007.

NOW OFFICERS SALARIES + Benefits
Kim Gandy, President 
2005 - $169,041  + $21,802 Total: $190,843 
2006 - $176,009 + $22,252 Total: $198,261 
2007 - $166,984 + $26,323 Total:  $193,207

Olga Vives, Executive VP 
2005 - $139,698 + $12,200  Total: $151,898 
2006 - $151,305 + $12,853  Total:  $164,158 
2007 - $145,116 + $13,920  Total: $159,760

Latifa Lyles, Membership VP 
2005 - $63,416 + $2,026 Partial year  Total: $65,442 
2006 - $151,305 + $6,455  Total: $157,760 
2007 - $145,117 + $22,224  Total: $167,341

Melody Drnach, Action VP 
2005 - $61,708 + $4,160 Partial year  Total: $65,868 
2006 - $151,305 + $11,858  Total: $163,163 
2007 - $145,117 + $19,596  Total: $164,713

Analysis:  First, it is noteworthy that contrary to compensation standards at comparable non-profits, all three of NOW’s Vice-Presidents are paid the same amount regardless of education or experience.   Second, the salaries of NOW’s officers are higher than the salaries of other comparable organizations even though NOW is experiencing serious financial difficulties due to the failure of the membership team to enroll new members.  According to Charity Navigator (www.charitynavigator.org) the average CEO salary of a not-for-profit is 3% of the organization’s total revenue.  Three percent of NOW’s 2007 revenue of $4,450,717 is $133,000.   The salaries of NOW officers are high by any standard.  Hillary Clinton as a United States Senator earned $165,000 in 2006, which was less than the president of NOW.  Eleanor Smeal, President of the FMF, earned $142,000 in 2006, less than any of the NOW officers.

Data collected and analyzed by Lynette Long. This publication was paid for and authorized by Lynette Long, 2017 Q Street NW, Washington, DC 20009.  You can contact Dr. Long at DrLynetteLong@aol.com or call 301-325-6976. 

ME AGAIN… What a mess.  The above numbers tell a might ugly story of where things stand with NOW.  We can – and must do better than this folks. 

If you’re reading this from Indianapolis and have a say in where NOW goes from here, please consider voting for Terry O’Neill and her slate of candidates.   You can find more information on them at their website - Feminist Leadership NOW. 

For sisterhood, action, collaboration and results – it’s time for new leadership. 

 
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Exclusive: NOW meets to elect new leadership - we've got the financial info and membership figures | 16 comments
If we want change we can believe in... (4.00 / 1)
well you know what needs to be done.  Clean house and get back to the grass roots of what NOW's stood for all these years.  No more MS. nice gal - it's time to stand up for women's rights no matter WHO's trying to take us down.

Invest in Women - Change the World
http://twitter.com/alegrescorner
I included NOW donation requests.... (4.00 / 2)
...in my "mail back the envelope with their nickel on it empty and write NObama and PUMA all over the front and back" campaign last year - along with the DNC and all other such junk mail.

It will take an awful lot to make me change my mind.  Sadly.

[ Parent ]
I wonder if it would be more effective (0.00 / 0)
to have different heads at at least a couple of their orgs/PACs?
Too many of the "civil rights" and other lobbying groups . . . (0.00 / 0)
feel as if they have to cut "our" team slack.  
Earlier today, latino groups were told to chill on immigration reform for this congressional term, because they "got" Sotomayor.
Instead, they should all be pushing for all they can get while the stars are aligned - - we won't have control of all levers of federal power like this for another generation.
We need to use it before we lose it!
Wow. Wow. Wow. Thanks for these figures... (0.00 / 0)
Unbelievable that Kim Gandy gets that much money while they don't even pay their interns or give lower ranked employees a decent wage. The drop in membership and finances does not surprise me in the least. I've cut all ties with NOW which is extremely unfortunate since I was an active member since college.

The national headquarters moved into a nicer office several years back but the organization itself is very, very disorganized. Gandy is simply the face and spokesperson of NOW but is not a powerful advocate. Some of the other top officers aren't very powerful either. The interns and low-wage workers do most of the daily grunt work. I'd love to read more of Dr. Long's findings.

Does anyone know what Gandy plans to do next?  

Gandy... (0.00 / 0)
From what I've been hearing, she's looking for a job with the administration.  Explains why she's been so queit where they're concnered.

I give it 2 months at most, and we'll be hearing about her move to gov't work in some form or fashion.

Invest in Women - Change the World
http://twitter.com/alegrescorner

[ Parent ]
Sounds suspiciously like she sold us out.... (0.00 / 0)
....to put herself in a better position for a job with NoBama.

No wonder things have fallen apart.

[ Parent ]
Over the past year - yeah (0.00 / 0)
In all fairness though, she did endorse Hillary pretty early on in the primaries.  But she - and the organization - have done a pretty awful job in standing up to what's been coming out of the WH since January.

If she ends up with a job in the administration, we'll know why.

Invest in Women - Change the World
http://twitter.com/alegrescorner

[ Parent ]
They should be paid by the DNC, Obama not membership (0.00 / 0)
At The Widdershins, Garry had a great comment about the gay rights advocacy groups
"The other thing we must do is abandon existing "advocacy" groups like the HRC. These groups claim to be advocates for us to lobby the government for our rights, but they have become the exact opposite. They are advocating for Obama and the DNC to us, the gay community. If they want to do that, that's fine, but let the Democrats pay for it."

http://thewiddershins.wordpres...
I say it works even better for the women groups like NOW which stood mute all this critical year  
Be Careful what you wish for (0.00 / 0)
Say O'Neill is elected -- how does that give YOU any power over how the money in NOW is spent?  If Gandy can do this so can O'Neill.  In WI, the tax funded University has student orgs including a funded woman's office.  Most all the money over the past 5 years has gone to transsexual conferences and speakers.  This is true of many Universities where Gay issues routinely include bi and transgendered issues in an attempt to be ecumenical which blurs feminist questions of accountability and women's space.  O'Neill has worked on transgender issues as a lawyer.  Knowing this and having been at the Sierra Club when members raising the issue of overpopulation were purged as racists and corporate types seated on the board to hire staff, I have questions.

NOW was always a top down org with hyper educated, knowledgeable and wealthy women at the top, women who could raise money.  That was a good model because working women in the states knew nothing of how power operated.  We  were the soldiers while our leaders educated us.  They did this with memos distributed to local chapters which taught the laws as applied to the state agencies and showed us how a sex discrimination suit at Sears (for O'Neill it was Wal Mart) helped them change the laws at the federal level, how state actions helped create pressure at the fed level.  They taught us CR techniques and flooded us with a first rate education in a wide variety of topics from wage discrimination to rape.  Individual women in the chapters picked the issues they wanted to pursue but the kind of help and impact depended on choices made at the national level and how much money wad paid to hire regional organizers for specific campaigns.

But we workers never had any real say in what actions had priority and got the money.  Even if we raised money to send chapter members to conventions.  It was the middle class women with money who controlled that.  We had no more influence than the Democrat party platform, ratified at the convention, will influence Obama who defends the hijab and veils in the Mideast and says the Freedom of Choice Act is not a priority at this time.

So other than getting us sucked into a kill the leader and things will change political fairy tale, how will the rank and file of NOW control where the money goes under O'Neill any more than they did under Gandy?

Because even if NOW can return to the old educate and train organizers model, I think it does matter that the education is feminist and promotes women's rights and equality.  I would hate to spend a lot of energy on NOW to watch it, as is commonplace for the third wave, put other struggles over women's issues.

O'Neill organized and implemented the direct mail contribution campaign for NOW.  What was she paid in relation to the results?  Are salaries going to be different when she is president?  If not why is it an issue now?  Are regional organizer and state coordinators going to be hired?  Will they have staff?  Or is all the staff money still going to national staff?  Is the leader you favor going to use polls of the membership to determine where the money is spent or will she use the easily manipulated "we will decide at the convention" model to determine priorities?  Or is a wealthy corporate Board which can fly to meetings going to decide priorities?  Because if so, NOW will choose to work on immigration normalization plans using "poor women separated from their children" as a hook because that is what US corporations want to help bust unions.  Or prioritize transgender issues as that will divert from women's issues and scare people away from supporting the ERA.  Intersectionality will control conversation and policy despite the impact on wins and losses.

These are things relevant to the discussion.  I get tired of the endless emphasis on the great leader will save us mantra, believe, which obscures the roots of our organizational problem.  If things go as usual here, I will be attacked rather than what I say discussed.  But I write in the hopes that one person will understand and that usually DOES happen here. That is the goodness of this blog.   So the attacks are not minded. But think about what I say.  Good leaders are valuable but just as important are systems that work to allow the members to decide policy. It is called democracy as opposed to a republic which has failed the working class.

No one's going to attack you (0.00 / 0)
Gandy and her team aren't getting the job done - that much is clear.  A good place to start is to bring in a new team and raise the issues you've mentioned.

Members only have two slates to choose from so if folks want to send a message I think the choice is pretty clear.

Something to build on anyway.

Invest in Women - Change the World
http://twitter.com/alegrescorner

[ Parent ]
NO not the member ship team (0.00 / 0)
"The current Membership VP (Latifa Lyles) and her five-member team are directly responsible for a catastrophic 40% decline in membership and corresponding decline in revenues that imperils the continued operation of NOW."

Does anyone believe this???  IT WAS THE POLICY AND THE LACK OF DIRECT VISIBLE ACTION FOR WOMEN which was responsible. I left when they would not speak out against Sharia for fear of offending the boys on the left.  The team was working for a bad company which no one wanted to be associated.  Blood from a turnip and all that....


Thank You (0.00 / 0)
for your kind words.  It is just I don't hear O'Neil addressing any of these issues now so I doubt she will afterward.  It seems to me NOW is dead and the opportunists are fighting over what is left to be looted.  I see good women being sucked into choosing sides when only appearance is different.

ON THE OTHER HAND,I must admit a womens organization would have to be pretty special for me to care again, would have to see women as a caste globally, fight for the women in Iran as hard as they do for women in the US, be fierce on reproductive choice and economic rights for the working class women.

I want to see that before they ask me for money -- I want to see direct action for women and organizing assistance before I have to do for them.

So Glad (0.00 / 0)
I'm so glad thsi information is out there.  For so long, I have been hoping that Latifa was not going to win because of her poor management--not just in her position as VP of membership, but all over the organization.  She is simply not qualified to lead an organization like NOW.  I don't know why she kept claiming she would fix the website--she and Gandy were part of the problem when it was revamped a couple of years ago.  Gandy wanted it to be text-heavy and informative, and Latifa agreed.

FWIW, in case you're wondering why their salaires went down in 2007, the NOW officers told the staff that they were all taking paycuts to be able to give the staff a cost-of-living increase.  

Congrats, Terry.  I may rejoin!

The truth is out there...finally (0.00 / 0)
I am one of the NOW State Presidents listed on the Endorsements and Testimonials link to Terry O'Neill's slate.  I'm so thrilled they won the election.  As much as it pains me to see these numbers, I'm happy they are finally being disseminated widely to refute Kim Gandy's version of events as reported on Jezebel.com.  If you haven't read the piece, Gandy claims that these financial reports were a campaign smear cooked up by supporters of the O'Neill slate.  It wasn't enough for the Gandy administration to let this happen, to ignore it for years, to shut down constructive debate at the national board meetings: she had to use it to trash the credibility of O'Neill supporters.  It's shameful.

To all who are reading, please know that the grassroots NOW you once cared about is returning under its fresh leadership.  This is a new era in transparency and accountability...and action!

The writings of one radical housewife:
http://www.shannondrury.blogsp...

To anyone who stopped donating to NOW... (0.00 / 0)
if we want to send the old guard another message, now would be a great time to renew your membership if you can afford it!

Invest in Women - Change the World
http://twitter.com/alegrescorner
[ Parent ]
Exclusive: NOW meets to elect new leadership - we've got the financial info and membership figures | 16 comments

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