In a private ceremony on Sept. 17, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stood at a podium inside the National Archives building in Washington, D.C., and praised a Florida nonprofit for what he called a singular achievement in American education. The event celebrated the Foundation for Liberty and American Greatness, or FLAG, which said it had reached 2 million children with civics education since its founding in 2016.

“I hope you understand how important this is,” Hegseth told the room. “What we pour into the next generation will determine whether we keep our republic or not.”

FLAG’s founder, Nick Adams, had spent nearly a decade building toward that moment. The Australian-born conservative commentator and MAGA influencer created the nonprofit, raised $7.7 million for it over 10 years and received repeated praise from President Donald Trump. In March, Trump appointed Adams as the special presidential envoy for American tourism, exceptionalism and values — a position created for him after his nomination as ambassador to Malaysia stalled the previous year.

But a review of FLAG’s finances, donor operations and online fundraising network presents a far less celebratory picture. There is little evidence that the nonprofit has provided the civics education it claims. Adams and his organization have also engaged in a pattern of questionable financial arrangements, including paying Adams and his mother more than half of FLAG’s recent annual revenue, while raising much of its money through a sweepstakes operation that promised donors a chance to win $1,000,000 — a prize FLAG’s records show no evidence of ever paying.

Adams moved to the United States from Australia in 2012 and has since become an outspoken supporter of the American political and economic system. Now 41, he has built a following as a conservative commentator and self-described “alpha male” influencer, making frequent media appearances and amassing roughly 2.1 million followers on Facebook and 640,000 followers on X on his personal accounts. He has written books including Retaking America: Crushing Political Correctness and Trump and Churchill: Defenders of Western Civilization.

In 2016, Adams founded FLAG as a nonprofit with the stated mission of bringing high-quality civics education to K-12 students across the United States. The organization has produced materials such as the Student’s Constitution, Student’s Declaration of Independence and Student’s Federalist Papers, which are kid-friendly editions of foundational American documents. By 2023, FLAG reported annual revenue of nearly $1.5 million, made up of donations and merchandise sales. “Thanks to the support of 40,000+ grassroots patriots,” the organization’s website says, “over 1 million FLAG resources have been distributed in classrooms all across America.”

To build credibility in conservative circles, Adams assembled an advisory council that included Hegseth, then a Fox News host; the late Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA; the late Edwin J. Feulner, founder of the Heritage Foundation; and Dennis Prager, the conservative radio host and co-founder of PragerU, a nonprofit that produces conservative educational materials. The council has since been replaced by a board of directors.

Adams did not respond to a detailed list of questions about FLAG’s financial practices, sweepstakes operation and educational programming. A Pentagon spokesperson also declined to answer questions, but reiterated Hegseth’s support for FLAG.

Civics education has become a rallying issue across the Make America Great Again movement, whose slogan invokes a return to a specific vision of the country’s founding principles. PragerU is an approved curriculum provider in at least eight states. Turning Point USA pursued a similar goal through Turning Point Academy, a network of private schools. Along with those groups, FLAG is now part of the America 250 Civics Education Coalition, a partnership of the U.S. Department of Education formed with more than 40 conservative organizations.

Trump’s return to office has been a boost for Adams. The president has called Adams one of his favorite authors, and a foreword in Adams’ 2024 book Alpha Kings, credited to Trump, describes Adams as someone whose “work ethic equals his moral responsibility and faith in God.” Although Trump was unable to attend FLAG’s 2023 annual gala, he sent a video praising the organization and Adams, telling attendees that “tens of thousands of teachers are being trained and hundreds of thousands of parents and grandparents are now standing up for our kids.”

“It takes Nick from Australia to come and teach us about American greatness and to help us fight for our country,” Trump added. “He’s an American now, and we’re very lucky to have him.”

The White House press office declined to comment.

FLAG’s website invites teachers to request free classroom presentations delivered by “certified FLAG Ambassadors,” including Adams himself, along with guest speakers described as entrepreneurs, business leaders and immigrants. In 2016 and early 2017, FLAG regularly posted photos documenting visits to schools. After that period, however, ProPublica could not find similar documentation of FLAG representatives visiting schools.

Since 2016, as FLAG’s annual revenue grew from $68,000 to $1.1 million in 2024, there is little indication in the organization’s annual federal tax filings that it spent money on its stated mission. No line item in FLAG’s federal filings identifies payments to schools, teachers or educational distributors. Only two lines in a 2017 filing show $26,925 for “Student’s Constitutions, Printing” and $5,670 for “Book Donations, Shipping & Supplies.” In the last six years, while FLAG has operated under Adams, the only documented activity that appears to fit an educational purpose is a 2020 video showing Adams speaking at what is described as a teachers’ conference.

The nonprofit has been lucrative for the Adams family. In 2024, Adams, whose birth name is Nicholas Adamopoulos, and his mother, Angelika Adamopoulos, collected a combined $587,279 in compensation and benefits from FLAG — 53% of the organization’s revenue that year, according to the nonprofit’s federal filing. Adamopoulos was paid $201,861, including benefits, as FLAG’s secretary. In the same filing, FLAG answered no when asked by the IRS whether any officer or director shared a family relationship with another officer or director. Adamopoulos did not respond to requests for comment.

Experts said they were troubled by how much of the organization’s revenue went to Adams and his mother. “The amount being paid, both in absolute dollar terms and as a percentage of the organization’s revenues and expenses, is very high,” said Lloyd Mayer, a nonprofit law professor at Notre Dame Law School and a leading authority on tax-exempt organizations.

Mayer said Adams’ salary increases since FLAG’s founding are more of “a yellow flag” than a clear violation. During FLAG’s first three years, Adams took no salary. He first received compensation in 2019, when he was paid $20,400. His annual pay then rose steadily to $411,209 in 2023, or about 30% of the group’s total revenue. Adamopoulos was the first employee outside Adams to receive a significant salary in 2024. No other employee was paid more than $5,000 from 2016 to 2024, according to FLAG’s federal filings obtained through ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer.

The legal question, Mayer said, is whether the board clearly stated that it was compensating Adams for years of low or unpaid work. “Were they explicit in saying, ‘We’re not just paying you for this year; we’re paying you for your past service, which you were not fairly compensated for’?” he said.

The IRS asks nonprofits whether executive compensation was reviewed by independent people and whether the organization used comparisons with similar groups — standard safeguards against self-dealing. In every filing from 2017 to 2024, FLAG answered no to both questions.

Philip Hackney, a nonprofit law professor at the University of Pittsburgh and former IRS official, said the absence of an independent review creates its own legal exposure. “Technically, that can be an excess benefit transaction on its own,” Hackney said, referring to the IRS category that triggers taxes on compensation paid to nonprofit insiders above fair market value.

FLAG says 66% of its revenue goes toward program service expenses, according to a separate financial report filed with Florida’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, where the organization is now based. But the salaries of Adams and his mother, social media spending and travel expenses account for $755,541, or 86%, of the $878,208 allocated to program services.

Mayer said that classification is not automatically improper under federal law. “Education as a charitable purpose is a very broad category,” he said. “Spending money on staff, online communications and even fundraising appeals that have informational content can all be considered programmatic.”

“What [the IRS is] looking for is not inflated spending,” Mayer said. “They’re looking for disguised personal spending.”

Adams has also faced prior accusations in Australia of using public money for personal expenses. In 2006, when he was 22, he served as a councillor in Ashfield, Australia. He was formally condemned by fellow councillors for running up thousands of dollars in phone calls and taxi charges for personal use while claiming them as council expenses. According to a 2006 article in the Inner-West Weekly, he repaid the charges after a formal investigation.

FLAG’s online store sells Adams’ personal books — including Alpha Kings and From Mar-a-Lago to Mars, with several offered as signed copies for as much as $40 — alongside its own educational materials. One of Adams’ books, Trump and Churchill, appears on the front page of FLAG’s online store with language stating, “Proceeds from all sales go directly to promoting our mission and providing students and teachers with high-quality educational resources.” It is the only book accompanied by language distinguishing which purchases fund FLAG’s mission and which may pay Adams directly.

In September, FLAG posted a photo from a conservative women’s convention showing Adams standing behind a table stacked with copies of his personal books, displayed alongside FLAG-branded resources with the organization’s banner behind him. Adams’ books have also been advertised for sale on FLAG’s Facebook page, with links leading directly to Adams’ personal website for the books rather than FLAG’s Shopify page.

“He’s free to market his books,” Mayer said, “but if he has a charity do it, that means it’s not really a charity anymore, in that respect. It’s not about public benefit — the private benefit to him overrides the public benefit.”

Beyond the disclosure issues, FLAG appears to have violated rules governing sweepstakes. Nearly all of its revenue comes from individual donors, and most of that money is raised through a direct-mail sweepstakes operation that offers the chance to win prizes, including in one case $1,000,000.

For years, FLAG has run a direct-mail sweepstakes campaign under names such as “Payout Decision” and “Winner Search Swps.” Sweepstakes are regulated mainly at the state level, and organizations that run them are often required to register and report to state officials. Not every state requires this, but Florida, where FLAG is registered as a charity, does. FLAG does not disclose a sweepstakes program in its federal filings, and ProPublica could not locate any official sweepstakes registration for the organization in any state.

Nine years of FLAG’s federal filings contain no transaction consistent with a $1,000,000 payment. Hackney said a payment of that kind would be expected to appear in the organization’s tax filings. “It should be an amount paid out at some point, and that would show up in a 990,” he said, referring to the public nonprofit tax return.

At its financial peak in 2023, FLAG held about $512,000 in total assets — roughly half the value of the prize it has offered donors. Mayer said the lack of a documented prize payment raises additional legal concerns. “If the promise is that someone will win $1,000,000 and no one ever does, that’s fraud,” he said. “That’s lying to induce people to support you.”

Internal records from a mailing list exchange database, which tracks how often and for what purpose organizations use mailing lists of potential donors, show a shift in FLAG’s fundraising focus. Notes in the records state that as of July 2020, FLAG was “not mailing much” through conventional fundraising channels and was “focusing on the sweeps side.”

In April 2024, someone filed a Better Business Bureau complaint against FLAG, alleging that its sweepstakes drawing deadlines had been repeatedly postponed, along with those of more than a dozen other charities the complainant said used the same practice. In a follow-up filing, the complainant cited FLAG’s timeline: a drawing originally set to run from January 2022 through December 2024 had, by then, been pushed to run from December 2023 through January 2025.

“I just want them to pay me back my hard earned money,” the complainant wrote, “since I am a retired senior citizen who happened to love this country.”

FLAG told the BBB on May 6, 2024, that it had responded to the complaint.

FLAG marks its 10th anniversary on Wednesday and is hosting a gala with tickets priced at $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000. Adams is still listed on the website as FLAG’s founder, but he stepped down as CEO in March and was replaced by Cooper Rodenburg, a recent Stetson University graduate, around the time Adams accepted his State Department role promoting tourism to the United States.

Reached by phone, Rodenburg asked that questions be sent by email but did not respond. Since then, he has expanded FLAG’s public activity, launching a TikTok account and a Substack newsletter, meeting with educational representatives and speaking to groups such as the Shelby County Republican Women’s Club in Tennessee. A Substack post in April said FLAG, represented by Rodenburg and Adamopoulos, delivered founding documents to schools in Mississippi. That was one of the few specific program activities the organization has documented in recent years.