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Equity’s hope is that the relationship with
the Gill Foundation will continue and grow.
Rural Organizing Project, Unity and Support
Services, Phoenix Rising Foundation, Love
Makes Family and the Sexual Minority Youth
Recreation Center were among the nonprofits
that received grants last year.
While Equity considers all grant applica
tions, Nelson says it is also Equity’s goal to dis
tribute targeted grants every year. After the focal
community is selected, applications are sent to
groups serving that particular group. Homeless
youths and the trans community have been tar
geted in the past.
“We don’t have a lot of money to give away,”
Nelson says. “How we leverage that small
amount of money to make a big impact is the
challenge.”
Equity’s endowment is $509,000. Originally
the goal was to reach an endowment of $ 1 mil
lion before the organization would begin to draw
from the interest for operating expenses and
additional grants. But Nelson says that goal is
F lying S olo
fficials from Peacock in the Park—an
annual drag fest that raises money for the
Audria M. Edwards Scholarship Fund, which
bolsters the education goals of sexual minori
ties—have secured their independence from
Equity Foundation.
Historically, the scholarship money raised
at Peacock was administered by the Equity
Foundation, which charges organizations a 10
percent fee.
“Frankly, we just got tired of paying 10 per
cent to Equity for doing what we felt we could
do ourselves," explains Kimberlee Van Patten,
co-director of Peacock in the Park, which net
ted more than $18,000 last year. (Approxi
mately $10,000 was distributed as scholarships
in 1999.)
According to its literature, Equity Founda
tion acts as fiscal agent and provides advice,
administrative support, auditing, accounting
and government reporting.
“The other value added that Equity gives is
that it gives them some security,” explains
Matthew Nelson, executive director of Equity
Foundation.
But Van Patten doesn’t think working with
Equity was quite the right fit for Peacock.
“I am very much a hands-on manager, and
it was frustrating to me to work within a larg
er organization," she says. “Ten percent is a
large chunk of change to pay when you are
unhappy with the arrangement.”
When the Peacock committee found out
the money held at Equity was not being
invested, she says, the committee decided to
go out on its own.
“All of these years I had assumed that they
were, at least, investing it for themselves,” Van
Patten says.
Equity was not investing the scholarship
money at all, according to Van Patten.
Early on, the Peacock organization felt it
needed the credibility Equity could provide.
But after eight years with Equity, the organiza
tion felt it had established its own credibility,
Van Patten says, allowing Peacock to strike
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out on its own.
Though the fiscal relationship is severed,
Van Patten is grateful for the support Equity
has provided during the transition.
Newer groups typically don’t have the tax
status to offer donors a deduction for their con
tribution. Because of this, small nonprofits
often hook up with larger organizations to
administer their money.
being reconsidered in light of last year’s gains on
Wall Street’s bull market. Using some of that
windfall could help Equity’s bottom line, he
says.
Nelson concedes that making change is not
all about money. Equity’s new executive director
wants the foundation to be an agent of “inspired
philanthropy.”
“What’s inspiring to me is that people can
think about what it is that they want changed in
the world,” Nelson explains.
He says people figure out how they might be
able to effect that change, then Equity can help
pair those folks with other organizations and
individuals to help see their vision realized.
“I want Equity to be the conduit to bring
those folks together,” Nelson says.
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While some question a 10 percent fee, Nel
son says 10 percent is standard.
Seattle’s Pride Foundation, however, does
not charge a fee for administering scholarship
funds, according to its grants and scholarships
manager, Steven Oliver.
“We do it as a service, because we want to
get as much money out there as possible,”
Oliver says.
Nelson admits that he’d like to be able to
follow the Pride Foundation’s lead and provide
free services, and he hopes Equity can eventu
ally do so. But Nelson points to the size differ
ence—Pride Foundation’s endowment is $1.75
million—to explain why Equity can’t yet.
“We can’t offer the same services as some
one over two times as big,” Nelson says.
Equity does not invest the money held for
scholarship funds, which concerns some folks.
Interest earned on the funds is not paid to the
depositing organization either.
Funds come in and go out in a short period
of time, according to Nelson. It would be too
risky to invest the money under such time
constraints, he says. Interest is not paid
because “it would be an accounting night
mare,” Nelson adds. Scholarship funds are
placed in the general account with other
nonendowment money.
Last year, Van Patten secured 501c(3) sta
tus for Peacock in the Park, which allows it to
be in control of its own finances and to offer
donors a tax deduction for their gifts.
The organization is registered as Peacock
Productions Inc. doing business as Audria M.
Edwards Scholarship Fund. Van Patten says
Peacock has a five-mefnber board of directors
and administers its own scholarship funds.
“Peacock in the Park has grown and can
easily manage and do all of what it likes to do
on its own. It probably was time,” Nelson says.
Van Patten agrees: “It was simply time to
move on, and we wish Equity all of the best in
their continuing efforts to provide community
service."
■ Reported by JONATHAN
K1PP
Editor’s Note: Marty Davis, publisher of Just
Out, has placed the Jay Brown Scholarship Fund
in the care of Equity Foundation. The scholarship
will provide financial assistance for postsecondary
education to members of the sexual minorities
community and their families who plan to pursue
a career in journalism. The fund was charged a 10
percent fee and received no inteTest payments dur'
tng 1999.
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