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Jennifer Siebel Newsom‘s gender-focused film nonprofit is burning through cash with revenues drying up — a potentially concerning pattern for the wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is reportedly the subject of a federal tax investigation.
Federal authorities have not publicly disclosed what prompted the probes into the Newsom and his spouse, which came to light last week, but a source with knowledge of the matter confirmed to The California Post that investigators have been examining Siebel Newsom’s taxes.
An examination of the last five years of IRS filings for The Representation Project — the nonprofit Siebel Newsom founded to distribute her documentaries and promote gender equity initiatives — shows an organization increasingly dependent on donations while continuing to opaquely spend large sums of money to distribute Siebel Newsom’s films.
Tax experts contacted by The Post were befuddled on what to make of the expenses and salary the first partner receives for reportedly 40 hours a week of work.
“It’s very difficult to know how effectively the money is being spent,” said Gary Krausz, an audit partner at Gursey Schneider LLP who reviewed the filings for The Post.
“They could be paying [Siebel Newsom] $150K and she could be sitting on Instagram posting stories all day.”
Officials for the governor, Siebel Newsom and The Representation Project did not respond to requests for comment.
For the last fiscal year ending in March 2025, The Representation Project reported paying Siebel Newsom $161,250 as the nonprofit’s founder and chief creative officer. That was a raise from the $150,000 she received in prior years, according to the nonprofit’s Form 990 filings with the IRS.
The payments appear to have been directed to Girls Club Entertainment LLC, Siebel Newsom’s for-profit film company, which has a history of failing to file legally required paperwork in a timely manner.
Siebel Newsom’s pay bump came during a brutal year financially for the nonprofit. The Representation Project reported $1.24 million in revenue against $1.75 million in expenses in 2024-2025, leaving it $508,228 in the red.
Its net assets cratered from $553,081 at the start of the fiscal year to just $44,853.
The organization also lost about $221,000 the in 2020-2021 fiscal year, and it went into the red again the next year with losses of $445,000. The nonprofit managed to roughly break even the following two years before burning a half-million dollars beyond revenue.
Siebel Newsom’s films have been accused of being heavy-handed, progressive social crusades. Her first project, “Miss Representation,” criticized the media’s portrayal of women while “The Mask You Live In” deconstructed masculinity. “The Great American Lie” railed against inequality and capitalism and “Fair Play” mewed about the division of household labor.
Despite more than a decade of filmmaking, only Siebel Newsom’s first documentary earned a Rotten Tomatoes score above 70%, while the three others have failed to attract enough critics to even receive a rating.
Identifying all the donors who have helped prop up the first partner’s flagging film career is impossible based on limited public records, but the list includes a consisted cast of wealthy donors — such as Lisa Stone Pritzker and Susie Tompkins Buell — who have helped bankroll Gov. Newsom’s political activities in recent years.
Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends for Rentrak, told The Post that the expenses on distribution are difficult to know without more information.
“Theatrical [releases] are very easy — box office splits are defined on how much the theater owner gets, the distributor gets and anyone involved in financing. That pie is cut into many slices,” Dergarabedian said.
“Licensing deals are more nebulous and have to be judged on a case-by-case basis.”
This month, Siebel Newsom unveiled a new documentary titled “Miss Representation: Rise Up,” a follow-up to her 2011 film of the same name. The new flick focuses on the toxic impact social media has on young women and girls and features Hillary Clinton and Rep. Nancy Pelosi.
The Representation Project reported spending more than $2.07 million on its “Film” program over the past five tax filings, with a sharp jump to $896,917 in its most recent filing. These records say the expenses are tied not only to distributing Siebel Newsom’s films but also to educational materials built around them.
Assemblymember David Tangipa (R-Fresno) previously accused the films of being “a very clear attempt to indoctrinate the next generation of Californians.”
Despite the drying up of funds for The Representation Project, and a reliance on wealthy donors to fund her projects (including her own family’s charitable trust), Siebel Newsom told The Guardian in a recent interview that she sees herself as an independent entrepreneur, artist and advocate.
“I’ve always had a career. I’ve always been a breadwinner,” Siebel Newsom told the outlet. “We don’t pay our first ladies.”
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