The National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities gave $20.5 million to nonprofits with assets of $1 billion or more in 2016 alone, a government transparency group reports. Grants supported the flush Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, whose annual celebrity gala is dubbed an "ATM for the Met." [Above, Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen.] Also funded were a play about going back in time to kill Christopher Columbus, and the publisher of "The Feminist Porn Book." "Do charities have a right to public funding no matter how strong their balance sheet?" the report asks.
From OpenTheBooks:
During the period when the Met received hundreds of thousands in NFA-H (taxpayer) dollars, the museum's asset base grew dramatically – by nearly $1 billion. In FY2009, the Met disclosed $2.9 billion in assets. Five years later, the Met's FY2014 IRS Form 990 showed $3.73 billion in assets. ... On May 1, the annual gala ... welcomed A-list celebrities such as Katy Perry, Pharrell Williams, Madonna, Alex Rodriguez, Jennifer Lopez and more. The Met raised $300 million in annual revenue, according to its latest available IRS Form 990 informational return.
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