Jennifer Siebel Newsom, California's First Partner and founder of The Representation Project, has paid herself and her company, Girls Club LLC, over $3.7 million from her gender-stereotypes charity since 2013, according to IRS filings unearthed by the Daily Mail.
The revelation lands just weeks after Siebel Newsom scolded reporters at her husband's Planned Parenthood press conference for not asking enough about the "war on women."
The numbers are striking. Siebel Newsom collects a $150,000 annual salary from the Representation Project. Her company, Girls Club LLC, takes another $150,000. Together, those $300,000 amounts to roughly a third of the nonprofit's entire annual income, which runs between $1 million and $1.7 million a year.
The median executive salary at a nonprofit of similar size is $31,945. Siebel Newsom's compensation is almost ten times that. Fewer than 5% of the roughly 23,000 charities with revenues between $1 million and $2 million in the IRS database pay their executives more than the Representation Project pays hers.
She is also the beneficiary of a multi-million-dollar trust from her wealthy family. This is not a woman who needs charity dollars to make rent.
The pattern holds across multiple filing periods, which is what makes it so difficult to dismiss as a one-time arrangement or accounting quirk.
In the most recent filing year, total pay to Siebel Newsom, her LLC, executive director Caroline Heldman ($150,000), and CFO Debra Garber ($131,942) reached $581,942. The median nonprofit of comparable size spends less than a quarter of that on total executive pay: $132,640.
Charity watchdogs noticed. Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, put it bluntly:
"As [Governor Newsom] continues his national rebrand tour, the fact that he and his wife put one third of their 'charity' revenues into their own pockets will undoubtedly raise red flags in the eyes of middle class Americans."
Sarah Lee, spokesperson for the Capital Research Center, echoed the concern:
"In the wake of serious investigative efforts into how nonprofits are keeping their books and working with state officials, the question of very high salaries is likely going to be much harder for the Newsoms to wave away without explanation."
The compensation figures alone would be a story. But the donor list introduces a different dimension entirely.
Major corporations that donated to Siebel Newsom's charity also received enormous sums from the State of California, and also gave generously to Gavin Newsom's political campaigns. The overlaps are consistent enough to form a pattern.
A Newsom spokeswoman insisted the governor plays no role in the nonprofit's fundraising and that state funds go through "transparent, competitive processes." She added:
"Any state funds are awarded through transparent, competitive processes — not based on charitable donations or influence. Any suggestion otherwise is categorically false."
Perhaps. But when companies donate to the governor's wife's charity, donate to his campaigns, and then receive hundreds of millions from his state government, the arrangement does not need to be illegal to be troubling. The public is entitled to notice the traffic patterns even if no one admits to drawing the map.
The Representation Project's annual "Flip the Script" gala offers another window into how comfortably this nonprofit operates at the intersection of wealth, politics, and progressive branding. The 2023 filing shows the event cost $216,274 to stage and brought in $598,948. VIP donors at past galas gave $25,000.
Among those present at events: FICO board director Joanna Rees, who gave a speech at the gala. Seven months later, Newsom appointed her Chair of the California Workforce Development Board. Ken McNeely, the retired AT&T executive, was pictured at the event weeks after his retirement.
The charity told the Sacramento Bee in 2021 that it publishes all donations over $5,000 on its website. But individual gala donations remain unconfirmed, and the public is left connecting dots that the Newsoms have no interest in connecting for them.
Governor Newsom is required to report his wife's income in annual ethics filings. In 2022, 2023, and 2024, he noted income "between $10,000 and $100,000" from the Rep Project, and listed the same bracket for income from her LLC. His communications director, Izzy Gardon, pointed out that Newsom is only required to report his 50% portion of spousal income and called the filings "accurate and consistent with California law."
Even granting the legal technicality, the broad income brackets obscure more than they reveal. Reporting "$10,000 to $100,000" for each of two income streams that total $300,000 is the kind of precision that only a politician could call transparent.
This is the same governor who was fined $13,000 in November by California's Fair Political Practices Commission for failing to timely report over $14.3 million in payments made by companies and organizations to nonprofits at his behest between 2019 and 2024. The FPPC characterized the violations with language ranging from "negligent" to describing "an intent to conceal, deceive, mislead the public."
Sutherland, the Americans for Public Trust chief, connected the dots:
"As a career politician, Gavin Newsom should understand the importance of timely and accurate disclosures to the public. This is yet another red flag that raises serious questions about Gavin Newsom's competence and accountability."
Last month, Jennifer Siebel Newsom stood at her husband's Planned Parenthood press conference and scolded reporters for not asking enough about the "war on women." She has built an entire public identity on fighting gender stereotypes, challenging power structures, and demanding accountability from institutions that profit off inequality.
Meanwhile, her own charity's IRS filings show a woman collecting $300,000 a year from a small nonprofit she founded, routing half of it through her personal LLC, while corporate donors who give to her charity also give to her husband's campaigns and collect hundreds of millions from his state government. The total compensation bill for the organization consumed the vast majority of its budget. Fundraising got $153,691.
The left builds entire careers out of lecturing Americans about greed, privilege, and the corrupting influence of money in politics. The Newsoms have built something more efficient: a system where the lecture and the greed run on the same track, funded by the same donors, and shielded by the same vague disclosure forms.
The filings are public. The math is simple. The silence from Sacramento tells you everything the numbers don't.