Sanders Institute: total 2017 donations:$459K. Total spent on salaries for Jane's son and 2 other [View all]

[pnwmom]

staffers: about $250K.

So staffer salaries (not including any other overhead) for this Think Tank cost more than half of donations. By IRS regulation, the purpose of the Institute must be non-partisan. Are the "Fellows" paid? What exactly does the Sanders Institute do?

If Bernie Sanders plans to run in 2020, maybe he should reconsider this.

https://vtdigger.org/2018/07/29/sanders-institute-little-show-first-year-500k/

Less attention has been paid to The Sanders Institute, a 501(c)(3) non-profit without disclosure requirements whose mission must be chiefly non-partisan. A VTDigger analysis of organization’s maiden year found little original work from the think tank, which took in nearly a half-million dollars in contributions and grants last year.

SNIP

Jane Sanders wears many hats at the institute: founder, fellow, fundraiser and a non-voting member of the board of directors. The institute is being run by her son, David Driscoll, a political neophyte who previously worked at Burton Snowboards. His estimated salary for the job is $100,000.

SNIP

In a June 2017 interview with USA Today, Jane Sanders said the institute would be producing and distributing “original content,” yet the organization’s website is largely filled with recycled work. In its first year, the group has released just four press releases, three of which were released in its first month of existence.

Under the organization’s “Research and Reports” section of its website, there are 18 posts, 16 of which are reposted from other sources, including from federal agencies and institute fellows. The remaining two posts are authored by Sanders Institute staffers. One is a breakdown of how citizens can contact their elected representatives; the text of the other — entitled A Freedom Budget For All Americans — is attributed to Wikipedia.

SNIP

Neither Jane nor any of the founding fellows are paid. There are just three paid staffers: Driscoll (whose estimated salary is $100,000), Ellyn Heald, who directs the fellows program, and Colleen Lineweaver, the director of research. (Tax documents estimate Heald and Lineweaver’s annual salaries at around $75,000 each.)

https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.profile&ein=813250230


Foundation Status Organization which receives a substantial part of its support from a governmental unit or the general public 170(b)(1)(A)(vi)

Deductibility Contributions are deductible

Affiliation Independent - the organization is an independent organization or an independent auxiliary (i.e., not affiliated with a National, Regional, or Geographic grouping of organizations).

Group Name [Not Applicable]

Ruling Date December, 2017

Asset Amount $159,308

Income Amount $459,206

Form 990 Revenue Amount $459,206

Latest Form 990 Return December, 2017