Unpacking the HSUS Gravy Train (2012 Edition)

Every November, we get a peek at the internal operations of HSUS when we get a copy of its IRS Form 990, a publicly available tax return that nonprofits have to file with the federal government. We have a copy of HSUS’s latest Form 990 (PDF - 6.7 MB), covering calendar year 2011, and there’s some good and bad news. The good news: Public support for HSUS is down. You read that right. Contributions and grants to HSUS went down by about $8.5 million in 2011 compared to 2010, for an overall decrease of 6.5 percent. HSUS’s total revenue actually decreased by more than 10 percent, mostly due to the drop in public support and drop in investment income relative to 2010. (No wonder HSUS CEO Wayne Pacelle has seemed especially vitriolic towards us recently. Or maybe it’s because his book can’t sell better than a beadwork guide.) Hopefully this decline in public support was matched with an increase in giving to local pet shelters and rescues. That’s something near impossible to measure. But we can measure how much of donors’ donations to HSUS are being sent to pet shelters. And that’s the bad news: HSUS’s grant-giving to support pet shelters continues to be criminal, figuratively speaking. Grants made by HSUS for the purpose of aiding pet sheltering appear to make up about only 0.25% (one-quarter of one percent) of HSUS’s budget. Even including spay/neuter and other grants made to shelters, that figure only goes up to about 0.50% of HSUS’s budget. Nothing to write home about. We’re releasing a report today to the media showing, state by state, how little HSUS gives to support sheltering. If you want to see how your state fared, click here to view a PDF. (The data comes from Schedule I of the tax return.)...more