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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE OCTOBER 13, 1995

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Money woes beset Cleveland lesbian-gay community center

Continued from page 1

"Part of it was that they had already funded PRYSM once before and felt that we should be carrying it, and part of it was that they felt we should have a stronger commitment from the public schools administration before we went into that, and I think that the biggest part of it is that they had 30 million to give away and 90 million in requests."

According to Rainbrook, the disparity in amounts points to an unfortunate nationwide trend. "Corporate donations have gone away, most corporate foundations have folded, and a lot of government funding has gone away, leaving the private foundations the last resort for funding." Organizations like the Center must depend not only on grants from private foundations, but

on revenue. from special events and most importantly, financial support from the communities they serve. At a time when

a stable donor base is crucial, the

identified as gay or lesbian, but they needed the support around having AIDS," she said. "If people have trouble with gays and lesbians then maybe this isn't the place for them, because there are going to be a lot of gays and lesbians involved here."

There is also talk that the Living Room has strayed from its original mission of being a place that offers alternative healing services and a safe space for people living with AIDS. A woman doing a site visit for one of the foundations that fund the facility allegedly likened it to an “adult day care center," according to a community member.

Again, Rainbrook disagrees. “I think the Living Room is still running very, very close to the mission. One of the things that has happened under Greg is a reversal back to

"This is not an organization that should have to go to the foundations for money unless it was for something pretty unusual. We ought to be able to get that money from our own community."

Center's donor base has continued to erode. Revenue from basic membership has slipped from $4,437 in August of 1994 to $1,610 in August of 1995. The Garden Party, an annual summer fundraiser for the Center, also lost money for the third year in a row.

Rainbrook said that homophobia unfortunately may play a part in the Center's financial woes. "People are frightened to give money to the Center or they've internalized for so long about their own gayness that they think the Center is too radical just because we're visible. I've heard people from our own community say they think the problem with the Center is that we're always 'flaunting gay and lesbian stuff.' I don't see that we're flaunting gay and lesbian stuff. We're basically a community center where people come who are interested in the issue. We're not out picketing-we are simply saying we're here and if you need information about gays and lesbians this is where you should come. The community doesn't see itself as a community and therefore it doesn't see the community Center as being critical, so it gets discouraging sometimes."

Some community members have said that the fall-off in donor support, particularly of major donors, may be linked to a series of events in the fall of 1993. A group calling itself "Stop Oppression and Racism" leveled charges of racism against the Center, and the sometimes heated disagreements that followed prompted the resignation of some board members and the loss of some major donors.

When asked if she believed that some of the Center's problems today are caused by the SOAR controversy, Center board member Joan Organ said, "Frankly, I can't dismiss that, but I really don't think that's part ofit. We never addressed the issue of classism. The truth is that the people who have money go elsewhere. Those that can afford to donate to the Center don't need us, and the people who's needs the Center most meets are the people who can't afford the Center." Organ said that the focus of the board right now is to get through this crisis. "We're not ready to give up," she added.

"This is not a huge budget," Rainbrook said, "this is a $200,000 budget. There are about 200,000 gays and lesbians in this area. If every one of them gave $1, we could cover this. This is not an organization that should have to go to the foundations for money unless it was for something pretty unusual. We ought to be able to get that money from our own community.”

Another thing that the Center has been struggling with for years is the idea that the Living Room is a separate entity from the Center. Rainbrook insists that it is not. "It started that way because when it began, some people that were coming did not want to be

more volunteers being PWAS. For a while there were a lot of non-HIV positive people, but now a lot more of the volunteer base is from the spectrum and they do much of the definition of what kinds of programs happen here."

On a positive note, Rainbrook said that the Center is fortunate to have 200 volunteers who do an incredible amount of work. The core programs-PRYSM, the Hotline and the Living Room-are totally operational and will continue with the help of volunteers. The Center is working to interject a level of volunteer management where the staff would be responsible for recruiting, training and supervising volunteers.

A major training session has been postponed while the Center staff regroups. “There has been a backlog of people who have said they wanted to volunteer," Rainbrook said, "but we just haven't been able to put the training together because Jeannine left and then Dallas died and we're just trying to catch our breath."

The Center should be receiving its $20,000 share from the Cleveland AIDS Walk by the beginning of November. Northern Ohio Coalition, Inc. recently gave them $10,000, and a proposal was submitted to the Cleveland Foundation in September that the Center hopes will provide funds for a leadership development program. Block grant money from the City of Cleveland has been renewed, although Rainbrook said she will take a wait-and-see approach. "When I have the contract, then I'll believe it. They gave us this [same grant] in October of last year, and we didn't see any money until March."

And with the annual membership meeting right around the corner on Sunday, October 22, members of the board have all made individual commitments to each raise $2,000. "One of our challenges has been to bring together the kind of people that know how to raise money, and we're well on our way to doing that," Rainbrook said. "We have a much stronger major donor committee than we've ever had before."

The short-term plan for the Center is to keep the doors open. There are no plans to move to another location, as was previously hinted at, due in part, said Rainbrook, to "a sympathetic landlord who understands when we have cash flow problems." Long-range plans include an endowment fund set up with the Cleveland Foundation that would enable people to leave money to the Center after their death.

"As people would die and leave money to the Center, that would start providing a really solid base. If down the road we had a million dollars in the endowment fund, we would earn enough to cover the expenses," Rainbrook said.

"There are a lot of things that are in place and we're really sort of in transition to fix some things and keep the operations stable. Now the thing to do is to strengthen the board of trustees and do the kinds of things that we need to do. Getting people to recognize why the Center is a key organization and why it's important to support it-that's the task."