What’s up, Time’s Up?
Nonprofit gives just $312K to legal aid
Hollywood’s Time’s Up organization, set up to fight sexual harassment — with Reese Witherspoon, Amy Schumer, Brie Larson and other luminaries on its board — spent the bulk of its donations on executive salaries and only a fraction on legal costs to help victims, public records show.
The group, which consists of the Time’s Up Foundation and Time’s Up Now, raised $3,670,219 in 2018 but spent $1,407,032 on salaries and only $312,001 on the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund for sexualharassment victims.
Charity watchdog Charity Navigator recommends that nonprofits spend 75 percent of their revenues on their mission and 25 percent on administration. Time’s Up spent 38 percent on salaries alone.
Time’s Up Now also spent $157,155 on conferences, tax filings show. In June 2018 the group cosponsored a retreat at the Ojai Valley Inn, a luxury resort and spa north of Los Angeles. The retreat was dominated by agents from the Creative Artists Agency who apparently had difficulty deciding on what their mission should be.
“They pivoted from ‘Let’s clean up Hollywood’ to ‘ We’re going to help all workers,’ ” an attendee said.
According to tax filings, the mission of Time’s Up Now is “to promote safe, fair and dignified work for women of all kinds.”
To this end, the group helped set up the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, which helps pay legal fees for “select cases” and is overseen by the Washington, DC-based National Women’s Law Center. The defense fund is “completely independent” from Time’s Up, the group’s Web site says.
Time’s Up Now also spent $288,007 on advertising and $940,328 on “legal” costs, with most of that money — $719,522 — going to Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, a multinational law firm with a powerful lobbying arm.
The group also spent $58,395 on travel and $112,435 on Rally, a public-relations company, according to tax filings.
The Encino, Calif.-based organization was founded by lawyers and Hollywood producers and drew on the backing of Gloria Steinem, Oprah Winfrey, Mira Sorvino and others following the 2017 Harvey Weinstein scandal.
Other supporters include TV host Padma Lakshmi, actress Brie Larson and journalist Gretchen Carlson.
Fallen movie producer Weinstein was accused of sexually harassing dozens of women and convicted of sexual assault and rape this year. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison.
Time’s Up’s “global leadership board” includes Sorvino, who said Weinstein harassed her in a hotel room in 1995, and actress Alyssa Milano, whose 2017 tweet urging sexually harassed women to come forward helped launch the #MeToo movement. Time’s Up got off to a bumpy start. Lisa Borders, the former head of the WNBA who was hired to lead Time’s Up in 2018, spent only four months there, according to her LinkedIn page. Borders, who raked in $342,308 in salary in 2018, according to federal filings, resigned after her 36-year-old son was accused of sexual misconduct, according to reports.
The National Women’s Law Center reported that the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund spent $1,747,635 to help “3,000 individuals” in its first six months in 2018, according to tax filings.
The Time’s Up Foundation pledged $132,575 to that fund while Time’s Up Now earmarked $179,426, tax filings show. The lion’s share of the defense-fund money came from outside grants.
While both Time’s Up groups are nonprofit, only donations to the Time’s Up Foundation are eligible for tax deductions.
Typically, politically minded nonprofits set up a lobbying arm and a separate charity to raise awareness, influence legislation and raise cash. Donations to the lobbying arm, Time’s Up Now, are not eligible for tax deductions.
Time’s Up Now took in $3,308,568 in 2018, while Time’s Up Foundation raked in $361,651, tax filings show.
Calls and an e-mail to Time’s Up seeking comment were not returned last week.