Gay For Good – Board Development

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Gay For Good (G4G) is the nation’s leading LGBTQ volunteer service organization, mobilizing thousands of volunteers annually, to enhance LGBTQ visibility, cultivate understanding and build positive relationships between diverse groups of people, while helping the environment, animals and people in need. Gay For Good volunteers have logged thousands of hours with our sixteeen chapters throughout the USA and are steadily growing to become leaders in social impact.

Since 2018, the all-volunteer Gay For Good board has hired the organization’s first full-time employee, added five new board members, and grown the organization by adding six new chapters. Each summer the board meets for a retreat. This year, with COVID-19 travel restrictions, we are forgoing our in-person retreat. Instead we will dedicate time to further our own understanding of non-profit leadership with the assistance of a governance coach. We are in final stages of selecting from three very strong proposals, and this Faithify campaign will fund that training plus ongoing follow up.

So why does this matter? Why is this important?

While our nation is often celebrated as a cultural melting pot, made up of citizens from a variety of backgrounds, races, sexual orientations and beliefs, those differences can also be its greatest challenge to overcome. Many neighborhoods are formed by people of a shared familiarity: cultural identity, religious alignment, economic status or political viewpoints. These neighborhoods exist both geographically and virtually (online), where many people primarily interact with only those who share similar history and beliefs. Fear of those who are different is exacerbated by these divisions, leading to isolated groups of people living in proximity to each other geographically but miles apart in their understanding of their neighbors. Those who perceive themselves to be an “other” within these silos can feel isolated and may struggle to find a sense of belonging in their own backyard.

Gay For Good brings people together. Through interaction and shared goals, people of different backgrounds can foster new relationships with each other and discover through their shared experiences that they have more in common than they knew.

As an incredible byproduct of our work, our volunteers have found community within our community. Often, volunteers lack family support and turn to the LGBTQ community to fill the void left by family rejection. Some face increased challenges connecting with like minds where marketing and traditional business models favor more lucrative social interactions like night clubs and parties. Gay For Good offers an alternative way for people to connect and our members have forged family-tight bonds.

What are the connections between Gay For Good and Unitarian Universalism?

When our board recently revised our non-discrimination policy, we used the policy on the UUA website as a guide to be sure that we created a policy that was as inclusive as possible. Our Boston chapter has a long-standing partnership with Arlington Street Church, which has given grants as part of their support of community programs and also provided space for our volunteer projects. Our current national board chair, Art Nava, has been a member of Arlington Street Church since 2004 and also serves as a lay leader at the regional and associational level. His leadership has been shaped by his Unitarian Universalism, and he brings his experience from UU settings to his work with our organization.

Photos: Rev. Kim K. Crawford Harvie and members of the Arlington Street Church worship team help build wagons at an annual Gay For Good project in Boston that has provided over 600 wagons to partner organization Toys4Joys.

Be sure to share this campaign using any of the icons near the top of the page. Take your pick from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, or dozens of others. By sharing this campaign you will make it 3x more likely that we reach our goal!

Updates

Project FAQ

Is my gift tax-deductible?

Yes! Gay For Good is a 501(c)(3) organization and is rated as a Silver level nonprofit participant by GuideStar (EIN: 27-2006064). Your gift to Gay For Good through this Faithify campaign is fully tax-deductible.

Which communities does Gay For Good serve currently?

We have sixteen chapters across the United States. Here's the complete list with the year that each started volunteer projects in their communities:

Los Angeles - 2009
San Francisco - 2009
Boston - 2010
Orange County / Long Beach - 2010
San Diego - 2010
Chicago - 2011
Pittsburgh - 2011
Columbus, OH - 2013
Dallas / Fort Worth - 2013
Twin Cities - 2015
Palm Springs - 2018
Rocky Mountains (Roaring Fork Valley) - 2018
New York - 2018
Washington, DC - 2018
Raleigh / Durham - 2019 (formerly ReachOUT - 2014)
Seattle - 2020

Can you tell us more about your first full-time employee?

Gladly! Her name is Anne Friedman, and she is a long-term Gay For Good volunteer from Long Beach, CA and also served on the board before becoming our first Executive Director. Here is an article that was written shortly after she started as our Executive Director that tells more of Anne's story.

How has the COVID-19 crisis impacted Gay For Good?

Since early March, we have suspended in person volunteer projects at all of our sixteen chapters. We have done this to protect not only our volunteers but also the communities in which we live. During this time we have gotten creative with virtual projects that can be done at home.

As individual states begin to ease quarantine restrictions, we will resume volunteer projects aiding those nonprofits who need volunteer assistance and who are able to continue to prevent the spread of COVID-19. For many of our volunteers the hardest part of this pandemic has been sitting at home knowing that there are people who need help in our communities. We look forward to resuming our volunteer projects because that really is what we do best.

We are a Welcoming Congregation and want to help in some way. What can we do?

The UUA's five practices of welcome renewal encourage Welcoming Congregations to support a welcoming project:

The fifth Practice of Welcome Renewal is Support a Welcoming Project. Welcoming Congregations (WCs) are congregations that give generously of our gifts and resources. To remain current, WCs may donate a sizable donation to a local and national organization, campaign, or project that uplifts the dignity of LGBTQ+ / TGQNB communities.

Other examples of ways to help Gay For Good include:

Share this Faithify campaign via your congregation's newsletter or social media.
Provide free space for volunteer projects.
Publicize our volunteer projects in your community via newsletters or social media.
Invite Gay For Good guest speakers (via Zoom, or in person once COVID-19 precautions are eased).

For more info on any of these, please contact info@gayforgood.org.

Photos: Arlington Street Church in Boston has provided their chapel as the space in which Gay For Good volunteers have created Valentine's Day cards for isolated elders in Boston in partnership with FriendshipWorks and the Boston Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.