Inside the NRA's finances: Deepening debt, increased spending on legal fees -- and cuts

[CatWoman]

Inside the NRA’s finances: Deepening debt, increased spending on legal fees — and cuts to gun training

The National Rifle Association spent growing sums on overhead in 2018 even as it cut money for core activities such as gun training and political efforts, ending the year deeper in debt, new financial documents show.

The gun rights group’s 2018 financial report, which was obtained by The Washington Post, portrays the longtime political powerhouse as spending faster than its revenue rose.

The records show that the NRA froze its pension plan for employees at the end of last year, a move that saved it close to $13 million, and obtained a $28 million line of credit by borrowing against its Virginia headquarters.

Despite that, the nonprofit group, four affiliated charities and its political committee together ended the year $10.8 million in the red. In 2017, the six groups ended the year with a $1.1 million shortfall.

Brian Mittendorf, an Ohio State University accounting professor who has studied nonprofits, including the NRA, and examined the 2018 report for The Post, said it depicted “a bad year for them financially.” He compared the NRA to a person living paycheck to paycheck, leaning on credit cards with very little cushion.

“They’ve never exhibited extreme financial conservatism,” Mittendorf said. “They’ve largely spent what they could.”

NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam declined to address the group’s financial trends but said the annual report shows the organization making “financial and administrative decisions that work in the best interests of its members.”

“In the last three years, the NRA has raised more than a billion dollars, played an important role in getting President Trump elected and continued to successfully defend the freedoms of gun owners everywhere,” he said. “That is the true measure of the organization.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-the-nras-finances-deepening-debt-increased-spending-on-legal-fees--and-cuts-to-gun-training/2019/06/14/ac9dc488-8e30-11e9-b08e-cfd89bd36d4e_story.html?utm_term=.54e8a047c56a&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1

[malaise]

1. Amazing how little coverage this is getting from

M$Greedia.

[marble falls]

2. Nothing like a nice and rightous dumpster fire.

[safeinOhio]

3. Well we fire our guns and the lawyers kept a coming

Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico...

[NCjack]

4. Wayne LaPierre screwed Ollie North. Righteous NRA members must

resign their memberships.

[comradebillyboy]

5. Both are corrupt hacks.

[NCjack]

6. Does not matter that both are bad guys. Wayne screwed war hero Marine Ollie.

Now, Wayne must suffer loss in prestige, and an effective way to do that is to exploit the split between them to reduce the NRA's income from membership dues.