Controversial figure Al Sharpton received $648,794 in total compensation for 2021 and the National Action Network (NAN) spent almost $1 million on jets and limos according to reports. Rev. Al Sharpton and other bigwigs would attend important gatherings and Sharpton’s charity also shelled out close to $300,000, nearly doubling his compensation.
In 2021, the latest tax filing shows that Sharpton was paid by the National Action Network $348,174 as its president and CEO, and he received a hefty bonus of $278,503, with an addition of $22,117 worth of benefits for total compensation of $648,794, revealed by the NY Post.
The 2020 compensation by the preacher came to $347,183, which did not include a bonus. Nearly $1 million was spent by NAN on private jets and limos, while also spending $650,134 on Carey International, a high-end car service. $291,833 was paid to Apollo Jets, which brokers private plane flights – from Lear jets to 737s – and boasts on its website about celebrity clients like Derek Jeter and Shaquille O’Neal.
According to a NAN spokeswoman, the 68-year-old Sharpton, with other NAN staff, got to fly on the private flights to events, funerals, and “important gatherings,” along with victims’ families. While he noted that the pandemic was still forcing commercial carriers to cancel flights, he said that “some of it was me. Some of it was the chairman. Some of it was victims’ families.”
Every flight was reimbursed by a donor, as he says, but he did not want to name the contributors. Down from $11.1 million the previous year when George Floyd was killed, sparking nationwide protests, the organization hauled in $7.3 million in revenue in 2021. In 2020, NAN raised extra money to fund its march on Washington and to pay for funerals, as it says. The march on Washington cost over $1 million.
Based on Sharpton’s fund raising, he said that his bonus was approved by the organization’s board. The Harlem-based nonprofit continued to pay three of the reverend’s relatives. It was founded by Sharpton in 1991 and bills itself as an activist social justice organization.
His daughters and his niece also received some payments, as, for membership work, his daughter Dominique received $78,670, while his other daughter Ashley, got in $59,950 for social media duties and consulting, and last but not least, Nikki, his niece, was paid $15,800 for special events.
According to the charity’s tax filing, it paid out $155,460 in victim assistance and gave a $2,400 scholarship to one person who is not named. The rights to Sharpton’s life story were sold by him in 2017, and the buyer was also NAN, for $531,000 with the organization intending to turn around and off-load them for a profit.
With projects such as “Loudmouth,” a documentary on the firebrand preacher and MSNBC host, NAN contends it has made back its money and turned a profit. But on the other side, there are specifically no signs of any revenue from such sales in its tax filings. Rachel Noerdlinger, a NAN spokesperson said: “The board has not agreed to release revenue streams for the sale of life rights.”
The nationwide theatrical release of the documentary will be on December 9, despite the fact that it was first shown at film festivals last spring. But at The Picture House in Bronxville, a wealthy Westchester County suburb that is nearly all white, it will open on December 6.