GLAAD CEO Sarah Ellis is under fire for her eyepopping, lavish spending on the non-profit’s dime, going on half-million dollar trips to the Swiss alps and renovating her home/office with a ridiculously expense chandelier.
The New York Times published an expose on Ellis — who heads up the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation — GLAAD — it’s a scorching tale of alleged financial misdeeds.
Ellis, the paper says, might have violated GLAAD’s policies, along with Internal Revenue Service laws, by living high on the hog and having her organization foot the bill.
One of her most insane expenditures she billed to GLAAD occurred in January 2023 … The Times says Ellis flew first class in Delta’s most expensive seat to Zurich and then jumped into a waiting Mercedes, which chauffeured her to an exclusive cabin in the Swiss Alps. She and her colleagues got to kick back in a 7-bedroom chalet with a price tag of $500,000 a week!
That wasn’t all … The Times says Ellis’s wife and two kids were given free airline tickets to accompany her on trips several times a year. Per The Times, Ellis also received $25,000 as an annual allowance to rent a vacation home with her family in Provincetown, Cape Cod. She also saddled GLAAD with a $15,000 bill for a three-week summer stay at a Provincetown cottage.
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Then there were the renovations at her house in Long Island. Ellis’ contract with GLAAD afforded her $20K to upgrade her home office, while coughing up $18K to repair the top floor. She also allegedly turned in expenses for cotton-ball-colored paint, ivory pillows, a sectional sofa and chandelier.
And there was much much more, but you get the point. The Times was able to uncover all of this evidence after obtaining dozens of GLAAD expense reports, employment agreements, tax filings and other financial documents.
As for her salary … Ellis pulls in more than $440,000 a year, with automatic 5% annual bumps.
The Times cited legal experts who said such costly perks are inappropriate for a nonprofit org like GLAAD with about 60 employees. The issue is that executive pay at nonprofits must be reasonable and aligned with the charity’s mission if it’s going to be exempt from federal and state taxes.
