Re-examining the Tommy Tuberville Foundation

Revisiting my analysis from 3-years ago: His foundation continues to be focused on publicity

Tommy is his own biggest fan

A lot of folks are just learning just what an outrageously awful person Senator Tommy Tuberville truly is with his now nine-month hold on all military flag officer promotions. He has now stopped the movement and filling of over 300 of the most important leadership positions in the U.S. military while he has the audacity to claim being a supporter of the military.

Now his own colleagues are turning on him as the Commandant of the Marine Corps, who is running the service without a Senate approved Assistant Commandant, suffered a heart attack last week. Republicans led a series of over 60 attempts to overcome individual holds which Tuberville objected to repeatedly for over four and a half hours.

The next day he outrageously dismissed the situation saying he worked the same hours as the Commandant when he was a football coach. Yes, he compared being paid millions of dollars a year running a 120-man college sports team with over 20 assistant coaches as running a military service of over 200,000 men and women around the world, training, fighting, and serving in harm’s way.

Rolling Stone has a great takedown of him from Friday: Is Tommy Tuberville the Most Ignorant Man in D.C.?

The arrogance is stunning and disgusting. It’s only matched by his stupidity.

Hipster of Disgust

I’m proud to say I’ve been on to what a worthless person Coach Tommy is for a long time. I feel like that hipster who was into something before everyone else. I’ve hated him before it was cool.

As a veteran, and former professional veterans advocate, I have a special hatred for those who use service members and veterans as a branding tool while doing nothing for the community they claim to love. Tommy Tuberville is one of the worst I’ve witnessed at his level of fame.

I served as the Senior Advisor for Veterans Affairs with the Lincoln Project during the 2020 general election when Tuberville faced Doug Jones in Alabama. I had been hearing rumors and tweets that Tuberville’s foundation with a mission to support veterans was not what he claimed it to be. After spending a decade looking at veteran’s nonprofits for clients and examining their tax filings, I’ve gotten pretty good at seeing between the lines in how they say they work and what the documentation says.

So, one pretty October weekend in Park City I decided to dive into the IRS Form 990's for the Tommy Tuberville Foundation after reading how so little of the money went to the mission of supporting veterans. I've been a veterans advocate for 10 years and seen a lot of these. I created a long Twitter thread out of it to get it out as fast as possible and this is basically it and looked up the latest.

This is long so for those with little time…it was fake then and they have not learned their lesson since. The Tommy Tuberville Foundation is nothing but a publicity vehicle for his personal gain.

Looking at the numbers

I examined the 990's published by ProPublica. You won’t find them at the time or now on the foundation’s website or any information about the officers, legal framework, or donations to the organization. But you did find out just how awesome Tommy was and how much he loves the troops!

The accounting and paperwork as laid out in their tax filings is an absolute mess. Different forms every year, different addresses, wildly missed reporting numbers, totals that don't add up and bizarre financial choices. At a minimum the foundation has been incredibly poorly and unprofessionally managed. At worst it’s a sham.

Let's talk about the numbers. He founded it in 2014 for $645 in New Lenox, IL filing a 990EZ. Then in 2015 they held a single golf fundraiser that made a whopping $117,688. It cost $24,224 to run. That golf tournament was the single biggest event cash haul they had from 2014 to 2018.

Thus $93,464 went into the bank from that. So, they say they gave money to renovate veterans’ homes. Good mission as many vets struggle to afford improvements. The 990 says $8763 went to materials to fix up a house and $6390 went to promotional materials. Yes 42% of the $15,153 expense went to promoting the effort itself. Strange choice and it tells you about the real mission of the Tuberville Foundation.

The 2015 990EZ is a complete mess. It only shows $8763 for home renovations and $11,365 for "Community Outreach and Education" which is said to be detailed in Schedule O. It's not. $43,838 went to professional fees/contractors. So, $93K raised and only $20K went to the charitable mission?

So, 2016 is a full 990 with an address in Santa Rosa, FL. We have since found out that is where Tommy lives in a mansion he’s owned for a couple of decades. Gross was $81,034 that year with revenue of $63,689 after expenses. But just still a hot mess. The forms say that just $23,745 went to their mission: $13,245 to home upgrades and $10,500 to "outreach and education."

So, in 2016 they spent $37,908 on professional fees/contractors. Much more than the previous year and fully $14K more than they actually spent on their mission. Also, $3458 on parking and auto expenses? Things don't make sense. But wait then there's 2017 when it gets super fun!

2017 finds a 990-PF (private foundation) in Auburn, Alabama. We now know that Tommy was at that point thinking of running for office and his claim to fame in Alabama is coaching Auburn, so they make the savvy marketing move of changing addresses.

They then claim $50,087 for the year but nothing in this 990 shows any charitable giving AT ALL. Not a penny went to the mission. But what a year they had for lawyers, consultants, and Tommy: $7503 on legal fees; $27,369 bought a truck; $5800 on marketing; $5992 on meals and entertainment.

Veterans? $0.

But, hey you’d think that 2018 has to be better, right? He’s for sure going to be careful now that he’s thinking about running for the U.S. Senate? But, nah.

Now we're on a 990EZ again. A total gross of $40,750 and claimed giving of $4536 for Flags for Vets and $3249 for Warriors Rest, a PTSD program. Tuberville's campaign sent the media an internal memo showing another $19,425 giving when people started poking around.

But they claim on the form that they spent $34,851 on program expenses. They detail only $7785 and with the extra number they failed to claim on their official tax forms of another $19K adds up to just $22,674. So, where did the money go? It’s horrible accounting.

Bit of a splash

This thread and the hard work of journalists in Alabama generated a ton of news coverage on this topic. Tuberville’s campaign spun a bunch of backpedaling and they ended up essentially shutting down the foundation with excuses of doing an audit and examination of the funding and management.

But, Tommy isn’t done using veterans as his favorite publicity stunt. He promised that when he became a Senator every dime of his salary would go to veterans. So, you would think after all that they learned their lesson, right? You would be wrong.

Still a mess

After going quiet for two years, they held some fundraisers and even a golf tournament in September of this year. They finally filed a 2021 tax form 990 in November of 2022.

Surely they have gotten the message to take care of veterans. Nope.

That new 990 shows they raised $74,101 and didn’t spend a single dime on program services. Expenses of $47,666 going to contractors, a donation of “supplies” for $9,000, and…you can’t make this up, payment on the loan for a truck of $12,389.

So, a long analysis with a lot to digest. In the most generous accounting over the life of this foundation it’s given just 33 to 38% of its funds/expenses to its mission. Got a nice truck. Got some good meals. Paid a lot of contractors. Got a ton of publicity for old Coach Tuberville.

Tommy Tuberville hasn’t given a single dime of his own money to veterans. Not a single penny of his salary to support veterans in need. He uses his fake foundation as a publicity machine for his political ambitions is the only conclusion you can reach. This all has he claims to be “the most military” member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Absolutely shameless.

Let him know what you think

If you are sick of his hold on military promotions you can let him know. Give any of his offices a call and let them know what you think. You can even conveniently text them! Be sure to ask them where is the truck?

DC 202-224-4124

Mobile 251-308-7233

Mobile Text 202-539-7432

Huntsville 256-692-7500

Hoover 205-760-7307

Montgomery 334-523-7424

Dothan 334-547-7441