In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the booming of the #MeToo movement, Hollywood elites got together to form Time’s Up, a women’s charity group that is supposed to aid victims of sexual misconduct. But public filings of the group’s finances reveal a huge disparity between how much they paid themselves and how much went to actual charitable work.
According to Showbiz 411, the group paid a whopping $2.4 million in salaries while only giving out $19,342 in grant money. The ended up paying more in payroll TAX than they distributed to helping women who have faced sexual misconduct.
Time’s up for Time’s Up. Really. Last November, the Daily Mail reported that the Hollywood women’s advocacy group spent lavishly on themselves in their first year of operation but did little for other people. The Mail story cited $1.4 million on compensation, among other things. It was outrageous.
But now Time’s Up has posted its financial report for 2019, and it’s worse! Salaries and compensation totaled $2.4 million — including almost $600,000 to get rid of CEO Lisa Borders, formerly the head of the WNBA, after her son was accused of groping a woman (that’s putting it nicely) during a “healing” session. (He hired Kevin Spacey’s lawyer to defend him, but Borders left with a neatly wrapped exit package.)
Time’s Up now, according to their website, has an all new staff, with Tina Tchen running the show. But I also count a whopping 25 main employees, all with fancy titles, and no doubt six figure salaries.
The list of 2019 salaries staggers the imagination for a start up group dedicated to advocacy work. Currently, Time’s Up is shooting fish in a barrel, attacking the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for not having black members. Duh. They’re acting like this is a revelation.
Charities occasionally get caught overspending on themselves while being frugal with their actual charitable works and grants. It’s only occasional because they do not get checked nearly enough by the press. But Time’s Up has been on the radar for over two years thanks in part to its meteoric rise. Some in media exposed their poor financial choices in 2018 when they paid a lot to their employees and executives, but 2019’s totals dwarfed the previous year’s take.
According to Daily Wire, their extravagances included some eye-popping expenditures.
The group also forked over nearly half a million dollars, $454,693, in legal fees to Washington D.C. law firm Arnold & Porter as well as $165,000 to a New York recruiter. Time’s Up also dropped $400,000 on travel expenses and rent.
Time’s Up’s expenses in 2018 were barely any more frugal. That year, the group spent 38 percent of its revenue, $1.4 million, on salaries alone and another $157,000 on a retreat at the Ojai Valley Inn, a luxury resort and spa in California. The group also paid PR firm Rally Public Relations $112,435 and spent even more on legal fees, a whopping $719,000.
Is Time’s Up a full-blown scam? Perhaps. But they can justify their retreats to luxury spas and six-figure salaries because they have Hollywood stars like Reese Witherspoon and Brie Larson running cover for them.
