Trade Orgs Withhold Finances, Pay Staffs Well

Trade organizations, including PRSA and NAPL (the printing org whose CEO Joseph Truncale will join the Society as CEO on Jan. 12, 2015), are poor and late financial reporters. Top staffers make far more than most members.

Both the PR Society and National Assn. for Printing Leadership have yet to file their IRS Form 990s for 2013, forms that were originally due on May 15. The only figures we have are from 2012. Final deadline is Nov. 15.

There is no excuse for such tardiness which is rampant in the non-profit sector. If companies doing hundreds of billions can report results in the second week of January, so could the non-profits, if they wanted to.

The non-profit sector needs a Sarbanes-Oxley but no legislator would dare challenge 10,000+ trade orgs any more than one would propose an increase in the gas tax which has been unchanged at 18.4 cents since 1993.

A modest rise would eliminate the need for toll roads throughout the U.S. and replenish the Highway Trust Fund. A gas tax is 22X as efficient in collecting money as toll roads. The toll road lobby is as powerful as any.

990s Show Finances, Staff Pay Packages

Non-profits are tight with their 990s because they are publicly available while their audits are private. The PR Society last year yanked the web privileges of a member suspected of giving the audit to the O’Dwyer Co.

The 990s, almost never filed by the first deadline of May 15, not only have all the data from the audit but the pay packages of staffers making more than $100,000. Usually filed late in the year with the IRS, it takes months for GuideStar to pick them up. The PR Society’s 990 for 2012 was not on GuideStar until January 2014.

The Society usually delivers a printed copy to our desk a few days after the annual conference although we have long asked for a PDF that could be placed on our website. However, this year no such copy arrived. VP-PR Stephanie Cegielski is unable to provide it.

What Happens to $24M in NAPL?

The 2012 Form 990s of PRS shows that resigned CEO Bill Murray made $423,000 including a $61,000 bonus (although revenues were lower than when he arrived in 2007). NAPL CEO Truncale was paid $303,080. William Woods, listed as “former senior VP” at NAPL, made $350,000. The top six execs of NAPL took $1,457,190 of the total payroll of $2,035,454.

Truncale

Even more interesting at NAPL is $24,026,492 in “other assets” that is said to be an “investment in NAPL Foundation.” It is listed on NAPL’s balance sheet as an “unrestricted net asset” along with publicly traded securities worth $2,824,859, down from $4,115,215 in the previous year.

Perhaps that $24M should be returned to the members. We can’t find any info on the “NAPL Foundation.” Truncale has yet to return an email and CFO Dean D’Ambrosi said Truncale is the only one who can talk to us.

NAPL Now Part of AMSP/NAPL/NAQP

NAPL, which was merged last year with the Assn. of Marketing Service Providers (previously the Mailing and Fulfillment Service Assn.), had 2012 revenues of $3,528,388, down from $4,904,140 in 2011. AMSP is much smaller with revenues of $1,549,344 in 2012.

Also part of a new grouping using the name AMSP/NAPL/NAQP is the National Assn. of Quick Printers, which is part of the NAPL network and does not appear to have its own 990 or financial report.

Kenneth Garner, CEO of AMSP, will succeed Truncale as CEO of AMSP/NAPL/NAQP on Jan. 12, 2015. The group is in the process of picking a new name. Garner’s pay package for 2012 totaled $189,075 and included $159,786 base pay, retirement/deferred of $14,400, and nontaxable benefits of $14,889.

In choosing Truncale, the search committee said his “magnetism and captivating story-telling ability” had “immediately captured” its attention. “More importantly,” it added, “he impressed us with his shrewd business acumen, proven leadership ability and his deep understanding of the trade association space, and the opportunities and challenges our association faces during a time when social media is revolutionizing the business and media landscape.”

Some “Non-Profits” Loaded with $$

Other non-profits are loaded with cash built up over the years since they don’t pay any taxes except on unrelated business income.

Prime example is the Committee to Protect Journalists which does a good job of protecting itself from coverage. CPJ has not recently answered our phone calls or e-mails. Its main fund-raising event, a black tie dinner in the Waldorf-Astoria for 900 that raises about $1 million, will take place Tuesday, Nov. 25. CPJ, 330 Seventh ave., New York, is almost 100% focused on violence and persecution of journalists abroad.

Net assets as of Dec. 31, 2012 (latest available) are $14,464,531, which includes $10,401,229 in public securities and $3.1M in cash and pledges. “Permanently restricted” is $9.5M and “temporarily restricted” is $4.2M. CPJ does not answer questions about these accounts.

Executive director Joel Simon was paid a total of $206,302 in 2012; director of development John Weis, $157,737, and deputy director Robert Mahoney, $151,930.

Independent Sector, ProPublica Also Well Off

The Independent Sector, which is 500 non-profits (401/c/6 trade groups and 401/c/3 charities) had $31,252,314 in net assets as of Dec. 31, 2012. This included $13,176,512 in cash, savings and pledges and land and buildings worth $31M on which there is a bond of $14.9M.

CEO Diana Aviv’s 2012 package was worth $586,583; Terri O’brien, SVP finance/CFO, $187,905; Lois Fu, VP, $246,935; Claire Wellington, SVP planning & learning, $188,037, and Michael Goff, SVP/development, $154,820.

ProPublica Staffers are Highest Paid

Photos: Sharlene Spingler

Easily topping the above in pay packages are staffers of ProPublica, whose latest 990 available on GuideStar is for 2012. It was filed Aug. 8, 2013. It has 501/c/3 status (charitable, educational institution). Oddly, the Arthur W. Page Society has the same status although it’s highly similar to the PR Society and IABC.

The packages of nine staffers listed total $2,702,295 or an average of $300,255. Bringing up the average is the $584,924 paid to president and editor-in-chief Paul Steiger, former managing editor, Wall Street Journal. He held the posts at ProPublica from 2008-2012 when he retired. He was chair of CPJ from 2005-10.

Stephen Engelberg, managing editor, was paid $391,758; Richard Tofel, treasurer, secretary and general manager, $363,600; Debra Goldberg, VP/development, $260,135, while four others made $200K plus and one made $191K.

Revenues were $10.9M and expenses, $9,884,450. Net assets were $4,410,365.

ProPublica was created by Herbert and Marion Sandler who sold Golden West Financial to Wachovia in 2006, earning the headline “Deal from Hell” in the July 22, 2008 WSJ (because of GWF’s many bad mortgages).

They committed $10M a year to ProPublica although many others are now donors. The Sandlers gave $5M in 2011 and $4M in 2012 (latest years available).

An O’Dwyer staffer visited the offices of CPJ and ProPublica in July hoping to talk to someone. No one would come out to the reception areas.

Press Club Says It’s a Private Club

Attempts are being made to examine the finances of the National Press Club but its current stance is that it is a private club and its finances are not public record.

That is a line of reasoning the PR Society has used on us for many years but members supply us the audit which we publish. NPC, especially since 1,400 or nearly half of its 3,100 members are PR people and other non-press, should be as open as any PR group. PR members pay a substantial premium--$744 dues vs. $596 for press. The 1,400 PR and related category members pay $1,041,600 in dues which is more than the $1,013,200 paid by reporters, assuming all press members are at the $596 rate, which is not the case. The PR community deserves to examine the books of this organization.

PR people as well as reporters have every right to know the finances of the Club since members tell us that it mismanaged a recent renovation and its finances went from positive to near disaster. They also say NPC has a rent-free deal without which it could not exist.

It occupies the top two floors of the 13-story building at 529 14th st. N.W., two blocks from the White House. The building, no part of it owned by NPC, was acquired in 2011 for $167 million by AEW Capital Mgmt. and Quadrangle Development Corp. Quadrangle previously had a stake in it.

Washington Business Journal reported that the building, which has 120 office and retail tenants, went on the market again in August. The owners have spent $15 million on renovations in the past ten years.