I started doing some research on the Trevor Project today. I got ahold of their Federal rax returns for 1998, 1999 & 2000 which are really helpful for analyzing how much money comes in the door and exactly how it is spent. The returns are incredibly detailed, for example I can tell you the very fascinating fun fact that they spent $1,156 on xerox charges in 2000. Because they are so detailed, it is going to take me some time to plow through them and I hope to post a some sort of analysis about the organization on Friday evening/Saturday morning (don't worry, I won't bog us down in with excessive details, I just thought it was kinda cute that they broke out the xerox charges as a separate line item).
My initial impression is very favorable. In 2000 their total contributions were only $130,000 which means that a $1,500 contribution from us would be significant. During the same year their administrative expenses were only $8,000 which, in my experience from working with non-profit organizations, is very low -- only 6% of their contributions.
I'm still not entirely clear on what they do specifically and I think it would be great if a kitten were to contact them by phone or email and ask some questions. On Sunday I will do my best to track down Randy Stone and ask as many questions as possible, but it would be interesting to compare what I am told in a face to face conversation with what people contacting the organization directly are told.
It's almost impossible to do any meaningful analysis of an organization if you only look at one. I think we need to investigate some others to help us hone in on what is most important to us. For example, doing my research today I realized that my ideal organization might be one that runs a community center for GLBTQ teens because that is a service that is more sharply targeted to gay teens than an organization that provides educational programs about GLBTQ issues which are targeted to all the kids regardless of orientation. By that I mean that a donation to such a community center is clearly going to assist a gay teenager b/c the sad truth is it is unlikely that straight teens are going to want to be seen hanging out at a gay teen center. Just my opinion and just a slight preference of mine between two very worth types of organizations.
I ran some searches in a non-profit database which I have access to and found another organization that I had never heard of: [b:947de89b7f] GLSEN, INC. [/b:947de89b7f] This is there mission statement for their LA chapter: [quote:947de89b7f][b:947de89b7f][i:947de89b7f]Quote:[/i:947de89b7f][/b:947de89b7f]
GLSEN/LA provides support to high school gay-straight alliances, produces annual conferences for the education community, creates and distributes curricular material for the classroom and helps instigate state and local public policy initiatives aimed at ending anti-gay bias in schools
[/quote:947de89b7f] I think the LA chapter's website is still under construction, but here is the link to the national website:
www.glsen.org/templates/index.htmlThere is, or at least was, a theater company here in LA called [b:947de89b7f] Fringe Benefits[/b:947de89b7f] that went to schools and gave innoculations against homophobia, or something that they described like that, which consisted of putting on plays and programs for the students about being gay both from the perspective of "what if you're not gay" and "what if you are gay". For example, I think the "what if you're gay" type plays were designed to teach kids skills for dealing with homophobic name calling, being jumped, things like that. I think the name of the program was Cootie Shots are something like that. I heard about when a bunch of parents sued the school district for letting the students see the plays
. I done some searching on the web but can't seem to locate a site aobut them, but then surfing the web is hardly my forte. If any kitten is interested, maybe they could see if they could locate this theatre company on the web and investigate them.
Another organization that might be worth investigating is [b:947de89b7f] The LA Gay & Lesbian Center[/b:947de89b7f]. I know they have a youth services program, but I'm clueless about what they actually do. The link to their site is:
www.laglc.org/section03/index.html If anyone wants to investigate other GLBT community centers, here is the link to the national directory:
www.lgbtcenters.org/home.htm If there are kittens who want to donate things other than money, maybe these community centers would be someplace they could do that.
The other thought I had is maybe someone can check out the [b:947de89b7f] Cool Page for Gay Teens[/b:947de89b7f] and see what charities/organizations that page has links to. It's located at:
www.bidstrup.com/cool.htm I think it has some links to international organizations which might be kinda cool b/c kittens in other countries might prefer contributing to an organization closer to their homes as opposed to an LA-based organization.
I should be able to access the tax returns of any US non-profit that receives more than $25,000 / year and I would be happy to investigate any other groups we may be interested in. Unfortunately, my work just doesn't leave me with much spare time to do general research on any of these other organizations or time to find other worthy groups, so I was hopeful that there may be some kittens with more of an opportunity to research these organizations and see if they might be something we would be interested in.
by Thanatopsis » Mon Jul 15, 2002 9:58 pm 
I love this place.