Amid accusations that the singer ‘frittered away’ more than a million dollars on legal fees, consulting and publicity, Gaga insists that critics have misunderstood the tax report

Lady Gaga has denied claims that her Born This Way Foundation “frittered away” more than a million dollars, spending most of its donations on legal fees, consulting and publicity. With documents showing the charity allegedly dispensed only $5,000 (£3,000) to outside organisations, Gaga insisted that critics have misunderstood the form and function of her foundation.

“We do the work,” Gaga wrote on her Little Monsters website. “We do not raise money and allocate the funds to other charities for them to do the work.”

These arguments were expanded upon by Cynthia Germanotta, the singer’s mother, who co-founded Born This Way in 2011. In an editorial published by the Huffington Post, Germanotta hit back against Roger Friedman’s recent report for Showbiz 411, which claimed Born This Way “spends more on lawyers, publicity and consultants than on charity”.

“A clear understanding of the differences between a grant-making organization and one that carries out its work directly would have made this a non-story,” Germanotta wrote. “We are not a grant-maker that funds the work of other charities, and were never intended to be … [But] we are having a profound impact in just a very short period of time.”

Friedman’s original article alleged that Gaga’s foundation finances were as follows: $2.1m in net ᴀssets, with $2.6m in donations. According to their federal tax report, Born This Way reportedly spent $300,000 on “strategic consulting (web, digital)“, $50,000 on “social media”, $406,552 on “legal”, $150,000 on “philanthropic consulting”, $58,768 on “publicity fees” and $808,661 on “other”. “It’s unclear that anyone was really helped by the Born this Way Foundation other than lawyers, consultants, publicists and travel agents,” he wrote. “I like Lady Gaga and her parents. But celebrities probably shouldn’t start charitable foundations.”

According to its website, the Born This Way Foundation is “dedicated to creating a safe community that helps connect young people with the skills and opportunities… to build a kinder, braver world”. Their three main goals are to create a “safe, useful” online community for young people; to teach “the skills, tools and resources you need to feel empowered”; and to identify “solutions” that will “impact local communities”.

Part of the problem may be terminology: most foundations dispense their endowments in the form of grants. Born This Way places the emphasis on its own projects. Accordingly, Germanotta’s statement boasts about an awareness-building 2012 bus tour, which visited 23 communities and garnered “300m media impressions”, as well as the 500,000 users of its official website. “[Our] work has focused heavily on providing information on empowerment through [this] website, raising awareness of the importance of being kind to others through public relations and social media,” she wrote. “Every dollar spent across these categories, including the legal fees … directly serves Born This Way Foundation’s core mission of empowering youth.”

In addition to Gaga’s campaign for a kinder, braver world, the singer is also set to become “the new face of drought awareness” in California. In exchange for receiving authorisation to shoot a music video at the iconic Hearst Castle, Gaga agreed not only to pay more than $250,000, but to shoot a public service announcement for home water conservation. State governor Jerry Brown issued a statement personally thanking Gaga for her “aid and ᴀssistance” to the state.