Money trail | A 'glam' night, but at what price?

[Condoleezza Rice with scholarship recipients last year]

The White House Correspondents' Association, which holds its glossy annual charity dinner tonight, has come a long way since Feb. 24, 1914, when it was founded to help President Woodrow Wilson organize a then-unprecedented series of press conferences. There was the 1944 dinner, which featured the most complete turnout of the nation's war leaders since Pearl Harbor; the menu featured unrationed duck, and off-the-record political wisecracks.

"Until 1962," the non-profit group's website says, "the dinner was open only to men even though the membership included women. That changed when, at the prodding of Helen Thomas of UPI (left), President John F. Kennedy said he would not attend the dinner unless the ban on women was dropped."

The WHCA now seeks to "mentor future generations of journalists, primarily through scholarships made possible by proceeds from the annual dinner,'' the professional association's website says. "It is for this that we host the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner, which draws luminaries from politics, business, media, Hollywood and elsewhere to help the White House press corps raise money to give crucial financial assistance to journalism students at several institutions across the country."

Big parties, bigger layoffs
Gannett is joining major media in a multimillion-dollar industry extravaganza of pre-parties and post-parties this weekend. For the second consecutive year, however, The New York Times won't attend, saying the event is too focused on currying favor with big shots and gives a bad impression of the media cozying up to administration insiders, U.S. News and World Report said.

The black-tie dinner will draw 2,700 guests to the Washington Hilton, with all the usual Red Carpet accouterments. Adding to the Academy Awards feel: C-SPAN is promising a live Internet feed. "Watch the 2009 dinner arrivals, speeches, and awards presentations online." (Are Joan Rivers & Co. attending?)

With the flair of Vanity Fair, the Politico is covering the social swirl on its Dinner Dish blog, promising to take readers "inside Washington's most glamorous weekend."

Comedian Wanda Sykes (left) is emcee, an edgy-but-safe choice after Comedy Central's faux newsman, Stephen Colbert, scared the bejesus out of organizers three years ago. Tonight's fete also comes as thousands of journalists in and out of Gannett are losing their jobs to layoffs, or taking wage cuts and furloughs. (Yes.)

Searching for tax returns
To meet the demands of a 24/7 news cycle, the WHCA says, "many of our members are now involved in blogging in and other contemporary journalistic enterprises that have transformed traditional print and television news coverage in the 21st century."

I just wish that extended to posting its annual Form 990 report to the IRS, so we could learn more about what happens to the group's proceeds. The most recent report I could find is for the WHCA's fiscal tax year of 2006, covering Nov. 1, 2006, through Oct 31, 2007; it's at GuideStar, the firm that maintains a searchable database of thousands of Forms 990. (I pay a $100 monthly fee for access; GuideStar is where I got many of the documents I used in researching the Gannett Foundation and Freedom Forum.)

To be fair, I rarely find non-profits posting IRS reports online; they refer journalists and others to GuideStar and other third parties. Federal law says they must make available for public inspection the three most recent reports during regular business hours. But that doesn't work when you're on deadline, 2,817 miles away.

The bottom line: $33K
The WHCA is like a lot of non-profits: It holds a big annual dinner where members get to do good while having a good time. Problem is, for all the money coming in, not much flows to the bottom line: those scholarships to needy students.

The group's fiscal 2006 return shows it spent a grand total of $33,000 on scholarships. The dinner itself was single-biggest source ($293,888) of the group's total $582,803 in annual receipts for the period. But the event cost organizers $348,535 to mount, so the WHCA actually lost $54,647 on it (detail, below).

The group apparently spent even less on scholarships during its 2007 tax year; the website says: "The White House Correspondents' Association is going from donating $26,000 last year in scholarships to $132,000."

[Form 990 detail; click image for bigger view]

Crowdsourcing time!
Download the WHCA's fiscal 2006 Form 990 right here, for free, and see what you can find. Just go to The Teletype Room widget near the bottom of the blue rail, right, and follow the easy instructions.

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[Photo of Rice and students: Neshan H. Naltchayan, WHCA]