2008 tax records for the National Physique Committee, Jim Manion’s salary, etc…

unclesamtaxesWhile I realize that non-profit Organizations do earn money, I’m at a loss to explain how the NPC (National Physique Committee) legitimately meets many of the requirements to be treated as such legally. Still, as they are registered as an NPO, their financial records are subject to public disclosure. Form 990, the one I’ve published below (as filled out by the NPC) is the form used by tax-exempt organizations…yes, that’s right, the NPC is tax-exempt organization. I’ll let you ponder that for a second…

As you can see from the documents below, membership fees were well over $1.5 million dollars, while their sponsorship fees were nearly $1 million dollars. Roughly $287k dollars of that money went directly into the pockets of their corporate officers, with another $121k dollars going into the payment of other employees. $375k dollars were spent on competitive event support. $166,000 went right into the pocket of the owner, Jim Manion – and more ended up there (another $18k or so) from his other interests related to the NPC and his position as president/owner. So…just to make sure we’re all on the same page here, this is a non-profit organization, and the owner is taking home about $185k/year, as a fee he pays to himself as the president, for which the company itself pays no taxes on. In 2003, his salary was listed as just under $118k dollars. In the five years past that time (until the NPC filed their last tax return in 2008), as the economy collapsed, he has raised membership fees and given himself a $68k dollar raise, essentially a ten percent raise each year. Has the NPC gotten 10% better for the athletes each year that he’s given himself  that raise?

I haven’t done the math here, but somewhere around 7% of the total earnings from the company is going directly into the pocket of the owner…of ….this…non-profit organization. Put another way, which I find of far more interest to the average member of the NPC, over 10% of your annual membership fee is represented in Jim Manion’s annual salary. Not to be redundant, but ten cents out of every dollar that comes out of your pocket to be a member of the NPC, goes into Jim’s pocket(book). Are you starting to see the picture here?

In other words, the employees and (more specifically) the owners and executives of the company are pocketing more money each year than the entire organization spends on the promotion of their various events. If you’re an NPC bodybuilder, figure competitor, or fitness athlete, the bulk of your membership fees are going directly into the pockets of the people who run and own the organization, with very little going back into either you or your competitions.

Almost a million dollars goes into printing and publication – and the NPC’s printing and publication, as I understand it, is handled by the owner’s son, JM Manion.

$68k dollars were spent on meetings and conferences…I know exactly zero NPC bodybuilders who have ever attended one of these meetings that ostensibly were held to benefit them and their sport). Zero dollars were spent on advertising. Regardless of what anyone else wants to think or say, the athletes who are members of the NPC are paying the lion’s share of their membership fees directly into Jim Manion’s pocket, and the pocket of his son, JM. The third document below shows James B. Manion’s salary (random trivia: the “B” in “James B. Manion” stands for “Banus.”).

As one of my readers has pointed out in an email to me:

If you take the membership fees of $1.632 million and divide it by the fee per member ($75), you get the number of NPC members (21,760).  Then if you divide the publication printing cost ($926,072) by the number of members (each member gets one publication and none are sold on the newstands), you get a publishing cost per magazine of $42.56 per year for NPC News (4 or 6 issues?)  Something is fishy.  It doesnt’t cost THAT much to publish a magazine…..and half the magazine is ads.

Membership fees almost doubled with the addition of Figure and if you divide the total fees by $75/member, you get an NPC membership over 21,000 in 2007. Contrast this with 2004 and you get about 11,000 members. It’s clear that the NPC is about half female membership.

Also, 2008 membership revenue did not grow even though the membership fee increased (as done every year).  Thus the number of NPC members decreased in 2008.  Maybe bikini will help Manion make more money.

Second, where is the revenue for the magazine ads (is it the advertising newsletter for $101,300?)  For a magazine that is half advertising, it seems too low.  Maybe someone in the magazine advertising industry can check the numbers for sanity.

Third, sponsor fees (from vendors such as Muscletech, BSN, etc.) are supposed to flow down to the promoters.  That is what the vendors are told.  But it doesn’t happen.  Jim keeps all the money and nothing goes to the promoters.

Fourth, what is “Other salaries and wages” of $121,255?  Who is getting that?

Fifth, “Insurance” cost of $76,000?  Who’s insurance is being paid?  What kind of insurance?  Is this a health plan for NPC execs and their offsprings?

Sixth, “All other expenses” for management of $135,000?  Is this for JMM?

I wish they would get audited!  Looks like too many slush funds there for a NPO.

Think what you will of these numbers….and here are the documents:

NPCMembershipfees

ManagementFeesNPC

ManionSalary

About the Author

Anthony Roberts is the author of numerous books and articles, both online and off, dealing with all areas of performance enhancing drugs. Additionally he has worked as a coach, trainer, consultant, and nutritional supplement designer. His forthcoming book is Generation S, and slated for release in the Fall of 2009.