Who secretly funds the National Organization for Marriage and its assault on Iowa's judiciary?

NOM President Brian Brown, speaking on 7/27/10.
He is paid more than  $212,000 per year from secret
donors. Photo: Flickr; LostAlbatross

More proof, thanks to a detailed analysis by the Washington Independent, that the Mormon-organized National Organization for Marriage is not a grassroots organization but a stealth shell for big money donors fighting both gay marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships as well as campaign disclosure regulations. (As if the laughably small turnout at its "rallies" and its tooth-and-nail legal fights with several states over campaign disclosure laws weren't a clue already.)

The Washington Independent reports that the National Organization for Marriage's 990 for 2010 (just filed, 12 months into 2011) shows that just five donors contributed $8,106,000 or 84% of the 9.6 million raised by NOM in 2010. It spent $10.7 million. Just two of those donors were responsible for about 2/3 of the money. In July, Maggie Gallagher, a past president of NOM, said it raised and spent $13,000 in 2010 but wouldn't later comment on an email inquiry about the disparity.

In September 2010, The Washington Independent, TAI’s predecessor, reported that Catholic charity group the Knights of Columbus donated $1.4 million to NOM in 2009, an amount that did not appear of NOM’s Form 990.
A fundraising email from Brown from early November begins:

Dear Marriage Supporter, I’m beginning to worry.

We have won victory after victory for marriage. California. Maine. Maryland. Rhode Island. Gay marriage is inevitable? Apparently, voters across America missed that memo. But NOM is fighting on so many fronts right now our resources are being spread thin. [Emphasis NOM's.]

Then Brown accuses the “same-sex marriage lobbyists” of being supported by “massive contributions from the usual Hollywood celebrities, huge foundations and wealthy billionaires. What do we have? Millions of Americans just like you, friend.” [Emphasis NOM's.]

In Iowa, the National Organization for Marriage spent $600,000 to remove three of the seven Supreme Court justices who rule unanimously that denying gay couples marriage licenses violated the language of Iowa's constitution.