Tag Archives: 990

Mikey Weinstein Rakes in $700,000 in Donations

Late in 2014 Michael “Mikey” Weinstein filed his required IRS documentation for 2013 — and it revealed he had a banner year. For the first time, his Military Religious Freedom Foundation topped $700,000 in total income.

MRFF Total Revenue: $701,535

For his part, Mikey Weinstein gave himself a nice raise (literally, since he says he votes on his own pay package), for his highest take home pay ever from the “charity” he founded:

Weinstein compensation: $299,634

In other words, 42.7% of every “charitably donated dollar” the MRFF brought in during 2013 went to Mikey Weinstein’s compensation. That’s slightly less than the 46.8% he took the year prior.

To be “fair,” Weinstein also claimed an increase in work hours, saying he puts in 105 hours a week.  That’s up from 80 hours a week the year prior, and works out to 15 hours a day, 7 days a week, every single week.  That’s what Weinstein filed; given the low output of the MRFF, it is difficult to say what he actually does for 105 hours a week.  (It is also unclear whether Weinstein dissolved his other company, MIBON Consulting, which presumably also takes up a substantial amount of his time to bring in more than $100,000 a year.)

The general breakdown of funding below his paycheck is Read more

Report: Mikey Weinstein “Cashing in” using Charity

The Military Times family of papers, which has generally been friendly to Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s campaign against military religious freedom, published an “exclusive” essentially accusing Weinstein of handsomely profiting from the charitable donations he solicits for his MRFF.

Interestingly, the article makes the same points that have been made here for years. In fact, the headline uses the same language that this site used in 2009 (“cashing in”) — language over which Weinstein had threatened to sue because he considered such a characterization to be “defamation.”

The article also notes, as this site has in the past:  Read more

Donations to Mikey Weinstein Fall, but His Paycheck Rises

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein recently promised contributors to his “charity” their donations would “represent a…monetary impact” to his cause:

You can rest assured that your generous donation to MRFF would represent a dollar for dollar monetary impact on this Civil Rights/National Security issue that is second to none.

Believe it or not, the awkwardly named Military Religious Freedom Foundation, founded and run by Weinstein (also the sole employee), is a 501(c)3 charity. The advantage of such a designation to Weinstein is he can solicit donations with the same tax benefits to the donors as if they’d given to their local church. The disadvantage (to Weinstein) is he is required to publicize financial documents, which can be quite revealing.

Despite having issues in the past with the public seeing his records, Weinstein has continued to pay himself essentially the same amount each year.  Mikey Weinstein has grossed more than $1.4 million in direct personal compensation (from the donations to his charity) to date.

This year (2012 is the most recent Weinstein has released) was little different. Michael Weinstein’s “reportable compensation” for 2012 was Read more

Even in a Down Economy, Michael Weinstein Gets a Pay Raise

In 2010, Michael Weinstein took a small hit to the salary he pays himself from “charitable donations” to his Military Religious Freedom Foundation.  He appears to have made up for that in 2011, the most recent year for which his financial data has become available.  (Weinstein, who keeps the books himself, didn’t report his 2011 finances until November 2012.)

In 2011, the MRFF increased its income by more than $150,000 (which included a $15,800 grant from the United Way of New Mexico, $110,000 in cash from the Rockefeller Family Fund, and $20,000 from the Aspen Community Foundation).  Weinstein’s compensation increased by just under $35,000, or about a quarter of the new donations, to just over $250,000 after taxes.  That brings Weinstein’s pay to just over 36% of everything donated to his “charity.”  Despite forlorn (and misleading) cries by his “research director,” Chris Rodda, that Read more

Michael Weinstein Cuts Pay, Now Under Half of Charity’s Revenue

Michael Weinstein, the only paid officer and President of his Military Religious Freedom Foundation, reduced his personal compensation by nearly $80,000 in 2010, according to his most recent tax documents.  That same year, his “charity” saw a slight decrease in revenue of about $13,000, despite $120,000 in grants from the Rockefeller Family Fund and $10,000 from the Aspen Community Foundation.

In prior years Weinstein’s exorbitant salaries — which are paid by himself, to himself, from his charity’s revenue — have been highlighted as inconsistent with both his implications that donations to his charity “support the troops” and with the general practices of other charities, whose president/CEO compensations are generally markedly lower (even if the charities are markedly larger).

The $218,201 Weinstein paid himself from the MRFF funds still represented 41% of his charity’s total revenue in 2010.  That’s down from the 54% he paid himself in 2009, though it still represents a substantial percentage of what his donors are presumably Read more

MRFF Highlights its Own Lack of Credibility. Again.

Michael Weinstein and his associates in his self-founded and awkwardly named Military Religious Freedom Foundation frequently rely on anonymous anecdotes, unsubstantiated accusations, or claims they cannot publicly support beyond vague innuendo.

In short, Weinstein’s credibility relies immensely on “trust me.”

Unfortunately for him, he’s long since lost any semblance of credibility, thanks in part to his researcher, Chris Rodda, who has had some issues with this in the past.

Rodda once belittled supporters of a Christian group at USAFA, claiming their support was a manufactured letter-writing campaign — despite public evidence Read more

Michael Weinstein Gets a Pay Raise, and Religious Freedom Suffers

In late 2009 this site noted the hypocrisy of Michael Weinstein’s Military Religious Freedom Foundation over its treatment of Chaplain (LtCol) Gary Hensley.  Weinstein’s researcher, Chris Rodda, said a sermon given by Hensley in a military chapel was “of course…permissible,” while at the same time the MRFF used video of the sermon as a fundraising prop in a list of “violations.”  As has been demonstrated here before, it wasn’t ironic Weinstein was raising money at the expense of the religious freedom he claims to defend.

That article noted Weinstein has reaped heavily from the “non-profit” he founded and runs, allowing him to take home a paycheck of more than $250,000 in 2008 — nearly half of everything his “foundation” received (while Rodda simultaneously begged for donations, claiming Weinstein didn’t “even pay himself a salary”).

Weinstein seemed to take umbrage at the publication of his public financial data and threatened to sue this site for defamation.  He apparently thought it was damaging to his reputation for people to know 46% of his “non-profit’s” funds went directly to him — a shocking number when compared to reputable non-profits as documented at Charity Navigator, for example.  The legal threat seemed to be a weak attempt at intimidation, as it was obvious Weinstein had no viable case and he never moved on the legal threat (though he did file a frivolous complaint with the military, and he has repeated the open-ended threat).  Of course, while he dispenses vitriol with ease, Weinstein apparently wilts in the face of criticism, as he has repeatedly issued legal threats against those who have the gall to point out his hypocrisy.

To the point, Weinstein’s own public documents showed his significant pay, the re-publication of which apparently disturbed him.

It seems Weinstein didn’t learn his lesson.

The very next year, Michael Weinstein, the sole-paid officer of his self-created Read more

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