The Delaware Valley Legacy Fund is a vital Philadelphia LGBTQ philanthropic organization to which members of the community could contribute, add to their wills and spread the word to enhance fundraising.
To accomplish these goals, the organization added eight new board members this week.
The expansion of philanthropy throughout the LGBTQ community is a stated goal of DVLF board president Fernando Gonzalez.
“We want to encourage everyone to be engaged in philanthropy by and for our community,” Gonzalez told PGN, “regardless of whether you’re a young professional just starting out or a retiree looking at your legacy. The board’s job is to foster all of those conversations.”
The organization awards grants annually to LGBTQ-serving nonprofit organizations and has given nearly $1 million to “fuel the LGBTQ movement in our community.”
Unsurprisingly, DVLF receives more proposals than the organization can fund. The goal is to support all proposals in the near future, which is one of the reasons DVLF has added new board members with leadership skills combining activist, legal, cultural and financial acumen.
The new board will get an official welcome from Gonzalez at DVLF’s 25th anniversary celebration Dec. 15, “TOY: The Silver Jubilee.”
DVLF executive director Juan Franco told PGN that with the addition of the new board members, the organization and its supporters “have been intentional about bringing in more community leaders, both in recruiting activist/visible people as well as in hiring me as executive director when they had candidates with more traditional fundraising backgrounds.”
The latter speaks to the growing concern among some in the larger LGBTQ community that activists will be phased out in LGBTQ organizations to make way for more mainstream voices.
Gonzalez responded to PGN indepth about the addition of the new board members and supporting an activist modality in the organization.
“As the AIDS crisis first started to be addressed 25 years ago, community leaders formed our board and the organization to try to make sure that other funding needs for our community would continue to be addressed in the years to come.”
Among the new board members is Julian Domanico, individual giving manager for City Year, an organization that supports urban schools and students. He is also a member of the Mayor’s Millennial Advisory Committee.
Domanico told PGN he’s “focusing on the development aspect of the board, on the governance committee and the grant committee.”
Other new board members include well-known Philly activist Sappho Fulton, former director of LGBTQ Home for Hope, a recovery house and shelter; Dante Austin, himself a former recipient of the DVLF Hero Award and a deputy sheriff and LGBT liaison officer in the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office; and John-Heath Olguin, head of visual merchandising and space planning for Five Below who also works with the New Jersey affiliate of the Hetrick-Martin Institute, which provides free programs and services to LGBTQ youth.
New board member Gloria Melunis, staff counsel for the asset-management group at PNC Financial Services Group, Inc., and a member of the National LGBT Bar Association, was also elected to serve as governance chair, a member of the board’s executive committee.
The remaining new members are Christopher Barrett Politan, principal of Give, Get, Grow, a philanthropic advisory and consulting firm; Roberto Thornton, a senior investment-operations analyst in liquidity management at Vanguard who is also active in the Transmasculine Advocacy Network (TMAN) and Philly Trans March; and Kenneth Tubbs, a director of the customer sales and service contact center at NJM Insurance Group.
Current board member Nathan Osburn stressed the importance of activism to both DVLF and the board, noting that his own activist background includes organizing HIV/AIDS fundraisers and working in the Obama administration for five years as an LGBTQ appointee.
Gonzalez noted the importance of balance and acumen in making financial decisions that will impact the larger LGBTQ community, saying the new board members reflect that goal.
“We have brought on board members who have backgrounds in the financial industry and in development/fundraising,” Gonzalez said. “This helps us make good decisions regarding the fund, our operating costs, donor cultivation, strategic planning and so forth. As president, I know that simply having more diversity on any organization’s board has been proven to result in better decisions being made. While we still have work to do, I’m pleased that we now have more gender and racial/ethnic diversity than before.”
Domanico supported Gonzalez’ point, adding, “Even though DVLF has been an organization that’s been around for 25 years, we haven’t had the best relationship with the different communities that are under the LGBTQ umbrella. We’re trying to remedy that by bringing in younger voices, a more diverse array of voices and different genders to the table that haven’t been a part of DVLF.”
Contact DVLF to attend the Dec. 15 gala at www.dvlf.org/toy and follow DVLF on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram or visit the website at www.dvlf.org.