Overhead costs exceed revenue from membership dues and other generated income. The bulk of funding actually supporting the organization comes from reprographic royalties, which are fees for the reproduction of copyrighted material, collected overseas and distributed to arts-related groups in the U.S. This money is specifically to be used for programs benefiting writers, designers, artists, and the arts community; however, Form-990 returns and the publicly available LM-2 financial reports filed with the Department of Labor/OLMS show that a significant portion of its operations are in fact funded by reprographic rights money, and little is spent on directly beneficial programs. The Graphic Artists Guild is registered as a 501(c)(5) labor union, but has made no effort in recent years to actually represent workers, and has not adequately informed its own members about labor law and their rights to participate in the organization's governance.
Having served as a board member for one year, (2012-2013) my first-hand experience with the Graphic Artists Guild's management is that there is a critical lack of accountability at all levels. Officer elections are irregularly scheduled and generally uncontested; financial information provided by the executive committee to the board of directors is grossly inadequate; and the board of directors has not effectively exercised its duty to oversee the organization's finances or the activities of its officers and committees.
Review from Guidestar
