Tag Archives: charity

Mikey Weinstein’s Charitable Salary Total Reaches $1.95 Million

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein seems to be making a comfortable living doing little more than attacking Christians in the US military.

The most recent financial disclosures for his Military Religious Freedom Foundation (from 2014, released nearly two years later) reveal that he paid himself, as the sole employee of the “charity” he self-founded, $244,232 in compensation from the tax-deductible donations his organization received.

While it is a slight reduction from the $299,634 he paid himself in 2013, it still accounts for a sizeable 35% of all contributions to his MRFF.

Since he founded his laughably-categorized “non-profit” in late 2005, Mikey Weinstein has Read more

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

Yet Another General Officer Endorses Non-Federal Charity

Michael Weinstein will no doubt be up in arms again.  Just days after he excoriated MajGen Marty Umbarger for his September 2011 video favoring a military support charity, it seems another General officer has done a similar thing.  The self-appointed watchdog for endorsements of non-Federal entities by uniformed officers will likely be enraged.

Brigadier General Loree Sutton appears in a video on the website of the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, which is clearly a charity and non-Federal entity.  The “problem,” if there is one, is Gen Sutton sings the praises of the National Intrepid Center of Excellence and its facilities, which were funded and built entirely by the charity Read more

Michael Weinstein Makes Today in Jewish History

Mitchell Levin writes a daily “This Day in Jewish History” that is carried a few places on the internet.  At the Jewish CJN, the July 16 edition of Levin’s piece featured none other than Michael Weinstein.  This is how Levin — who appears to have no stake or hidden agenda — portrays Weinstein:

2006: In an article entitled “Marching as to War,” The Washington Post reported on the efforts of Mikey Weinstein, graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and the father of an academy graduate, to stop the missionary work of Christian ministers at the Air Force Academy.  In particular he is targeting the Officer’s Christian Fellowship who says its goal is a “spiritually transformed military with ambassadors for Christ in in uniform, empowered by the Holy Spirit.”

The Washington Post article was largely friendly to Weinstein.  According to Levin’s summary, though, Weinstein’s purpose is opposition to Read more

House Bill would Repeal Johnson Amendment

The US House of Representatives recently introduced HR 3600, a bill that would repeal a portion of the IRS 501(c)3 code commonly known as the Johnson Amendment:

The Johnson Amendment was passed by Congress in 1954 [and] states that entities who are exempt from federal income tax cannot:

Participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of – or in opposition to – any candidate for public office.

This portion of law has been used as a tool to prevent churches Read more

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