He hasn’t.
The 2015 Form 990 for the Ryan Seacrest Foundation shows that he paid his sister, Meredith, $193,577 to run the foundation. Their dad, Gary, an attorney, received $96,000.
That’s a total of $295,200 in salaries to two family members.
So what did the Foundation do to help people? They donated $264,266 in equipment to a bunch of schools for media equipment. This was the value of the equipment. No money was donated to the schools, no scholarships. No, this was media equipment that the Foundation horse traded for and then re-gifted.
The total value of the equipment– $264,266– is less than salaries Seacrest paid his father and sister. (There’s also another $144,000 in unspecified salaries.)
Even though Ryan Seacrest’s travel is expensed to all his businesses and bosses– ABC/Disney, the E Channel, I Heart Music radio, the Foundation still had a travel bill of $34,423 and a expense line of $16,197 for attending conferences and meetings. This is hilarious.
What else? Ryan’s dad, Gary Seacrest, is a personal injury lawyer who made $96,000 from the foundation. But the foundation still lists a legal expense of $1,868. Another $30,862 was spent on “advertising and promotion.” Advertising what? Promoting what?
This thing is a total boondoggle.
And it comes on top of news that a stylist for the E! Channel is accusing Seacrest of improper behavior. Seacrest is very tied to E! where he does award show hosting and also executive produces the Kardashians’ TV shows. The stylist hasn’t been named, but on Twitter a woman named Laura Lane cited a piece she wrote for her college newspaper with the stylist featured.
I never get it with celebrities using tax free foundations to pay family members. The celebs are so rich, why not just put the fam on staff? Is it just to beat the taxes? Doesn’t work.
