lesbian notions
Groups need
class work
by Paula Martinac
Special to Q-Notes
A recent survey of the budgets of the largest
national gay organizations raises concern about
the growth of our movement and suggests that
lesbian and gay fundraisers should be paying
greater attention to class issues.
The survey, which was coordinated by the
Washington Blade, found that the annual bud
gets of our national organizations have bal
looned since 1997, but the number of people
making contributions to them has stayed pretty
much the same. This standstill in donor num
bers, the Blade speculates, may be due in part
to the proliferation of queer organizations over
the last few years.
Certainly, people who aren’t giving money
to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
(NGLTF) or Lambda Legal Defense and Edu
cation Fund (LLDEF) may in fact be digging
into their pockets for newer organizations or
for local queer groups, like community centers
and health projects.
But competition for the same gay bucks can’t
be the complete answer, given the stats on non
profit giving in general. Kim Klein, the author
of Fundraising for Social Change and a guru in
the field, has found that about 70 percent of
the population regularly gives to nonprofit
groups and most of those donors support be
tween five and 11 organizations, not just one.
Here’s an even more astonishing fact: About
85 percent of all the money given away in this
country comes from middle-class, working-class
and poor households — not from liquor and
beer companies or from the David Geffens and
Michael Huffingtons among us.
Yet, despite that, an enormous amount of
gay and lesbian fundraising time is spent track
ing down money from corporations and rich
people, or planning lavish receptions and din
ners for the well-to-do. It’s frustrating that most
of our community’s national organizations have
weighted their fundraising efforts so heavily
toward the middle- and upper-middle classes
and failed to cultivate the mass of queer people
in the lower-middle and working classes.
Take annual memberships, for example —
the bread-and-butter of nonprofit groups. At
NGLTF, LLDEF, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance
Against Defamation (GLAAD) and the Latino/
a Lesbian and Gay Organization (LLEGO),
annual memberships start at $35 or $40. That
won’t seem like a large sum if it’s what you laid
out for lunch yesterday or dinner on Saturday
night, but it can be intimidating if it’s a big
chunk of your weekly grocery budget.
For those with limited donation dollars, gay
organizations often provide a place on their
pledge forms where you can check off “other”
donations or, worse yet, “low-income member
ship.” Maybe this is meant as a throwback to
the sliding-scale donations of a former era, but
it’s really just a biased and humiliating desig
nation that sets some people off as different.
LLEGO claims it “will not deny any indi
vidual membership due to lack of funds.” But
the catch is you must “submit a written request
for a waiver” — a sort of “charity case” conces
sion that once again lets certain members of
the community know they’re not quite like ev
eryone else.
Although the Human Rights Campaign
(HRC) actually introduced the high-price gala
into gay fundraising, they maintain a seemingly
more class-conscious membership policy than
many other groups, starting at $20. It’s prob
ably not a coincidence that HRC has 300,000-
plus contributors — more than 10 times that
of LLDEF and 30 times that of GLAAD.
In addition, HRC has a “partner” plan that
lets people donate in monthly installments of
$10. That reminds me of the $2-a-week enve
lope my parents tossed into the collection bas
ket at our church when I was growing up. My
working-class parents couldn’t afford to write a
check for a flat-sum donation of $ 104, but they
never gave a second thought to parting with a
couple of dollars every Sunday.
The Christian right, of course, knows about
these church-giving patterns and about the sub
stantial financial contributions made over time
by working-class people to causes they believe
in. Not surprisingly, almost all the right-wing
religious groups offer memberships starting in
the $15-$20 range or have programs that en
courage installment giving.
In fact, the largest and most influential of
these groups will count any size donation to
ward membership. In my travels through the
web sites of a host of religious right groups, I
couldn’t find even one that had created a “low-
income” designation for membership. It’s little
wonder, then, that the six largest religious right
groups have combined budgets over 10 times
greater than the combined budgets of 16 na
tional gay organizations.
More than any of our other national orga
nizations, HRC has studied the Christian right’s
success with membership appeals. Other les
bian and gay organizations could in turn take
some lessons from HRC. Until more people of
different classes are encouraged to support our
movement in whatever way they can, the eco
nomic and political footing of that movement
will be on shaky ground. ▼
{Paula Martinac can be reached care of this
publication or at LNcolumn@aol.coml\
Q-Notes ▼ July 24,1999 T PAGE 9
Scott Lawn
& Landscaping
Design & Installation
Commercial • Residential
704-292-7724
LoMing to
sculpt a
relationship?
jii
isa/MC/Amex |
e^anywhere, any
fiiln. 18+ ^
Personals^
@ BELLSOUTH Mobility
We’re the largest
BellSouth DCS Retailer
in the Carolinas!
“We offer top of the line
Pager Service!”
• $7.95/mo Local Service
• $9.95/mo Statewide Service
• ^ Yearly Contracts
• ^ Late Fees, and
• NO Reconnect Fees for
Late Payments
Additional Services
Voice Mail $3.00
Additional State $6.00
Local Alpha Service $29.99
1 -800 w/PIN Alpha $34.95
1 -800 w/out PIN Alpha $39.99
2nd Number $2.00
Voice Mail Service $5.00
Activate Your Own Pager
Only $19.99
(Includes first month’s airtime)
FREE
PAGERS
with
Airtime
and
Activation
No
Contract
or
Annual
Payment
Advance
Annually
Payment
$6.95/mo.
BellSouth DCS
FREE Unlimited Local Incoming Calls!
Unlimited Weekends Only $9.95/mo.l
Phones as low as $49.95!
11-month contract is required for these speciais
Expires 6-30-2000
MONTHLY
$15 per month
$20 per month
$30 per month
$40 per month
$50 per month
$70 per month
$100 per month
CALLING PLANS
with FREE 15 Minutes
with FREE 100 Minutes
with FREE 250 Minutes
with FREE 400 Minutes
with FREE 600 Minutes
with FREE 900 Minutes
with FREE 1400 Minutes
DCS All-In-One RATE
$79.95 per month with 600 Minutes
$109.95 per month with 1000 Minutes
.25 each add’l minute
JUST ONE RATE ACROSS THE COUNTRY!
We also offer PREPAID Phone Service
J & W Cellular & Paging
Midtown Square Mall
401 S. Independence
Phone (704) 373-2600
Fax (704) 373-2601
Short
on Time?
We
Will
Come
To
Your
Office
Call for
Details
Digital Phone Service
for as little as
$15/month
ISPStrvitt
Unlimited
Internet Access
$9.95 per Month
• Local Access Numbers
(Major U. S. Cities)
• 5MB Personal Web Site
Hosting
• Up to 3 E-Mail Addresses
• Pay with Credit Card or Check
AAAAA
Open 7 Days a Week
Mon - Fri 9am to 9pm
Sat 10am to 9pm
Sun 12:30pm to 5:30pm