LGBT organizations nationally are finally recuperating from the economic recession, according to a report released Dec. 6 by the Movement Advancement Project ( MAP ) .
Major LGBT organizations have brought their operations out of the red, the annual LGBT financial movement report says, pulling in more revenue than organizations are spending. In addition, the report notes, LGBT organizations are operating within the benchmarks of the American Institute of Philanthropy in terms of organizational distribution of funds.
The report compiled information on 40 national LGBT organizations.
Ineke Mushovic, executive director of MAP, said that overall, the new report is welcome news with some exceptions.
"I was hugely relieved to see revenues stabilized," said Mushovic.
Revenues are not yet on the upswing, said Mushovic. Rather, they remain flat. As money ran dry for organizations after the 2008 presidential elections, organizations undertook major cost-cutting measures. But as the economy recovered and funding streams rebounded, organizations found they were bringing in more money than they were spending. The result, said Mushovic, was a jump in available funds.
"It's almost like an adjustment for an over-correction," she said, noting that organizations will likely tailor their operations to account for the increase in funds.
Organizations are also distributing their funds according to non-profit guidelines set by the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance and others, with an average of 10 percent of funds going towards general expenses and management and 11 percent going towards fundraising. In total, 79 percent of funds are going towards programs and services.
However, the MAP report is not all good news. Anti-LGBT organizations continue to outspend LGBT groups significantly, it says. The top 10 anti-LGBT organizations outspent the 40 LGBT groups surveyed by MAP by nearly three times, the report concludes.
To make matters worse, individual donations fell by a stunning 14 percent in 2010. Less than 3 percent of LGBT adults give to LGBT organizations, according to the report.
"I was surprised to see so sharp a drop in individual donations," Mushovic said.
The fall off of individual donors to LGBT groups is troublesome, the report notes, because individual donors make up the single greatest funding streams for major LGBT organizations ( 35 percent ) .
However, there is a silver lining to the drop-off in individual contributions. While individuals donations have slowed, corporation donations jumped by 41 percent in 2010, pushing LGBT organizations out of the red and signaling a change in the country as a whole.
Mushovic hypothesized that the increase in corporate funds means a growing acceptance of LGBT people and a growing workforce of openly LGBT people.
Still, she said, the downward trend of individual donations coupled with the increase of corporate funds might suggest that the LGBT community continues to suffer from higher rates of poverty.
Further, measures that prevent LGBT people from benefits granted to heterosexual people, such as the Defense of Marriage Act, place financial burdens on LGBT Americans that prevent many from being able to give to organizations. Consequently, the economic downturn hit LGBT organizations hard and has meant that the recovery of individual donations is slower.
"Contrary to stereotypes, it is important to remember that the LGBT community is less economically secure," Mushovic said.
However, the loss of individual donors will likely turnaround next year. Presidential election years are considered outlier years for researchers like MAP. That is because funders come out of the woodwork and donate heavily during presidential campaigns. That trend might start at the end of 2011, said Mushovic, and continue steadily through most of 2012.
