With money in the bank, GLBT Community Center looks to expand reach

By Noelle Leavitt

The GLBT Center of Colorado embarks on a new era this year as it celebrates 35 years of existence as one of the longest running gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender nonprofit organization in the state.

It hasn’t been easy, as The Center has bounced through many ups and downs in the last three decades. But with a new location and money in the bank, supporters are hopeful for many successful years ahead.

The Center’s assets come from a variety of funding streams, with 35 percent logged as earned income from events including PrideFest, roughly 25 percent comes from foundation funding, 20 percent from individual donors and the remaining 20 percent is a combination of fundraising and donations from community organizations, according to the nonprofit’s 2010 annual budget.

The organization continues to raise funds – more than $1 million in 2010 – in a slumped economy, while other nonprofits struggle – an accolade The Center’s Executive Director Carlos Martinez credits to a viable strategic plan and strong support from community members.

The Center is about to introduce a new strategic plan at the beginning of 2012, and plans to use some of its money to invest in regional outreach and programming throughout the next three years. It’s currently wrapping up its old three-year plan, which included a new location for operations.

“One of the things that the board wanted to do with the organization is find a permanent home,” Martinez said. “For 32 years, we had been going from one place to another with no sense of permanency.”

Last year, The Center opened a new 15,000-square-foot location that it bought and renovated at 1301 E. Colfax Ave., giving the LGBT community a new place to gather, gain support and socialize. In order to pay for the project, The Center started a capital campaign in November 2009, asking individuals, other foundations, corporations, community organizations and the City of Denver for money.

The goal is to raise $3.5 million in capital campaign funds by the end of 2012 for the building purchase, renovation, endowment and administrative costs. Currently, The Center has raised $2.7 million, with $250,000 of it coming from the City and County of Denver, according to its annual report.

The purchase and renovation of the building rang in at $2.5 million. Once all the money is raised, $600,000 will go to the endowment, and $400,000 goes to the annual operating budget. Foot traffic within The Center has jumped 37 percent since the new building opened, Martinez said.

The Center keeps track of how many people visit the building through sign-in sheets.

“We’re now in the process of opening a new chapter in this organization’s life,” Martinez said. “One of the things that will be going into our next strategic plan will be bringing our programs and services to another level. What I mean by that is being able to expand our service delivery, not just within The Center, but also in other places throughout the community.”

The Center operates a program called Rainbow Alley for LGBT youth between the ages of 12-21. Recently, the organization opened a satellite office in Littleton for youth to gather who don’t have access to The Center’s main location on Colfax.

Linda Warren, who gives the organization $3,000 a year, is a volunteer at The Center and works closely with Rainbow Alley. She’s thrilled that it’s expanding its youth program outside of Denver.

“This is great for children, because there are so many problems in school and so many problems in homes,” Warren said, noting that she’s been working with Rainbow Alley since the early ’90s.

“I got involved when I got a call on Christmas Eve. Someone was supposed to buy presents for the children at Rainbow Alley that weren’t going to get a Christmas present because they were thrown out of their home[s] because they were gay.”

Ever since that call, she’s been ensuring that the organization’s youth get Christmas presents each year.

Adam Brismehan, 27, utilized Rainbow Alley when he was a teenager, but he feels The Center needs to offer more to gays and lesbians in his age group.

“I think they’re trying to focus more on our demographic, but I think they could do more, like a restaurant night where people feel more invited to show up, not just an AA meeting or a narcotics anonymous,” he said. “They’ve kinda got themselves that facáde where going there means you’re going to an AA meeting. I went to a lousy board game night there one night, which flopped terribly. So I think it’d be nice if they did something out in the community.”

The Center recently launched a monthly roof top happy hour, which James Visor, 29, has attended twice, yet he also craves more from The Center.

“When it comes to my demographic, I worry more about my color. I’m African American, so I haven’t really heard anything about that yet,” Visor said. “It’d help more if they catered to more (gay) African Americans.”

Martinez concedes, The Center needs to reach out to those between the ages of 21 and 50, as well as people of color.

Some of these requests are being drafted into The Center’s new three-year strategic plan, said Christopher Leach and Barbara Harrison who are co-chairs of the organization’s 10-member board.

“I think our biggest opportunity is to continue to educate our community on our resources, our programs and to advocate on behalf of the community,” Leach said.

Improving The Center’s technology, expanding its reach outside the metro area and working on strong programming are all parts of the new strategic plan, he said.

Harrison concurred, noting that “being more aware of what people want in the community” will help The Center to grow successfully.

Another area the organization has seen major growth in is with its SAGE program for elderly LGBT members. SAGE offers a number of programs and resources for seniors.

“It’s the fastest growing program for the elders,” Leach said. “The need is even bigger than we thought.”

Another rapidly growing event that The Center organizes is the annual PrideFest celebration.

Last year, roughly 275,000 people attended the festival, which is up from the 250,000 that participated in 2009. PrideFest generates tons of revenue not only for The Center, but also for Denver and the state.

In 2010, Pride net revenue rose to $180,000, from $150,000 in 2009.

In June 2009, The Center hired Birchhill Enterprises to do an economic development study on The Center’s economic contribution to Colorado. PrideFest has a $23 million economic impact on Denver and the state, according to the study.

“That (figure) became very critical when we were meeting with politicians in the city (to build The Center’s new location),” Martinez said. “People don’t realize that, wow, this organization has an economic impact of $23 million to the city and to the state.”

Martinez highlighted The Center’s success as one of the main reasons he’s going to have a great time at the 35th anniversary gala the organization is holding on Sept. 24, at Infinity Park.

“For me, these 35 years represent a lot of hard work from thousands in our community who believed that one day we would have a center that is part of the overall fabric of the community,” Martinez said.

Correction: an earlier version of this article inaccurately stated The Center was the oldest LBGT nonprofit organization in the state. It is not.