Freedom to Marry Inc

“The 990 is reviewed in detail first by the treasurer and then all board members receive a copy and vote on whether to adopt and submit the 990 as presented. During that process all concerns raised are addressed and changes are made, if necessary, before filing with the irs.”

“Under the policy, all potential conflicts are reviewed annually either by the president of the organization or by the board chair depending on the nature of the conflict. All directors and all staff are subject to the policy. Any persons with conflicts will be excused from voting.”

“The executive committee reviews the president's compensation annually based on his performance, his scope of responsibility and relevant benchmarks obtained through competitive research including review of the other organiztion's 990's. The executive committee sets a new salary rate upon completion of that review as appropriate. The process was last performed in june 2013.”

“The organization's governing documents, conflict of interest policy and financial statements are made available upon request.”

“The campaign to win marriage nationwide, freedom to marry educates the general public on how excluding same-sex couples from marriage harms couples, children, their loved ones, and the country as a whole, and on how ending the denial of the freedom to marry helps the community. Freedom to marry seeks to spur millions of conversations across the country by presenting a full and fair exposition of the pertinent facts to permit individuals and the general public to form independent opinions or conclusions. To further this exempt purpose, freedom to marry conducts research on the harms couples face when excluded from marriage and disseminates such information via the web and other publications. It also promotes the information provided by others in support of the freedom to marry and recruits such experts and prominent individuals. Freedom to marry provides programming and online capability that enables those who support the freedom to marry to help educate their friends and family, neighbors and colleagues.”

“The campaign to win marriage nationwide, freedom to marry educates the general public on how excluding same-sex couples from marriage harms couples, children, their loved ones, and the country as a whole, and on how ending the denial of the freedom to marry helps the community. Freedom to marry seeks to spur millions of conversations across the country by presenting a full and fair exposition of the pertinent facts to permit individuals and the general public to form independent opinions or conclusions. To further this exempt purpose, freedom to marry conducts research on the harms couples face when excluded from marriage and disseminates such information via the web and other publications. It also promotes the information provided by others in support of the freedom to marry and recruits such experts and prominent individuals. Freedom to marry provides programming and online capability that enables those who support the freedom to marry to help educate their friends and family, neighbors and colleagues.”

“National public engagement thanks to the ongoing dialogue propelled and shaped by freedom to marry and others, americans are realizing that gay couples seek the personal significance of marriage and need the critical safety-net of protections and responsibilities that marriage brings. Thanks to our sustained, affirmative engagement, public opinion research now demonstrates that a national majority supports the freedom to marry (having doubled since 1996) and that support continues to rise in every state, demographic, and cohort. Among the highlights of recent poll results are the following: record high support: a 2014 washington post/abc news poll shows 59% of voters nationwide support the freedom to marry. 50% or more of americans in every region of the country support the freedom to marry. Non-marriage states: even in states without marriage for same-sex couples, a majority support the freedom to marry. A december 2013 poll from anzalone liszt grove research found that 51% of voters living in non-marriage states (at the time, 34 states) support marriage for same-sex couples. Support for marriage is strong in every region of the country - 59% in central states, 53% in western states, and opinion is split evenly in the south, with 46% in favor and 46% opposed. A constitutional question: a 2013 washington post-abc news poll found that by a 2-to-1 margin (64-33%) americans believe that this question should be decided based on the u.s. Constitution, not left to families to struggle over case-by-case, battle by battle. Evangelical millenials: pollster and former romney director of data science, alex lundry, found that 64% of self-identifying evangelical millenials support same-sex marriage. Catholics: a new york times/cbs news poll conducted february 23-27, 2013 shows 62% of american catholics are in favor of legalizing marriage for same-sex couples. African americans: a national gallup poll conducted november 26-29, 2012 found 53% of african americans thought marriages between same-sex couples should be recognized officially and should have the same rights as straight married couples. Hispanics: a quinnipiac polling institute poll conducted february 27-march 4, 2013 showed 63% of hispanic voters support same-sex marriage. Republicans: a 2014 washington post/abc news poll shows that support for the freedom to marry crosses party lines, with 40% of republicans saying they support marriage for same-sex couples, with 23% strongly supportive. Among self-described moderates, support is at 64%, with just 27% opposed. Indeed, we have made considerable progress on our goals to date in growing and diversifying the majority for marriage through the deployment of effective messaging using appropriate and efficient delivery mechanisms including our core national public education campaign, why marriage matters. A true multi-media, program that relies on both online content and paid media, why marriage matters' core message is that same-sex couples want to marry for the same reasons as opposite couples: love & commitment. The program's website, www.whymarriagematters.org, provides content aimed at assisting the movable middle. Filled with stories of couples who talk about why they chose to or want to marry, the site engages its audience with emotional and heart-rending content including stories from couples like carmen and anisia, who want to marry to protect themselves and their children but who are denied healthcare coverage by carmen's employer. To reinforce and amplify delivery of this important case for marriage, freedom to marry also designs tools and a hub to assist organizations both nationally and at the state level in employing messaging and content drawn from the campaign. Our goal is to deploy these messages through whatever means possible to as wide an audience as possible and help bring those in our base who are trained to share their stories with those who are questioning their past opposition to the freedom to marry. Freedom to”

“To generate earned media, we first amplified a drumbeat of messages including publicizing the many and extraordinary friends of the court who supported the freedom to marry. These included the 300+ corporations who signed onto a brief against doma and the 100+ prominent republicans who embraced the freedom to marry and called for overturning prop 8. These stories were reinforced by media events the team created like a special press briefing held by suze orman and gov. Chaffee of rhode island at nyu in which they discussed the cost of inequality in marriage. All of these stories generated both news and ancillary messaging. For instance, the suze orman panel led to a related op-ed placed with cnn.com. The gop amicus brief led to an appearance on msnbc by freedom to marry founder and president, evan wolfson, along with a fox news appearance by nicolle wallace, and an op-ed by gov. Meg whitman. The month of march when oral arguments were heard before the court proved to be opportune for placing a wide array of stories to amplify our message. They included: -a washington post exclusive on our polling analysis by joel benenson and jan van lohuizen showing that while support for marriage continues to grow and diversify, opposition is increasingly isolated in a few small groups. Later in the month, the team worked to get benenson on msnbc's "daily rundown" alongside alex lundry on a spot about polling on support for marriage. -evan wolfson on cnn to talk about bill clinton's reversal on doma. -one of the military couples we recruited to feature appeared on local nbc coverage in dc on the third anniversary of marriage in washington, dc. -an op-ed by ashley broadway on doma's harms to same-sex couples and their families was published in the charlotte news-observer. -a faith column in the washington post by a conservative rabbi. This earned media was coupled with a $1,000,000+ paid media campaign with produced and aired three ads on both national cable channels and on local washington dc media. Together they generated over 73 million impressions nationally, over 4 million impressions in the dc market, and almost 6 million impressions online. The advertisements echoed and reinforced the same messages being sent via earned media: -support for the freedom to marry is bipartisan ("leadership" http://www.respectformarriage.org/pages/time-4-marriage); -compassionate, real families support the freedom to marry ("stowell" www.respectformarriage.org/news/entry/conservative-former-marine-craig- -support for marriage often requires a journey, but is based on our shared humanity ("journey" http://www.respectformarriage.org/news/entry/gay-marriage-group-puts-ou through innovative messaging, based on comprehensive and revolutionary research; by highlighting leadership voices in communities of color; and by capitalizing on a unique moment in the nation's hisotry, freedom to marry grew support for marriage in 2013 and helped educate americans on the harms done to gay couples and their families by being denied the very real benefits and protections of marriage.”

“Public engagement in the states winning more states is an especially urgent focus of freedom to marry's central marriage campaign, part of our strategy to create the climate for a supreme court ruling bringing national resolution. 2013 was an historic year for the marriage movement as we brought the freedom to marry to eight new states doubling the list of states to 17 plus the district of columbia. Those eight states included rhode island, delaware, minnesota, california, new jersey, hawaii, illinois and new mexico. Freedom to marry was deeply engaged in the efforts in those states and many others to engage the public in the conversation around marriage. With each state won we increase the population with access to the freedom to marry (as of jan. 1, 2014, 39% lived in a state with the freedom to marry compared with 17% at the beginning of the year), and with each state we win, we come closer to our aim of creating a critical mass of states, setting the stage for victory nationwide. Freedom to marry's approach to winning at the state level begins with public education to lay the foundation of support before a ballot or legislative campaign is launched. And in states where we are pursuing a litigation-centered strategy, we work in tandem with legal partners on state-specific public engagement strategies to create momentum and the climate that maximizes the chances to win. This strategy has proved very effective. As noted in the results above, we saw 8 states achieve the freedom to marry in 2013 alone. Now thanks to the momentum built from those victories and the strong language in the us supreme court opinion in us v. Windsor which eviscerated a core part of the federal doma, we are entering a period of dramatic litigation activity that seeks to overturn the many state level anti-gay constitutional amendments adopted from 2000 to 2010. Already 50+ such lawsuits in 25+ states have been filed. As a result we are relying on our successful approach to public education to create the climate for favorable rulings in numerous litigation states, including arizona, colorado, michigan, nevada, ohio, and utah as well as pennsylvania and virginia (in both of which the attorney general is not defending the anti-marriage constitutional amendment). Recognizing that more and more of the conversation in the us around marriage now occurs online, freedom to marry has invested heavily in our web presence and digital tools. In partnership with blue state digital, the architects of president obama's first term online campaign, we developed in 2012 and 2013 a variety of digital tools and a team expert at deploying them. We now communicate with some 800,000 online supporters, up from just 550,000 a year ago and we engage with them to help lay the foundation for winning more states and to help on the other tracks of our roadmap to victory. Our digital action center now plays a critical role in mobilizing the conversation around marriage as we work nationally and in key states. In almost every state with an active public education campaign there is a need for state-of-the-art digital expertise and organizing. Freedom to marry's digital action center meets those needs by taking on direct management of all the state level campaign's digital needs. The work of the digital action center entails both start-up activities and ongoing organizing. Start-up includes: -campaign branding -website design, with access to state-of-the-art tools for engaging in the online dialogue -list-building in target geographic areas and with target demographics -establishment of a facebook and twitter presence ongoing organizing includes: -updated website content -emails using best practices to motivate action (volunteering, donating, amplifying message, etc.) -strategic use of facebook and twitter, with extensive graphic displays in each state where we have sought to increase support for the freedom to marry, we assigned one member of our digital action center team to a state o”

“Jen and angelique were overjoyed. They married as soon as possible at a regional cancer center in santa fe, new mexico, where jen is receiving chemotherapy treatments. "it was wonderful and overwhelming," angelique said. "the part of our vows where we pledged to care for each other in sickness and in health really hit home for me. It means so much to me to know jen is my wife, not only in my heart, but in the eyes of our friends, family, and community as well." each of these stories reverberates around the internet and gets echoed in the mainstream media. In each case, we deploy these messages through whatever means possible to as wide an audience as possible. Freedom to marry's communications team works daily with traditional print, radio and television press outlets to ensure these stories are told far and wide across the country, and our message now appears in over 500 outlets each month.”

“Public engagement in the capital a critical element of our national campaign efforts is to make the case on capitol hill, inside the beltway, and throughout the country that the freedom to marry is a mainstream american cause, not a partisan cause. This helps grow public support, and most crucially helps create an environment for the us supreme court to rule in favor of dismantling discrimination in marriage once and for all. In 2013, multiple high-profile lawsuits challenging both doma and california's proposition 8 were considered by the us supreme court. In both cases, the key to maximizing our chances of winning was not just in relying on good lawyers, but shaping the climate in a bipartisan way as described under our national public engagement accomplishments. The ruling that doma's denial of federal protections and benefits for same-sex couples is unconstitutional, was one of the years most significant accomplishments as it is making a tremendous dent in marriage discrimination. Within hours, deportations of the foreign born but legally wed spouses of us citizens in same-sex relationships were halted. Same-sex couples who are married and living in one of the 17 freedom to marry states, or the district of columbia, were quickly made fully eligible for the federal protections and responsibilities afforded all married couples. However, the doma decision did not complete the job. For those legally married same-sex couples (and widows or widowers) who had moved to or live in a state that discriminates against their marriages, access to their federal marital protections required concerted work in both congress and with the administration. There is no one rule across all federal programs as to whether the validity of a marriage is determined by where the couple got married ("place of celebration") or where the couple is living ("place of domicile" or "place of residence"). For same-sex couples the "choice of law" standard can make all the difference between respect for their marriage and the federal protections that flow from it and no protection whatsoever. As a result, during the second half of 2013 freedom to marry partnered with our movement's legal organizations and others to help guide the obama administration toward full and fair implementation of the supreme court's ruling across all federal programs and throughout the country. In commendable response to our advocacy and the constitution's command, the administration took strong steps in crucial areas such as immigration, taxation, pension and personnel policies for federal employees and service members. By ensuring that married couples are respected by the federal government, even in discriminating states, we made a real and immediate difference in people's lives, put the entire country in play, and underscored that the "house divided" cannot stand. In addition, through our dc-focused work, we continued to amplify the case for the freedom to marry among political and media opinion-leaders in the capital, creating the drumbeat within the beltway among political operatives, political media, elected officials -- all of which create a climate of empowerment for the judiciary as well. Freedom to marry's bipartisan federal team and media team cultivated relationships with many such opinion-leaders on both sides of the aisle, and we continued to make our case through salons, briefings, events at the national press club, and other forums. Recognizing that shaping the media climate in a bipartisan way is important to continuing the growth in support for the freedom to marry, freedom to marry has been conducting outreach among conservatives for the last several years. Those contacts proved helpful in winning new york and defending the freedom to marry in new hampshire, leading to our launch of young conservatives for the freedom to marry in 2012. Young conservatives for the freedom to marry is made up of over 60 leading young conservatives from inside and outside the beltway who”

“Polling and research: program service expenses 228,603. Management and general expenses 1,565. Fundraising expenses 4,246. Total expenses 234,414. Public relations: program service expenses 656,744. Management and general expenses 1,013. Fundraising expenses 2,749. Total expenses 660,506. Web design: program service expenses 225,937. Management and general expenses 1,965. Fundraising expenses 5,332. Total expenses 233,234. Communication services: program service expenses 250. Management and general expenses 0. Fundraising expenses 0. Total expenses 250. Project management: program service expenses 138,378. Management and general expenses 1,228. Fundraising expenses 3,331. Total expenses 142,937. It support: program service expenses 37,136. Management and general expenses 330. Fundraising expenses 894. Total expenses 38,360. Other consultant: program service expenses 7,987. Management and general expenses 71. Fundraising expenses 192. Total expenses 8,250. Other fundraising consultant: program service expenses 0. Management and general expenses 0. Fundraising expenses 32,680. Total expenses 32,680.”

“The process has not changed from the prior year.”