What is the real price tag for the corporate “LGBTQ+ friendliness” sticker?

Tracking corporate philanthropic contributions to the gay liberation movement for a fairer exchange

?“With the privilege of making profit, comes great responsibility” used to say my previous boss Kate Gilmore, the Deputy Human Rights Commissioner at the United Nations

Corporate Philanthropy or Corporate Giving is the act of corporations donating a portion of their profits or resources to various nonprofit organizations directly or through a company foundation. The most common resource that corporations donate is cash; however, corporations also donate the use of their corporate facilities; property (such as used computers, buildings, or land); gifts of products, services, and equipment; advertising support; or executive loans. Many corporations also have employee volunteer groups that donate their time.

?Corporate funders have increased tremendously their investment in LGBTQ+ issues in the last decade according to Funders for LGBTQ+ issues. What started as a small portion of LGBTQ+ funding overall, in comparison with Governments, Foundations and individuals, might have become the bulk of the movement’s financing.

?According to the?latest data from Funders for LGBTQ+ Issues , now obsolete, giving by corporations in the United States for work on LGBTQ+ issues (mostly in the US, but to a smaller extent globally) accounts for a notable portion of overall LGBTQ+ grantmaking in the United States. In 2016, that support totaled $20.4 million.?Just like LGBTQ+ philanthropy as a whole, these numbers have been on a steady ascent in the United States: corporate funders gave nearly twice as much as in 2016 as they did in 2012, belying concerns that funding would falter after the 2015 marriage equality decision in the United States. Some of the top corporate givers for LGBTI causes include Gilead Sciences, MAC Cosmetics and Wells Fargo. Beneficiaries of Pride-related benefits this year included organizations such as GLAAD, GLSEN, Outright Action International, The Trevor Project, the It Gets Better Foundation, Ali Forney, Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) or Immigration Equality.

?Some recent big donations make headlines such as when AT&T?gave $1 million to the Trevor Project in 2018, the single largest contribution in the Project's 20-year history, when ?Google.org recently donates $2 million to the OutRight's Covid-19 Global Fund (on the Board of which I serve), when EY is supporting the Hong Kong Gay Games 2022 or when Bath & Body Works donates $1 million to support the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (see USA Today, May 2021: 55 brands that are giving back for Pride Month 2021 ).

?Yet, today the overall contribution going from “LGBTQ+-friendly” companies to LGBTQ+ organizations is a black box including for the companies themselves. Mostly because the data is not collected and reported but also because some “free rider” companies benefit from the lack of transparency. As a consequence, it is impossible to distinguish our true friends from “Pride rainbows” or fair-weather friends

Take the example of the Miami Dolphins famously owned by controversial Stephen Ross but also claiming to be LGBTQ+-friendly with their “FOOTBALL UNITES” program. Their revenues are $372 M?with an operating income of $7.9 M.?How much of that money was spent supporting the organizations trying to fight the waves of anti-trans bills popping up in the US? The Miami Dolphins FOOTBALL UNITES program has partnered with Miami Beach Pride on a series of events throughout the community but we need to get down to the numbers to understand the authenticity of their engagement with our embattled community.

?Similarly, many companies have access to a myriad service providers who in exchange for a small sum will ensure that companies are touted on their platform as “LGBTQ+ friendly” irrespective of whether they walk the talk.

?To change this paradigm, the LGBTQ+ community needs to build accountability and incentive mechanisms to ensure that a fair exchange is at the root of the?“pro-LGBT label” that many companies enjoy. This question is particularly stringent for companies that operate in jurisdictions where human rights violations of LGBTQ+ people are egregious or those whose owner are financially contributing to campaigns for politicians that use LGBTQ+ people as pawns in a political game.

?In addition, the repartition of giving between the various segments of the movement is crucial. To be crude, it is sometimes easier to donate to fight “youth suicide” than decriminalization in a country where the Government’s goodwill is necessary to one’s business operation. In contrast to many foundation donors, corporations have tended to steer away from giving to advocacy and grassroots organizing groups. Instead, corporations have focused on issues like public health (HIV/AIDS in particular) and grantees providing services such as Le Refuge in France or the Ali Forney Center in NYC, USA which provide services to homeless LGBTI youth. Philanthropy has largely failed to support or include transgender and intersex people in grant making or in its organizations to any meaningful degree while a 2017 study showed that more than half of trans groups and more than three-quarters of intersex groups globally had 2016 budgets of less than US $10,000 (The State of Intersex Organizing?(2nd edition) ?and?The State of Trans Organizing?(2nd edition) ).

?As I mentioned recently "money is the nerve of our war", the historic shift in societal attitudes we observed in the United States came with a hefty price tag. The combined budget of GLAAD, the Trevor Project, HRC, the Victory Institute, GLSEN, Equality California, the LGBT Center, Lambda Legal etc.. probably comes close to a billion dollars?a year. What makes us think we will achieve the same results in Tunisia or Hungary for 5,000 Euros a year??How will we defeat anti-trans rhetoric in the UK if we can’t fund our own campaigns? Did you know that the budget of French inter-LGBTQ+ is about 140,000 Euros and that it is staffed only by volunteers (see my recent article on the French LGBTQ+ movement)?

The opacity on the corporate contribution to the movement is about to change. Out Leadership is partnering with the?Global Philanthropy Project ?to increase the visibility of corporate philanthropic leadership in support of global LGBTI communities. The biennial?Global Resources Report ?provides philanthropy, governments, multilateral agencies, corporate foundations, and civil society with the most detailed and accurate understanding of the global funding landscape on LGBTI issues. For the first time, the forthcoming report (documenting 2019 and 2020 funding) will include a focused section on foundations and grantmaking programs from corporates. We are eager to ensure all corporate contributions are counted.

The initial deadline was October 29 but it has been postponed to November 15. Please make sure that your company make its submission.

The?Global Resources Report?is developed by Global Philanthropy Project in partnership with Funders for LGBTQ Issues. Within this partnership:

1.????Corporate funders based or headquartered in the US are invited to report their grants data through Funders for LGBTQ Issues using?this data collection site ?or by contacting?[email protected] .

2.????All other corporate funders (those based outside of the US) are invited to report grants through the Global Philanthropy Project using?this data collection site ?or by contacting?[email protected] .

Data is key to ensure that we establish a win-win exchange with the private sector when it comes to LGBTQ+ friendliness. You can help us gather and disseminate it.