DETROIT –
With the announcement of Equality Michigan Executive Director Denise Brogan-Kator's departure in May and a recently announced lawsuit against the organization by a former employee, questions continue to arise as to the sustainability of the state's largest LGBT advocacy organization.
In the past two and a half years, since Triangle Foundation merged with Michigan Equality to form Equality Michigan, there has been turnover in employees, executive directors and most recently a key board member resigned. The vice chairman of the board, Alan Semonian, stepped down in June.
Most political analysts agree that a strong, LGBT political group is needed in Michigan; one that can articulate the issues, lobby legislators on behalf of LGBT people, identify candidates who will advance LGBT issues and mobilize the LGBT community to get those candidates into office. Although the need is clear, some question whether Equality Michigan will ever be ready to meet that need.
Current Situation
In an announcement July 25, the organization said a grant from an "anonymous donor" had been given "to grow development and communications efforts." The amount of the grant was not stated in the press release. "The funding will enable the organization to expand their development and communications efforts without pulling resources from its successful slate of advocacy and anti-violence programs," read the release.
The release stated that former Triangle Foundation staff member Greg Varnum has been hired "to help with implementation" of the new grant. There are currently five other employees and one intern.
In June, the board of directors set up a three-person team to help run the day-to-day operations of the agency. Board members Dave Wait, Joy Geng and Amy Hunter were put in place to assist the staff and handle financial transactions, however Hunter resigned from the management team in July. She also stepped down as the vice chair of Equality Michigan Action Network, the 501(c)(4) arm of the agency, although she remains on that board.
According to financial reports, the budget in 2011 was $1.1 million, up 44 percent from $782,000 in 2010. Much of this increase was supported by a multi-year grant from the Arcus Foundation intended to support the 2010 merger and launch the newly formed Equality Michigan. But as the grant funds ran out, fundraising did not generate nearly enough new money to replace the Arcus grants.
Wait, the board treasurer, said that the 2012 budget, which has been finished but not entirely approved, calls for reducing staff and overhead in order to bring the budget down to $720,518.
"We recognized that our current mode of operations was not sustainable," said Patrick Schuh, board president. "We have pulled the board and staff together to do an overall assessment of the organization; we are looking at our strategic focus, the organizational structure, and the scope of work. We are confident that an assessment of this depth will yield results. It will bring about an organization that is better able to respond to the changing demands from the cultural, economic and political environment. We intend to bring the community into this process too, and we think they will be confident, like we are, in the organization and the future."
According to Wait, the total budget of $720,518 to operate Equality Michigan will come mainly from special events ($314,000), individual contributions ($147,000), government services, i.e. funding to do victim services ($95,000), earned interest ($25,000) and grants ($111,000). The two main grants will come from the Arcus Foundation and State Voices.
$377,000 (52 percent) of the budget is set aside for programs, $219,000 (30 percent) for special events, $101,000 (14 percent) for administrative and fundraising and $21,000 (3 percent) for accounting and audit. Wait added that there are "a couple" more grants out there that he's confident Equality Michigan will receive that could add to the amount of money allocated to programming and rebuilding of the staff. For example, the budget does not reflect the newly announced anonymous grant to support Greg Varnum's position.
The existing program staff continues to deliver results, despite the organizational chaos around them. Emily Dievendorf, policy director since August 2010, has built strong relationships in the legislature and was effective in helping to frame the anti-bullying legislation passed last year. Nusrat Ventimiglia, also hired in August 2010, is the director of victim services, a program that interacts with law enforcement and provides direct services to victims of hate crimes. Roland Leggett came in January 2011 as the field director and has worked hard on the many local anti-discrimination ordinances across the state. This is part of a larger strategy to eventually get LGBT people included into the state's anti-discrimination legislation, the Elliot-Larsen Act, by first mobilizing lots of people at the local level.
Going Forward
According to Wait, the board plans to launch an in-house search for a new executive director. He was also quick to add that no one on the current board is interested in the position.
With respect to Equality Michigan's involvement in the 2012 elections, Wait said it is unrealistic for them to have much of a role. He said that now the board is waiting until the legislature is more favorable before focusing on political organizing, and that they "have fine-tuned a plan to be more realistic from a political standpoint. We'll be concentrating on local non-discrimination policies until the legislature changes."
Varnum has already started at Equality Michigan. He recently returned to Michigan after several years in Washington, D.C. where he served as the executive director of the National Youth Advocacy Coalition. He has also been involved in the Harvey Milk Foundation, GLSEN, the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan and the strategic development of new progressive initiatives, including the recently launched WikiQueer, a Wikipedia like resource for the LGBT communities. As a communications and development staffer at Equality Michigan, he will provide some of the functions that normally would be covered by an executive director, although the existing staff will not report to him. For the time being all staff will continue to report to the management team of Wait and Geng.
The Lawsuit
A lawsuit recently filed in Wayne County Circuit Court is a new potential expense and distraction for the organization. In Sept. 2009, during Skillman's tenure as executive director, Dr. Selma Massey was hired as the Director of Victim Services. She left the organization several months later and, according to Wait, Massey had threatened to sue before and a settlement was made between her and the organization. He said he was "surprised this is coming up now, this was settled years ago." He said that because it is a personnel issue he could not disclose more details.
