Chinchillas and Checkbooks: The Lucky Chinchilla
If you have followed this series, you already know that I have been mapping the overlap between local public officials, nonprofit leadership, and federal funding in Ouachita Parish. One name that has come up more than once is Herbert Guillory.
Guillory, who also has connections to the Southside Economic Development District board, holds leadership roles in a network of Monroe-area nonprofits, including the Northeast Louisiana Black Chamber of Commerce and the Monroe Regional Black Chamber of Commerce. Both organizations have received ARPA funding through the Ouachita Parish Police Jury.
While working through his nonprofit involvement, I pulled the Form 990 for another nonprofit organization he leads: Mu Tau, Inc. What I found there is the subject of this post:
Mu Tau, Inc. is a Monroe-based 501(c)(3) connected to the Omega Psi Phi fraternity. According to its most recent Form 990, Herbert Guillory serves as president.
The organization’s stated mission is to assist the Mu Tau Chapter with programs in education, community uplift, health initiatives, and social action.
Public records also show that Mu Tau received $62,500 in ARPA funding from the Ouachita Parish Police Jury. The federal point of contact listed on parish performance and expenditure reports is an email address that appears to be associated with Guillory.
What stood out to me on the 990 was not the just another organization associated to Guillory receiving ARPA funding. It was also the gaming.
According to the filing, Mu Tau reported $197,908 in gross revenue from charitable bingo during the 2024 tax year.
The organization does not operate the gaming itself. The 990 shows that 100 percent of gaming activity takes place at an outside facility through a third-party contractor called White Co Gaming, located at in West Monroe.
Here is where the numbers get interesting.
The 990 reports that while Mu Tau received $197,908 from the gaming operation, White Co Gaming retained $304,474.
Charitable gaming in Louisiana is regulated under the premise that the proceeds benefit the licensed organization’s charitable mission. So I looked at what Mu Tau actually distributed.
According to the same Form 990:
Scholarships to college-bound students: $1,850
Test prep, study skills, and tutoring: $26,000
Health initiatives, anti-violence, and human trafficking programming: $29,900
Other community programming and disaster response: $19,615
Total program service expenses came to $51,365.
The $1,850 in scholarships represents less than one percent of the gross gaming revenue reported for the year per my understanding.
Even when combining scholarships with test prep and tutoring, the total student-facing expenditure comes to $27,850, or about 14 percent of gross gaming revenue.
Governance Observations
The 990 also discloses several items related to organizational governance.
Of the five voting members of the governing body, zero are listed as independent. The organization reports that it does not have a written conflict of interest policy. It does not have a written whistleblower policy. It does not have a written document retention and destruction policy.
None of these policies are legally required for every nonprofit. However, the IRS asks about them on the Form 990 because they are considered standard practices for organizations handling significant public-facing revenue.
None of these findings, taken individually, prove that any laws have been broken.
Louisiana charitable gaming is regulated by the Louisiana Office of Charitable Gaming. Organizations operating under a charitable license are expected to use gaming proceeds to further their stated charitable purposes. When an organization reports half a million dollars in gaming activity and distributes less than two thousand dollars in scholarships, that is a question worth asking.
Who is benefiting from this arrangement? Is it the students the mission describes? Is it the community the filing references? Is it the third-party operator that retains the majority of gaming revenue? Is it someone else entirely?
I do not have the answer. The 990 raises the question. The public, and the regulators responsible for charitable gaming oversight, deserve a clearer one.
This post focuses narrowly on Mu Tau because the numbers on a single filing are striking enough to stand on their own. The broader picture, including the network of Monroe-area nonprofits where Guillory and others hold overlapping leadership roles that tie back to OPPJ, is the subject of further reporting that is forthcoming.
I am not an attorney or an accountant. This post reflects my interpretation of publicly available records, specifically Mu Tau, Inc.‘s Form 990 for tax year 2024 as published on ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer. Additional documentation or context may exist. All individuals mentioned are presumed innocent of any wrongdoing. This content is intended to promote transparency and accountability & readers are encouraged to do their own research to form their own opinions.
