Give OUT Day, the national online fundraising project to help LGBTQ nonprofits, will be different this year. San Francisco-based Horizons Foundation, which has overseen the campaign for the last nine years, is bowing out and handing the reins to a Minnesota-based nonprofit organization.
Horizons announced the changes February 13 in a letter to organizations that have participated before and stated that GiveMN will be overseeing Give OUT Day.
The main 24-hour period for Give OUT Day will be Thursday, June 5. But Jenna Ray, interim executive director of GiveMN, told the Bay Area Reporter that Give OUT Day will open for early giving on May 15 and the site will continue to accept donations through June's Pride Month.
"We're really trying to find a balance and build in a flexible time frame," Ray said in a February 19 phone call.
Nonprofits can register beginning Tuesday, February 25, she said.
GiveMN does take a small percentage of donations, Ray explained, but if people opt to cover that cost when they make their contribution, then 100% will go to the designated nonprofit.
GiveMN, which has a budget of just under $2.5 million, has expertise in such online donor campaigns, Ray said. In fact, it served as an early adviser to Give OUT Day years ago. Minnesota's annual giving holiday campaign, a statewide fundraiser for nonprofits, was started by GiveMN, she added.
"It helps support small and medium nonprofits," she said of the Minnesota effort.
Roger Doughty, a gay man who is president of Horizons Foundation, told the B.A.R. that the decision to end involvement in Give OUT Day was difficult, but that the LGBTQ philanthropic organization could not shoulder the costs since it lost funding from foundations that helped support expenses associated with Give OUT Day, including staff time. (Horizons did not raise any money for itself through Give OUT Day, Doughty said.)
"The truth of it is, we always put our resources into the day in partnership with other funders," Doughty said in a February 12 phone interview to discuss the changes. "It was becoming financially tenuous to do it. Two main organizations – one left LGBTQ funding – weren't able to increase their grants, and we couldn't make up the difference."
Doughty estimated that Horizons spent between $125,000 and $150,000 on Give OUT Day. There was also prize money to raise, which gives something for participating nonprofits to put out to their donors.
"It has to be enough money to get pepped up about it," he said of the prize funds.
One of the funders that had helped Horizons was the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, which, as the B.A.R. reported in 2022, exited LGBTQ giving and wound down its grants to queer nonprofits in 2023.
Maliha Sadiq, a Haas Jr. fund spokesperson, stated at the time that funding amounts wouldn't change for at least a year. She noted it would be budgeting approximately $1 million for "capacity-building work" before ending its LGBTQ-focused funding.
The other foundation that helped Horizons was the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund. A message on its website stated that the organization plans to wind down all funding by 2028. John Taylor, the president of Wellspring, wrote that it was a "combination of factors that included a leadership transition that involved my pending retirement as the foundation's President, which would have moved Wellspring away from being a family-led foundation."
Doughty praised both funding organizations.
"We used to get funding from the Haas Fund," he said. "They've left the field, but I give them credit for investing in the queer community for years. Wellspring has also been a terrific partner."
Doughty said that Horizons began discussing its participation in Give OUT Day six to nine months ago. Horizons' board approved a staff recommendation to end the organization's involvement, he said.
Once those discussions began, he said, talk turned to finding another organization that could take over Give OUT Day. That led to discussions with GiveMN, which operates similar fundraising programs though it is not LGBTQ-specific in its focus like Horizons is.
"GiveMN, this is what they do," Doughty said. "We've learned a lot over time, but they have a lot of expertise. After talking to them, their commitment is real."
Ray said that GiveMN is grateful for all the work Horizons has done over the past nine years it has overseen Give OUT Day.
"I hope we can grow it even bigger," she said.
She also said that while GiveMN is not LGBTQ-specific, the organization since 2017 has prioritized groups that have funding disparities, such as the queer community. Less than .2% of donations go to LGBTQ organizations, she noted.
"We focused our capacity building to LGBTQ nonprofits in Minnesota," she said of GiveMN's priorities.
Doughty said he's "very hopeful" that under GiveMN, Give OUT Day will grow.
The B.A.R. reached out to several local nonprofits that previously participated in Give OUT Day. At press time, only LYRIC, a San Francisco LGBTQQ Youth Organization, responded. Executive Director Gael Lala-Chávez wrote in an email that the agency would not be participating this year. Lala-Chávez, who is nonbinary, did not elaborate.
Helping smaller nonprofits
Give OUT Day was started by Boulder Giving in 2013. Horizons took it over in 2016 after Boulder Giving closed.
"We loved having Give OUT Day," Doughty said. "We revived it nine years ago and were really proud to have it here."
He explained that the giving campaign "goes to our core mission" of helping smaller and mid-size LGBTQ nonprofit agencies. Any LGBTQ nonprofit can participate in Give OUT Day, which is a national effort including all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. One of the things Doughty likes about it is that it's a relatively easy way for smaller organizations to raise funds, particularly those without professional development staff.
"Entry is really low barrier," he said.
Nonprofits sign up and then get the word out to their supporters. A lot of social media work is involved, in an effort to promote Give OUT Day and to solicit donations. There are prizes awarded, which is another way nonprofits can ramp up contributions, Doughty said.
During Horizons' nine-year run, Give OUT Day has raised over $10 million, Doughty said, with more than 350 organizations participating. Some of those participated regularly. And, he said, more than 10,000 different donors gave to at least one nonprofit. Donation sizes varied. He said some were in the five figures; others were $5 to $10.
"One of our values is that every gift is important," he said.
Ray said she hopes people "remember the role grassroots giving" has played, particularly for LGBTQ nonprofits, "and respond to the moment we're in."
For more information about Give OUT Day, go to giveoutday.org.
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