The Gill Foundation, a national LGBTQ philanthropic nonprofit, has announced that former National Center for Lesbian Rights executive director Kate Kendell will become its new CEO. Kendell is expected to begin the new job May 7.
Most recently, Kendell, a lesbian, served as chief of staff for the California Endowment. She had led NCLR for 22 years before stepping down in 2018. After that, she served as interim co-legal director at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The Gill Foundation was founded by gay software entrepreneur Tim Gill in 1994. He now serves as co-chair of the organization’s board.
“Kate brings with her not only a remarkable legacy of LGBTQ activism, but a deep belief in the dignity and potential of every American – values at the heart of everything we do at the Gill Foundation,” stated Gill and board co-chair Scott Miller in a news release.
In a Facebook message to the Bay Area Reporter, Kendell, who turned 65 April 15, said she would be splitting her time between Denver, where the foundation is located, and her home in Oakland. She said she is looking forward to working at the foundation.
“At this moment of unprecedented peril for everything I worked for during my career at NCLR, I cannot sit on the sidelines and not fight back,” Kendell wrote. “I am humbled and honored to assume this role at the Gill Foundation to help support the organizations beating back the worst of the attacks against the most vulnerable in our community and helping with strategies to see us through this exceedingly dangerous chapter.”
While at NCLR, Kendell advocated for LGBTQ people and their families through litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education, the release stated. She was a key architect on a wide range of legal issues and policy victories for the LGBTQ community, including the right of same-sex couples to marry, non-discrimination policies, protection of undocumented immigrants and asylees, the rights of incarcerated individuals, transgender rights, and the needs of youth and elders.
She was a leader of the No on 8 campaign in 2008 but despite the campaign’s efforts California voters passed Proposition 8 and banned same-sex marriage in the state. After a federal lawsuit, the courts restored marriage equality in June 2013.
The Gill Foundation describes itself on its website as one of the nation’s leading funders of efforts to secure full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. Since its inception, the Gill Foundation has invested more than $446 million in programs and nonprofit organizations around the nation, substantially contributing to many of the country’s watershed victories for LGBTQ equality, the website stated.
The foundation expressed its thanks to outgoing CEO Brad Clark, who announced earlier this year that he was stepping down in the spring after 10 years at the organization.
“We are enormously grateful to Brad Clark, whose essential contributions at the Gill Foundation have helped shape and secure fuller LGBTQ equality for millions of people across the country,” the board stated. “To ensure a seamless transition, Kate will work side-by-side with Brad.”
According to the foundation’s 2022 Form 990, the organization had assets of $227 million, expenses of about $1.5 million, and distributed $15.3 million. Clark’s salary was $352,509.
In a follow-up message, Kendell stated that she wanted to check with the foundation board to see if it was comfortable with her releasing her salary information, which she stated was not a problem for her. She is currently out of the country on vacation, as she shared on Facebook.
Exhibit pays tribute to artist Bolingbroke
A new exhibit opening this week showcases the work of Richard Bolingbroke, a gay man and artist who died December 28, 2024. “Cycles of Life” celebrates the life and work of Bolingbroke, with an opening reception Friday, April 18, from 4 to 7 p.m. at Paul Mahder Gallery, 222 Healdsburg Avenue, in Healdsburg.
Mr. Bolingbroke lived in the North Bay and maintained a studio in San Francisco’s Hunters Point Shipyard.
The gallery noted in a news release that the exhibit pays tribute to Mr. Bolingbroke’s watercolor years of intense colored still-lifes and mandalas that reflect on the “cycles of life.”
One of Mr. Bolingbroke’s other projects was assisting transgender queer artist Craig Calderwood with their huge murals for Harvey Milk Terminal 1 at San Francisco International Airport, as the B.A.R. noted in an article last year.
To read Mr. Bolingbroke’s obituary click here.
SF small business workshop
The City and County of San Francisco is hosting a free workshop designed for small businesses that would like to contract with the city. The workshop will be held Wednesday, April 23, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 49 South Van Ness Avenue.
A news release noted that attendees will learn about the steps to becoming a city contractor, key terminology that the city uses, and essential compliance requirements for small businesses. Participants will also have the chance to connect with city departments for hands-on support with the contractor registration process.
For more information, go to sf.gov/smallbizworkshop2025.
To register, click here.
East Bay LGBTQ town hall
Indivisible East Bay will hold an LGBTQ+ town hall Saturday, April 26, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at Tarea Hall Pittman/South Branch Berkeley Public Library, 1901 Russell Street, near the Ashby BART Station. Organizers said that allies are welcome. The event is free.
Titled “Courage in Chaos,” the town hall will feature opening readings by Achy Obejas, Gar Russell, Sam Duffy, and Lucy Jane Bledsoe. Afterward, people can share and mobilize as they create community, an announcement noted.
The event is co-sponsored by the Berkeley Public Library. For more information and to sign up, click here.
Supes pass nonprofit redaction legislation
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed legislation April 15 to amend the administrative code to permit the redaction of information required to be released by the city about nonprofits.
The legislation had undergone some changes from when it was first introduced in late December, according to board President Rafael Mandelman, a gay man who represents District 8. Mandelman told the supervisors’ rules committee March 24 that the legislation had been intended for LGBTQ organizations that might be targeted by violence, but in the process he learned that “a number of other organizations doing work for communities under threat, under heightened threat, felt even with the modest changes I was proposing that they were still made more vulnerable to harassment and violence.”
In particular consultation with the community of people helping victims of domestic violence, some changes were made, such as changing the standard for “redaction of information to avoid personal harm” to redaction of information “that may compromise personal safety,” as the initial legislation stated.
A personal privacy redaction justification had been introduced in 2023, stating that redactions were possible when disclosure would violate laws about personal privacy, which came at the same time the reports started to be published online. Reporting requirements were first introduced in 1981.
Another change was putting a minimum threshold of $1 million in annual funding – the same as the federal audit standard. Much of the information that can’t be disclosed in the new legislation is disclosed “in various forms” anyway, Mandelman conceded, but “we just won’t make it all super easily available.”
During that meeting, Beverly Upton, the executive director of the San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium, thanked Mandelman’s staff for working on the issue.
“As we all know, San Francisco is being watched very closely, and domestic violence survivors are used to being watched very closely,” Upton said. “We just want to make sure we keep people as safe as possible, and this will help us do that.”
The amendments were accepted March 24, and the legislation was forwarded to the full board April 7. It will have to be voted on again April 22.
John Ferrannini contributed reporting.
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