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Critics ask if pay violates IRS requirements. Ward Connerly's compensation accounted for two-thirds of the charities' $1.7 million in revenues.
By comparison, the two groups spent $29,655 on college scholarships.

Ward Connerly, the California-based crusader who has launched a petition drive to put a racial preference ban on the 2006 ballot in Michigan, was paid more than $1 million by his two charities last year, documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service show. The filings prompted critics to question whether Connerly's tax-exempt nonprofit groups are violating IRS rules barring excessive pay to officers. Connerly did not return several phone calls to his Sacramento office. In the past, according to aides, Connerly has said questions about his compensation are intended to avoid debating the issues he wants to address. Meanwhile, leaders of the campaign in Michigan said the drive to collect 317,000 signatures is nearing completion and the petitions may be filed by the end of the year. The constitutional amendment would ban racial preferences in state and local government hiring and college admissions. Connerly collected $339,663 in salary, $770,000 in speaker fees and $28,846 in benefits from the American Civil Rights Institute and the American Civil Rights Coalition in the fiscal year ended June 30 of last year, the review of IRS Form 990s shows. The forms must be filed by tax-exempt charitable organizations. [more]