https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/21/us/politics/crime-stoppers-houston.html Crime Stoppers of Houston has become dependent on money steered to it from Governor Abbott and civil forfeiture and have decided to lobby against Democratic judges who have stopped requiring people on probation to pay $50 fines that go directly to Crime Stoppers. The article traces the financial troubles to Rania Mankarious's decision to spend $10 million on a new HQ, when they were millions short of their goal to do that. "But a decade ago, the organization built a $10 million headquarters. Ms. Mankarious, a lawyer who took over the organization in 2013, said at the time that she wanted the group to move beyond solving crime to preventing it as well. The organization described the new building as a monument to that ambition." These bits were also illuminating: "Rising costs began to exceed revenue; in 2020, the group ran $477,000 in the red, its biggest deficit in at least 20 years, according to tax filings." "Crime Stoppers raised Ms. Mankarious’ compensation to $283,000 in 2020 from $183,000 in 2018, including a $38,000 bonus, according to tax filings" On revenue of about $2m they paid $1.25m in salaries, of which about 23% was this person's salary. Edit: Forgot to finish my thought. They're a 501(c)(3). They shouldn't be doing political lobbying. There's a fine line between advocacy and lobbying but they should make sure they are in compliance.
