Freedom Forum responds via ad p.

By: George Garneau

FREEDOM FORUM, THE free speech foundation whose spending is under investigation, refused to answer a reporter's questions about its finances and responded instead by buying a two-page ad.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported that Freedom Forum officials declined to respond to questions from reporter Anne Lowrey Bailey. However, the Arlington, Va.-based foundation bought a double-truck ad touting its accomplishments to run alongside her story in the March 23 edition.
The twice-monthly self-described "Newspaper of the Non-Profit World" said it agreed to submit questions in writing, but Freedom Forum refused to answer most of them.
"It's pretty ironic that a foundation that runs programs dedicated to preserving freedom of speech refused to answer questions about its own spending and instead resorted to an advertisement that cost about $5,000,"
said Chronicle news editor Stacy
Palmer.
The story, based on 1992 tax information supplied by the foundation in accordance with law, said Freedom Forum, which lists $698 million in assets, spent $34.4 million in operating and administrative expenses in fiscal 1992 to award $20.2 million in contributions, gifts and grants.
Of that, $8 million went to Freedom Forum itself?$4 million to start the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University and $4 million to start the news museum, or Newseum, in New York, the Chronicle said.
Meanwhile, grants to outside charities declined last year to $12.8 million, from $15.2 million in 1990.
By contrast, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, also profiled in the Chronicle, gave more grant money and spent less for administration. With $605 million in assets, it listed operating expenses of $5 million and grants of $25.2 million last year.
The Chronicle quoted Freedom Forum president Charles Overby as saying that the foundation complies with all tax laws and regulations and, after four Internal Revenue Service audits since 1983, "received a clean bill of health each time."
The Chronicle also reported:
?Chairman Al Neuharth earns $130,000 a year for a part-time job?more than 10 times the median for foundations with assets over $100 million and quadruple what he earned for the job in 1986.
?Trustees earn $70,000?more than seven times the national median. Several other top executives got huge pay hikes in recent years and earn over $100,000.
?Overby more than doubled his salary, to $278,000, between 1989 and 1991?compared with Knight foundation's Creed Black, who made $248,000. Thirty-six other heads of large foundations earned over $200,000.
In its ad, the foundation said much of the press reporting has been wrong and attempted "set the record straight." However, in two pages listing its programs and accomplishments, it failed to address a single financial issue raised in the story.