Deficits do matter, if you're the NRA. After their run of monster donations in 2016, their finances have declined to the point where they've gone from a surplus to a deficit.
Open Secrets reports:
“Their current business model cannot be sustained the way it is going,” said Brian Mittendorf, an accounting professor from Ohio State University. “It can be sustained in the short term, but not the long term. The financial statements would indicate that.”
By the end of 2017, the group spent $26.1 million more than it brought in, expanding its existing deficit from the previous year to $31.8 million.
“The big takeaway is that there were some red flags about their long-term financial health in 2016,” Mittendorf told OpenSecrets, “and nothing alleviates those concerns in their 2017 financials. If anything, it shows they’re coming to fruition.”
This two-year deficit is a steep decline from the NRA’s $27.8 million in positive assets from 2015.
More striking is that one of the biggest drivers of the group’s falling revenue is dwindling dues from NRA members, which fell from more than $163 million in 2016 to $128 million in 2017.
“It’s not extremely uncommon for an organization of its size and stature to be in that circumstance,” Mittendorf said, “It would say to me, though, that something needs to give at some point. Either they need to shrink or find new sources of revenue.”
Meanwhile, actor Tom Selleck has resigned from the NRA's Board of Directors. He declined to state any reason other than his work schedule, but maybe he doesn't want the association with the Dana Loesches and Grant Stinchfields connected with the NRA's vile messaging machine.
Whatever the reason, the NRA's decline is good news for all of us who care about gun safety.
