Nonprofit Groups, Community Leaders Celebrate National Coming Out Day

Los Angeles — Members of the Los Angeles Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LBGT) community met last night with leaders in the nonprofit sector in an effort to strengthen ties between the two groups and to celebrate National Coming Out Day, which is observed across the country and around the world on October 11.

More than 50 LBGT community leaders met with Antonia Hernández, president and CEO of the California Community Foundation, and other foundation staff at an evening reception hosted by Lorri L. Jean, CEO of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center in Hollywood. Additionally, Abby Land, mayor of West Hollywood, was in attendance.

At the event, Hernández spoke to guests about her desire to increase outreach to the LGBT community.

“We understand that recognizing and being inclusive of the richness of Los Angeles’ diversity, including its vibrant LGBT community, is at the heart of the foundation’s ability to be an effective and responsive 21st century community foundation,” said Hernández. “We want to be a partner and a vehicle for all Angelenos who want to make Los Angeles a better, more equitable and just place for every community living in it.”

Under Hernández’s leadership, the community foundation aims to strengthen ties and build partnerships within specific communities, accurately reflecting the diversity of Los Angeles.

“We want to become more visible in the LGBT community, both as a vehicle for personal philanthropy and as a grantmaker,” said Thomas Schumacher, president of Walt Disney’s Buena Vista Theatrical Group and community foundation board member.

While the reception was an opportunity to strengthen ties and form new partnerships, the California Community Foundation is not an unfamiliar organization to the LGBT community.

Many individuals and couples have already discovered that the foundation is the ideal partner for taking advantage of estate planning opportunities, handling complex giving issues such as gifts of real estate and meeting their philanthropic goals.

Additionally, the community foundation has been a grantmaking presence in the LGBT nonprofit community for more than a decade.

When the Los Angeles community was facing an AIDS epidemic in the late 1980s, the community foundation took the lead in funding vital programs that were deemed too controversial by government agencies. From 1988 to 2000, the foundation, through its L.A. Community AIDS Partnership, distributed approximately $3 million in grants to more than 90 community-based organizations delivering HIV/AIDS prevention and support services in Los Angeles County.

In addition to this initiative, the community foundation awarded grants to LGBT organizations through its Fostering Understanding Initiative, which sought to promote ways to increase acceptance through dialogue, teacher training and curriculum enhancement in local classrooms.

Health care projects and organizations, such as AIDS Project Los Angeles’ dental clinic program and the Los Angeles Free Clinic, have received grants from the community foundation; in housing, development grants have been awarded to the Gay and Lesbian Elder Housing Corporation for its complex in Hollywood and the Hollywood Community Housing Corporation, which serves high need communities, including LGBT constituents.

Established in 1915, the California Community Foundation is one of the largest and most active philanthropic organizations in Southern California, with assets of more than $760 million. In partnership with its donors, the foundation supports nonprofit organizations and public institutions with funds for health and human services, affordable housing, early childhood education, community arts and culture and other areas of need.