In March 2026, a claim spread online that Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom's wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, had pocketed $3.7 million from her own charity.
The rumor circulated on Facebook, X and Instagram. While some of the posts specified that Siebel Newsom and her firm — not just Siebel Newsom — received $3.7 million in total, many claimed Siebel Newsom, personally, received $3.7 million from her own charity. Snopes readers also wrote in and searched the website to ask whether Siebel Newsom "paid herself $3.7M from her charity."
This claim originated from a Daily Mail report claiming Siebel Newsom and her firm "pocketed $3.7 million from her 'gender stereotypes' charity" in the past decade. The charity in question was The Representation Project, a nonprofit organization Siebel Newsom founded in 2011 to combat gender stereotypes. As of this writing, her title (archived) at The Representation Project is founder and chief creative officer.
Based on a Snopes
Her organization also paid an additional $2.1 million to a for-profit film production company founded by Siebel Newsom — Girls Club Entertainment — during that same period, but it was unclear how much of that money, if any, went to Siebel Newsom. In total, that's $3.8 million from 2011 to 2024.
Siebel Newsom's official government team, the Office of the First Partner,referred questions to The Representation Project, which did not immediately return a request for more information.
Given that it was not clear from the available evidence whether Siebel Newsom, personally, received more than $1.8 million in total from her nonprofit, we have not rated this claim.
Origin of claim
The Daily Mail's headline read, "Gavin Newsom's wife and her firm pocketed $3.7M from her 'gender stereotypes' charity, unearthed IRS filings reveal…days after her sanctimonious rant at the press."
Here's the relevant part of the story (emphasis ours):
IRS documents from recent years show Gavin Newsom's wife has been paying herself and her company, Girls Club LLC, up to a third of her nonprofit's entire income each year – pocketing over $3.7 million over the past decade.
Siebel Newsom, 51, runs the Representation Project, a charity that fights against 'intersectional gender stereotypes' and 'harmful gender norms'.
The organization brings in between $1 million and $1.7 million a year in grants and donations, with roughly $300,000 of it going straight to her and her company in recent years, according to financial records.
The most recent IRS filings up to March 2024 show Siebel Newsom, who's also the beneficiary of a multi-million-dollar trust from her wealthy family, receives a $150,000 annual salary from the Representation Project, and her company took another $150,000 from the charity's funds.
Based on a review of IRS filings, the total paid to Siebel Newsom and her company was $2.7 million from 2015 to 2024, making the Daily Mail's report erroneous if you consider the "past decade" the most recent 10 years of tax filings available. If you consider the "past decade" as 2017 to 2026, The Representation Project paid Siebel Newsom and her company $2.1 million plus an undetermined amount from tax years 2025 and 2026.
However, it's true that as of this writing, Siebel Newsom has paid herself an annual salary of about $150,000 from The Representation Project from 2014 to 2024 (with the exception of 2018) and that The Representation Project paid about $150,000 to Siebel Newsom's company annually from that same time period (again, excepting 2018).
The Daily Mail's reporter on the story, Josh Boswell, did not immediately reply to an inquiry as to how he came up with the $3.7 million number.
Following the money
IRS filings for The Representation Project can be found by searching employer identification number 45-1611066 using IRS' tax exempt organization search tool. We used ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer tool, which allows users to search nonprofits by name, to find The Representation Project's employer identification number.
While the IRS search tool provides only filings from 2015 onward, ProPublica published IRS documents for The Representation Project from before 2015 that were taken directly from the IRS. As such, we have also relied on these documents, given ProPublica's reputability in investigative journalism.
The filings, under Part VII, Section A, showed that Siebel Newsom received $150,000 annually for her leadership roles of Girls Club Entertainment in the tax
Representation Project also paid Girls Club Entertainment $150,000 for "Writer/Producer/Director" under Part VII, Section B of the tax filings in tax years 2024, 2023, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2017 and 2016.
It was unclear who or what "Writer/Producer/Director" refers to, nor was it clear what Siebel Newsom's role at Girls Club Entertainment was as of this writing. Siebel Newsom is listed as the "agent" for Girls Club Entertainment in California business filings.
Girls Club Entertainment also received $162,500 in 2022 and $147,760 in 2015. For "Speaker & Writer/Prod./Director Fees," Girls Club Entertainment paid The Representation Project $166,650 in 2014, $255,267 in 2013 and $290,199 in 2012. The Representation Project reported no money sent to Girls Club Entertainment in 2018 and 2011 over $100,000, the reporting threshold set by the IRS.
Snopes previously found no evidence to support a rumor that Newsom laundered money through his wife.