Lady Gaga’s vanity project and nonprofit organization, the Born This Way Foundation, only donated $5,000 out of its $2.1 million in earnings in 2012.
According to its website, the anti-bullying organization’s mission “is to foster a more accepting society, where differences are embraced and individuality is celebrated.”
The Born This Way Foundation (BTWF) hopes to accomplish this by “creating a safe community that helps connect young people with the skills and opportunities they need to build a kinder, braver world.”
It is unclear how BTWF does this by donating just $5,000 in “grants to organizations and individuals” although the foundation claimed $2.1 million in assets in 2012.
Roger Friedman of Showbiz 411 obtained the foundation’s 2012 federal tax report and found that BTWF spent $150,00 on legal fees, $50,000 on “social media,” $78,000 on “travel” and $808,661 on “other.”
As Friedman puts it, “it’s unclear that anyone was really helped by the Born this Way Foundation other than lawyers, consultants, publicists and travel agents.”
Lady Gaga’s mom and president of the foundation, Cynthia Germonatta, wrote a defense of BTWF on The Huffington Post Wednesday:
Our activity has included The Born Brave Bus Tour, which has travelled to 23 communities, interacting with more than 19,000 young people and raising awareness to the tune of more than 300 million media impressions. The foundation’s messages of kindness and bravery have touched more than half a million online users via our website, which includes the Bravest Map Ever and the Play Brave Game, as well as social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook — which on a peak week can hit 50 million individual users.