San Diego’s LGBT community is severely under-endowed.  Here are a few facts to underscore this point.  According to a recent study, San Diego’s mainstream foundations have amassed endowed funds totaling almost $700 per capita for the benefit of every resident of San Diego County. ¹ In contrast, we estimate that San Diego’s LGBT community is supported by LGBT-focused endowments of less than $60 per capita.  To underscore the under-funding problem, among the thousand largest foundations in the U.S. in 2002, only 0.1% of total grant dollars went to benefit gay organizations and causes.²

Why is it so important for our LGBT community to have a charitable endowment fund supporting it?

First and foremost, an endowment is a secure reservoir of funds that increases our community’s financial strength and sustainability.  Our wealth and assets stay in our local LGBT community permanently, helping to support vital services.

Another answer to this question can be found by looking back at the last economic downturn of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

San Diego Human Dignity Foundation was founded in 1996, during a time when many agencies serving the LGBT community faced difficult financial times.  During this downturn, many of our local LGBT agencies faltered and some even failed, and the neediest members of our community suffered as a result.

San Diego Human Dignity Foundation’s LGBT Community Endowment Fund was established to ensure that LGBT agencies have a stable and secure source of funding regardless of the economic climate.  So you can think of our LGBT Community Endowment Fund as a rainy day fund.  No matter what the state of our economy, our endowment will remain as a source of support to help lift up our community.

All of this underscores the need for our community to invest in our future by growing the assets in our LGBT Community Endowment Fund.  As the size of this fund grows, so does our community’s security, strength and pride.

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¹ University of San Diego Center for Applied Non-Profit Research, as published in the San Diego Union Tribune, November 13, 2006.

² U.S. Census Bureau; Human Rights Campaign, Gay and Lesbian Families in the United States; SDHDF analysis.  San Diego County LGBT endowment per capita calculation assumes an LGBT-focused endowment of $3 million (aggressive estimate) and an LGBT population of 50,000 (conservative estimate).