Bay Area Reporter - June 19, 2008
Matthew S. Bajko, m.bajko@ebar.com

Gay organizations dependent on charitable donations find themselves competing against rising food costs, skyrocketing gas prices, a presidential race, and a ballot fight over gay marriage expected to cost upwards of $20 million. Add in proposed funding cuts to AIDS agencies, and it becomes clear that LGBT groups are faced with one of the most challenging environments for raising funds.

To compete, organizations are employing various tactics this year from revamping events to canceling galas. The LGBT community centers in San Jose and San Francisco are locked in a friendly feud to see which one can be the first to raise $50,000 during Pride Month.

As of Wednesday, June 18 the South Bay's Billy DeFrank center had pulled in $14,250, while the San Francisco center had netted $8,731 through what the two centers have dubbed "The Community Challenge."

"It is a friendly challenge between the two of us. It is not designed to be competitive but supportive for both centers and a fun way for the community to support both of the centers," said Aejaie Sellers, executive director of the DeFrank center. "I think it also points to the fact that there are local needs. There may be many statewide and regional and national issues, but there is also real local stuff. Dollars need to be maintained at the local level for programming to be maintained."

It is the first time the two centers have worked collaboratively on raising funds, and is believed to be the first time two LGBT agencies from San Jose and San Francisco have worked together in such a manner. The winner will not only be awarded a yet to be decided upon trophy but also pick out a tacky display for the losing center's lobby.

Rebecca Rolfe, executive director of the San Francisco center, said she jumped at the chance to go head-to-head with her South Bay counterpart when Sellers suggested the idea. Mindful of the difficulties local LGBT groups in other states faced when those states' ballots included marriage amendments, Rolfe said the center's board knew it would face challenges in raising money this year.

"Donors are feeling stretched this year," said Rolfe. "In other states where they have had big marriage initiatives targeting the LGBT community, the need to raise money to defeat those initiatives really drained resources out of the local community. We have seen a lot of local organizations go bankrupt or close their doors because the LGBT community in that state could not fund both a statewide campaign and these local organizations."

The potential for such a situation in California played a part in the Horizons Foundation announcing this month that it would not hold a physical gathering to raise money this year, and instead, take the year off. It will launch an online fundraising drive in order to recoup what it would have pulled in through an actual event.

Last year roughly 1,000 people attended the gala and raised a couple hundred thousand dollars for the foundation. The agency is calling its new effort "Celebrate@Home" and will auction off items through the Internet to raise cash for its grantmaking and leadership programs.

"Even more than other nonprofits, ones in our community do face a challenging year," said Roger Doughty, the foundation's executive director.

The auction will begin September 1 and end September 20. According to a postcard announcing the organization's decision, "The format this year will let the LGBT community focus on other major events vying for attention, energy, and resources, including the presidential election and a potential ballot measure banning same-sex marriage in California."

Doughty said planning for how to fundraise this year began in late 2007 and that a decision to scrap an actual event was finalized in January. With the foundation's event set to take place toward the end of October just weeks prior to the November elections, Doughty said holding it would unnecessarily take away attention from where it needs to be this year.

"We've got an election in the early part of November in which our community has a tremendous amount at stake," said Doughty. "We concluded that we thought we should do everything possible to help keep the community's attention focused on where it should be at that given time."

While the foundation decided to tap into its endowment funds to make a grant of $100,000 to support the fight to defeat the marriage amendment, Doughty said it is also committed to seeing that it maintains its support to local groups.

"Folks are concerned but we have to deal with reality," he said. "Horizons is not channeling everything toward marriage because we absolutely have a community we have to maintain. We can't lose important organizations, and more importantly, hurt the people they serve."

To donate to the DeFrank center, go to http://defrank.org/membership/communitychallenge.html. To give to San Francisco's center, visit http://www.sfcenter.org/donate.php. For information on the Horizons Foundation, visit http://www.horizonsfoundation.org.

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