In a personal ceremony on Sept. 17, Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth stood at a podium contained in the Nationwide Archives constructing in Washington, D.C., and praised a Florida nonprofit for what he known as a singular achievement in American training. The attendees had been celebrating the Basis for Liberty and American Greatness, which introduced that it had reached 2 million youngsters with civics training since its founding in 2016.
“I hope you perceive how necessary that is,” Hegseth advised the room. “What we pour into the subsequent technology will decide whether or not we preserve our republic or not.”
FLAG’s founder, Nick Adams, had spent almost a decade constructing towards this second. An Australian-born conservative commentator and MAGA influencer, Adams had created the nonprofit, raised $7.7 million for it over 10 years, and garnered repeated reward from President Donald Trump. In March, Trump appointed Adams because the particular presidential envoy for American tourism, exceptionalism and values — a place created for him after his nomination as ambassador to Malaysia stalled the earlier 12 months.
However a evaluation of FLAG’s funds, donor operations and on-line donation community reveals a much less celebratory image. There may be little proof that the nonprofit has supplied the civics training it claims. And Adams and his nonprofit have engaged in a sample of questionable monetary preparations, together with paying Adams and his mom greater than half its current annual income, whereas elevating a lot of its cash by a sweepstakes operation that has promised donors an opportunity to win $1,000,000 — a prize FLAG’s information present no proof of ever paying.
Adams moved to the USA from Australia in 2012 and has since develop into an outspoken champion of the American political and financial system. Now 41, he has constructed a following as a conservative commentator and self-described “alpha male” influencer, making frequent media appearances and amassing roughly 2.1 million followers on Fb and 640,000 followers on X on his private pages. Adams authored books together with “Retaking America: Crushing Political Correctness” and “Trump and Churchill: Defenders of Western Civilization.”
In 2016, Adams based FLAG, registering it as a nonprofit with the mission to carry high-quality civics training to Okay-12 college students throughout America. FLAG has produced civics supplies just like the Pupil’s Structure, the Pupil’s Declaration of Independence and the Pupil’s Federalist Papers — kid-friendly editions of the nation’s founding paperwork. By 2023, FLAG was reporting annual income of almost $1.5 million, consisting of donations and merchandise gross sales. “Due to the assist of 40,000+ grassroots patriots,” the group’s web site states, “over 1 million FLAG sources have been distributed in lecture rooms all throughout America.”
To present FLAG credibility in conservative circles, Adams assembled an advisory council of motion leaders together with Hegseth, then a Fox Information host; the late Charlie Kirk, founding father of Turning Level USA; the late Edwin J. Feulner, founding father of the Heritage Basis; and Dennis Prager, the conservative radio host and co-founder of PragerU, a nonprofit that produces conservative instructional supplies. (The council has since been changed with a board of administrators.)
Adams didn’t reply to an in depth checklist of questions on FLAG’s monetary practices, sweepstakes operation and academic programming. A Pentagon spokesperson declined to reply to questions however reiterated Hegseth’s assist for FLAG.
Civics training has develop into a rallying trigger throughout the Make America Nice Once more motion, whose slogan invokes a return to a particular imaginative and prescient of the nation’s founding ideas. PragerU is an accepted curriculum supplier in no less than eight states. Turning Level USA pursued the same aim by Turning Level Academy, a community of personal colleges. Together with these organizations, FLAG is now a part of the America 250 Civics Schooling Coalition, a partnership of the U.S. Division of Schooling fashioned with over 40 conservative teams.
Trump’s return to workplace has been a boon for Adams. The president has known as Adams one in every of his favourite authors, and a foreword in Adams’ 2024 e book, “Alpha Kings,” credited to Trump calls Adams somebody whose “work ethic equals his ethical accountability and religion in God.” Though Trump wasn’t in a position to attend FLAG’s 2023 annual gala, he despatched a video praising the nonprofit and Adams, telling attendees that “tens of 1000’s of lecturers are being educated and lots of of 1000’s of fogeys and grandparents at the moment are standing up for our youngsters.”
“It takes Nick from Australia to come back and train us about American greatness and to assist us struggle for our nation,” Trump added. “He’s an American now, and we’re very fortunate to have him.”
The White Home press workplace declined to remark.
FLAG’s web site invitations lecturers to request free classroom displays, delivered by “licensed FLAG Ambassadors,” together with Adams himself, alongside visitor audio system described as entrepreneurs, enterprise leaders and immigrants. In 2016 and early 2017, FLAG commonly posted photographs documenting visits to varsities. After that interval, nevertheless, ProPublica couldn’t discover comparable documentation of FLAG representatives visiting colleges.
Since 2016, as FLAG’s annual revenues grew from $68,000 to $1.1 million in 2024, there may be virtually no indication within the group’s annual federal tax filings that it was spending cash on its said mission. No line merchandise in FLAG’s federal tax submitting identifies a fee to a college, a trainer or an academic distributor. Solely two traces, in a 2017 federal submitting, point out $26,925 for “Pupil’s Constitutions, Printing” and $5,670 for “E book Donations, Delivery & Provides.” Within the final six years, whereas FLAG operated beneath Adams, the one documented occasion of FLAG exercise that seems to suit the definition of “instructional” is a 2020 video exhibiting Adams talking at what’s described as a lecturers’ convention.
However the nonprofit has been profitable for the Adams household. In 2024, Adams, who was born Nicholas Adamopoulos, and his mom, Angelika Adamopoulos, collected a mixed $587,279 in compensation and advantages from FLAG — 53% of the group’s income that 12 months, in response to the nonprofit’s federal submitting.
Adamopoulos was paid $201,861, together with advantages, as FLAG’s secretary. In the identical submitting, FLAG answered no when requested by the IRS whether or not any officer or director shared a household relationship with one other director or officer. Adamopoulos didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Specialists had been troubled that the group spent a lot on Adams and his mom. “The quantity being paid, each in absolute greenback phrases and as a share of the group’s revenues and bills, may be very excessive,” mentioned Lloyd Mayer, a nonprofit legislation professor at Notre Dame Legislation Faculty and a number one authority on tax-exempt organizations.
Mayer mentioned Adams’ wage will increase since FLAG’s founding are extra of “a yellow flag,” than a transparent violation. For FLAG’s first three years, Adams obtained no wage. He first took compensation in 2019 of simply $20,400. Then his annual pay rose steadily to achieve $411,209, or about 30% of the group’s complete income, in 2023. Adamopoulos was the primary worker exterior of Adams to be paid a big wage, in 2024. No different worker was paid greater than $5,000 from 2016 to 2024, in response to FLAG’s federal filings, obtained by ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer.
The authorized take a look at, Mayer mentioned, is whether or not the board was clear that it was making up for early years of low or no pay: “Have been they specific in saying, ‘We’re not simply paying you for this 12 months; we’re paying you in your previous service, which you weren’t pretty compensated for’?”
The IRS asks nonprofits whether or not their govt compensation was reviewed by unbiased folks and in the event that they used comparisons to different comparable organizations — a typical safeguard in opposition to self-dealing. In all filings from 2017 to 2024, FLAG answered no to each questions.
Philip Hackney, a nonprofit legislation professor on the College of Pittsburgh and former IRS official, mentioned the absence of an unbiased evaluation creates its personal authorized publicity. “Technically, that may be an extra profit transaction by itself,” Hackney mentioned, referring to the IRS class that triggers taxes on compensation paid to nonprofit insiders above truthful market worth.
FLAG claims that 66% of income goes towards program service bills, in response to a separate monetary report filed with the Division of Agriculture and Shopper Providers in Florida, the place the group is now primarily based. However the salaries of Adams and his mom, social media spending and journey bills account for $755,541, or 86%, of the $878,208 allotted to program companies.
Mayer mentioned the classification will not be robotically improper beneath federal legislation. “Schooling as a charitable function is a really broad class,” he mentioned. “Spending cash on workers, on-line communications and even fundraising appeals which have informational content material can all be thought of programmatic.”
“What [the IRS is] in search of will not be inflated spending,” Mayer mentioned. “They’re in search of disguised private spending.”
In Australia, Adams was accused of spending taxpayer {dollars} on private bills. In 2006, when Adams was 22 years previous, he served as a councillor in Ashfield, Australia. He was formally condemned by fellow councillors for operating up 1000’s of {dollars} in cellphone calls and taxi fees for private use whereas claiming them as council bills. He repaid the fees after a proper investigation, in response to a 2006 article within the Inside-West Weekly, an Australian newspaper.
FLAG’s on-line retailer sells Adams’ private books — together with “Alpha Kings” and “From Mar-a-Lago to Mars,” a number of marketed as signed copies for as a lot as $40 — alongside its personal instructional supplies. One in every of Adams’ private books, “Trump and Churchill,” is on the entrance web page of FLAG’s on-line retailer, accompanied with language that claims, “Proceeds from all gross sales go on to selling our mission and offering college students and lecturers with high-quality instructional sources.” It’s the solely e book with language that distinguishes which purchases fund FLAG’s mission or pay Adams instantly.
In September, FLAG posted a photograph from a conservative ladies’s conference exhibiting Adams standing behind a desk stacked with copies of his private books displayed alongside FLAG-branded sources with the group’s banner behind him. Adams’ books have additionally been marketed on the market on FLAG’s Fb web page, with hyperlinks going on to Adams’ private web site for the books quite than FLAG’s shopify web page.
“He’s free to market his books,” Mayer mentioned, “but when he has a charity do it, meaning it’s probably not a charity anymore, in that respect. It’s not about public profit — the non-public profit to him overrides the general public profit.”
Along with the disclosure discrepancies, FLAG seems to have violated guidelines for conducting sweepstakes. Practically all of FLAG’s income originates from particular person donors, and most of that cash is raised by a direct-mail sweepstakes operation that provides the prospect to win prizes, in a single case $1,000,000.
For years, FLAG has run a direct-mail sweepstakes marketing campaign beneath names like “Payout Choice” and “Winner Search Swps.” Sweepstakes are regulated primarily on the state degree, and organizations that run them are sometimes required to register and report back to state officers. Not each state requires this, however Florida, the place FLAG is registered as a charity, does. FLAG doesn’t disclose a sweepstakes program in its federal filings, and ProPublica couldn’t find any official sweepstakes registration for the group in any state.
9 years of FLAG’s federal filings include no transaction in keeping with a $1,000,000 fee. Hackney mentioned any such payout could be anticipated to look on the group’s tax filings. “It must be an quantity paid out in some unspecified time in the future, and that might present up in a 990,” he mentioned, referencing the identify of the tax return filed by nonprofits, which is public. At its monetary peak in 2023, FLAG held roughly $512,000 in complete property — about half the worth of the prize it has supplied to donors.
Mayer mentioned the absence of a documented prize fee raises additional authorized questions. “If the promise is that somebody will win $1,000,000 and nobody ever does, that’s fraud,” he mentioned. “That’s mendacity to induce folks to assist you.”
Inside information from a mailing checklist alternate database, which particulars how typically and for what function organizations use mailing lists of potential donors, exhibits a shift in FLAG’s emphasis. Notes in FLAG’s document state that as of July 2020, FLAG was “not mailing a lot” by typical fundraising channels and was “specializing in the sweeps aspect.”
In April 2024, somebody filed a Higher Enterprise Bureau criticism in opposition to FLAG, alleging that its sweepstakes drawing deadlines had been repeatedly postponed — together with these of greater than a dozen different charities the complainant mentioned used the identical apply. In a follow-up submitting, the complainant cited FLAG’s timeline: a drawing initially set to run from January 2022 by December 2024 that had, by then, been pushed to run from December 2023 by January 2025.
“I simply need them to pay me again my hard-earned cash,” the complainant wrote, “since I’m a retired senior citizen who occurred to like this nation.”
FLAG advised the BBB on Might 6, 2024, that it had responded to the complainant.
FLAG marks its tenth anniversary on Wednesday, and is throwing itself a gala with tickets for the event priced at $1,000; $5,000; and $10,000. Adams continues to be listed on the web site as FLAG’s founder however ceded the function of CEO in March to Cooper Rodenburg, a current graduate of Stetson College, across the time he accepted his State Division function to promote tourism to the USA.
Reached by cellphone, Rodenburg requested that questions be despatched by e mail however didn’t reply to them.
Rodenburg has since elevated FLAG’s public exercise, launching a TikTok account and a Substack publication, assembly with instructional representatives and chatting with teams just like the Shelby County Republican Girls’s Membership in Tennessee. A Substack put up in April described FLAG, represented by Rodenburg and Adamopoulos, delivering founding paperwork to varsities in Mississippi. This was one of many solely particular program actions the group has documented lately.
