Love is an Orientation
As I do every year, I post The Marin Foundation’s IRS 990’s online for all to see and inspect. I started this a few years ago after some activists from the left accused me of getting rich by being “sneakily homophobic.” Then I was accused by activists from the right about getting rich off capitulating to the “gay agenda.” Besides all of those individual group accusations being false, the comical part to all of it is that The Marin Foundation, or myself, are rich. However, The Marin Foundation is rich in love 🙂
As you can see below, we have a very small budget in relation to pretty much any other national organization (which The Marin Foundation doesn’t qualify for Charity Navigator because we are under $500,000). Yet the amount of influence we have in the cultural consciousness is twenty times greater than our actual donations received. There are a few things I’ve learned over the years when it comes to running a non-profit, doing good work on a small budget and having to raise funds for something that is not considered a traditional charity:
1. God gives influence–not huge donations, big conferences, famous people, large media outlets, hugely read blogs or anything else.
2. It is much easier to raise money when one picks a side and fights from a corner.
3. Reconciliation is sexy, until you have to do it. For most, we’re too Christian for the LGBTs and we’re too gay for the Christians. Such is the place of a bridge builder.
4. Most people think if one appears in the national media they are huge in terms of finances and influence. Not the case for some.
And thus, for each of you who give even one dollar to our work, thank you. And it is you who deserve to know where every penny of your hard earned money goes when you donate it to The Marin Foundation. Here you go:
As you can see on the links we stretch every dollar that is donated, to the max! That could not happen without our offices, websites, marketing design and event venues being fully donated to us free of charge! We literally have invaluable partnerships in Boystown and around the country that mean something deep and tangible to each of us. There are people who believe so much in our bridge building work, seeing it first hand, and knowing its impact, that they decide to give of their time and skills to help us further this needed work. Without them, as well, The Marin Foundation would not exist and be able to do as much as we do.
If you have any questions about our IRS returns, feel free to ask.
Much love.
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