Early this month, Bluestem republished Michelle Griffith's story at the Minnesota Reformer, Lawmaker who rode nonprofit fame to MNHouse gets tax exempt status revoked.
Dassel Republican House member Dawn Gillman's Let Them Play MN nonprofit hadn't filed its federal tax forms, after bragging the organization had raised over $500,000.
Since the story broke, the paperwork's been filled, revealing that $392,450 was raised, with $371,337 going to legal fees to Minneapolis law firm CrossCastle. Grifftih notes in the followup story, Minnesota Rep. Dawn Gillman files tax forms, edits her story by a hundred grand:
CrossCastle’s lawyers include prominent Republicans including Ryan Wilson, former GOP candidate for state auditor, and Rep. Harry Niska, R-Ramsey.
Here's the new story at the Minnesota Reformer:
Minnesota Rep. Dawn Gillman files tax forms, edits her story by a hundred grand
By Michelle GriffithRep. Dawn Gillman, R-Dassel, rose to prominence with a nonprofit called Let Them Play MN, which she has long claimed raised over $500,000 to fight Gov. Tim Walz pandemic shutdown orders.
But recently released tax forms, which she neglected to file for three years until a Reformer story about the oversight, show she raised far less: $392,450.
Let Them Play MN sued Walz and state officials twice in an effort to keep high school athletes on the field, court and rink during COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns. Both lawsuits were dismissed, but Gillman’s well publicized role helped her secure a seat in the Minnesota House in 2022, representing a district about 40 miles south of St. Cloud.
“As the founder of ‘Let Them Play Minnesota,’ a grassroots movement that exploded to more than 25,000 members, I raised more than $500,000 in less than a year,” Gillman claimed on her campaign website earlier this month.
Now — after Gillman shared the nonprofit’s IRS 990 tax forms with the Reformer — Gillman edited the website to say “I raised nearly $400,000 in less than a year.”
Earlier this year, the IRS revoked Let Them Play MN’s tax exempt status because it failed to file financial documents to the agency for three consecutive years.
Gillman told the Reformer in a text that she updated her website after filing Let Them Play MN’s 990s.
“I had helped raise money for other groups around the country … and kept a general mental tally of what was raised towards efforts to get kids back playing sports,” Gillman said. “Once we filed the updated documents with the (IRS), and we had the exact number, I thought it would be best to update my website with the information.”
An attorney for Let Them Play MN previously told the Reformer that the failure to file financial documents to the IRS for three years was because of “a miscommunication.” Gillman, in a Twitter statement on Oct. 6, said she took full responsibility for the missed filings.
She said in the statement that later in October the nonprofit’s board members will meet “to wind down the operations formally.”
Let Them Play MN’s tax documents show the nonprofit spent nearly all its donations — $371,337 — on legal fees. Gillman, the nonprofit’s president, and other board members did not receive compensation through Let Them Play MN, according to tax documents.
Let Them Play MN was represented by the Minneapolis law firm CrossCastle in its lawsuits. CrossCastle’s lawyers include prominent Republicans including Ryan Wilson, former GOP candidate for state auditor, and Rep. Harry Niska, R-Ramsey.
In December 2020, Let Them Play MN sued Walz and other state officials in U.S. District Court, challenging a temporary statewide ban on youth sports to mitigate COVID-19, which Walz issued the month prior.
Let Them Play MN attempted to hold a protest about the order at the State Capitol, but officials denied the group’s request. The nonprofit sued, saying their members’ First Amendment rights were violated.
Let Them Play MN also filed a more expansive lawsuit in federal court asserting that Minnesota’s youth sports ban violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, while the state’s masking and quarantine requirements for youth sports both violated due process rights.
In August 2021, a federal judge dismissed the second lawsuit because the Minnesota Legislature passed a law revoking Walz’s emergency powers. The judge said the Legislature and other state officials had done what the nonprofit was seeking, so he dismissed the suit.
This Minnesota Reformer story is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
Photo: Rep. Dawn Gillman, R-Dassel, speaking on the House floor on March 27, 2023. Screenshot, via Minnesota Reformer.
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