EQCA looks to future, releases financial data

The statewide LGBT advocacy group Equality California plans to continue promoting marriage equality and pro-gay candidates, despite shutting down some offices in a cost-cutting move.

This week, the San Francisco-based group released tax documents showing an unsurprising, but drastic drop in contributions after the unsuccessful 2008 campaign against the Prop 8 same-sex marriage ban.

Contributions and grants to EQCA were down from about $14 million in 2008 to approximately $6 million in 2009, according to the group's 990 forms prepared for the IRS. The 2008 990s had previously been available.

Funds given to the Equality California Institute, which focuses on education, went from about $8.8 million in 2008 to approximately $1.6 million in 2009.

"We're in a sound and healthy financial situation," EQCA Executive Director Geoff Kors said. "That said, given the economy, it's important to continue to work to increase the donor base and get more people to support the work, not just of Equality California, but all LGBT groups, and really watch expenses."

He said altogether, total contributions for EQCA and the institute this year come to $5.8 million, through October.

Kors said an anonymous donor contributed $6.5 million in 2008 that the Let California Ring public education campaign, which is hosted by the institute, used primarily for ad buys around the state, including multi-lingual advertisements, about marriage equality. In 2009, the same donor contributed $500,000 to fund field work. That donor didn't give money this year, according to Kors.

After Prop 8 passed two years ago, the No on 8 campaign was criticized for virtually ignoring communities of color and voters in the Central Valley and other conservative regions. As a response to those shortcomings, EQCA strengthened its outreach efforts. Kors was one of the members of the No on 8 executive committee. EQCA had passed money on to the No on 8 campaign.

EQCA's total budget, including the Equality California Institute and other organizations, is roughly $6 million to $6.5 million.

In recent weeks, EQCA - which besides working for marriage equality had also been promoting LGBT and ally candidates and sponsoring pro-LGBT legislation - has closed offices in Orange County, Fresno, and San Jose, along with a Sacramento office. It had previously shut down an office in Riverside.

EQCA's Sacramento, San Francisco, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Coachella Valley field offices remain open.

"We are significantly reducing the door-to-door canvass program and increasing the coalition work," and other activities, including a speakers bureau, Kors previously said.

Including Marc Solomon, who had been EQCA's marriage director, eight people have left the organization. Solomon has accepted a position with the national Freedom to Marry organization.

Andrea Shorter, who had been the group's coalitions director, is now director of marriage and coalitions.

Chris Moore, who had managed EQCA's political action committees, also departed. Kors said there wouldn't be anyone in that position for 2011, "absent something unusual happening" in terms of a statewide election. Kors said that position tends to be filled for specific election years, and he anticipates someone will be in that post for 2012.

He has said the total cost savings from closing regional offices and Solomon's position are approximately $1.3 million.

Kors's compensation for 2009 was about $262,000, the tax documents show, and includes a salary for EQCA and the EQCA Institute. He said that included a salary of $200,000. The board also gave him a bonus of $50,000 in 2008 that was paid in 2009.

He said his salary this year is $180,000, since he took a voluntary, 10 percent pay cut. In addition to his salary this year, Kors said, "I believe I received a $20,000 bonus in 2009 that would have been paid in 2010."

Even with the recent departures, EQCA is still "a larger organization than we were as far as staff in 2008," said Kors. At the end of that year, there were 13 staff. As of Monday, there are 19.

Despite the need for caution, Kors said, "We don't see any further cuts coming. We believe we will have sufficient resources to maintain our current staffing levels and program levels."

Kors said he's assuming the board would approve a fundraising goal for 2011 that's similar to this year's. He said for both EQCA and the institute, he anticipates the combined goal will be from $4 million to $5 million, roughly.

He said that future fundraising activities would include things like Swim for Equality, a new event that brought in $160,000 this year.

More work

There's still plenty of work to do.

U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker ruled in August that Prop 8 was unconstitutional. Backers of Prop 8 quickly appealed the ruling. Oral arguments are set to take place December 6.

But one issue that's come up is whether the measure's supporters have standing to appeal the case. Both Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Governor-elect Jerry Brown, the Democrat who currently is state attorney general, have declined to defend Prop 8 in court.

Kors said one of his group's highest priorities recently had been the attorney general's race between San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris and Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley.

More than two weeks after Election Day, the final results for that race still have not been determined. As of Tuesday night, Harris, a Democrat, had 46 percent of the vote, while Cooley, a Republican, had 45.6 percent.

Harris has said she wouldn't defend Prop 8 in court. Cooley has said he would.

If he wins, Cooley could at least delay the federal appeal by trying to intervene in the case. The attorney general also plays a role in determining ballot summaries and language, which could have an impact on any future effort to repeal the marriage ban at the ballot box.

A Cooley spokesman has said that Cooley didn't support Prop 8 in 2008, and that the Prop 8 case wouldn't be at the top of his agenda if he wins office.

"From the court's original order on briefing to their order on oral arguments, they're making the issue of whether the proponents have standing to even appeal" the biggest priority, said Kors. "If they don't have standing to appeal, we've won, so I think we need to see how that issue plays out, because if we can win this in court and have a permanent victory, there would then be no need to go back to the ballot."

Discussing the possibility of going back to the ballot in 2012 to try to repeal Prop 8, Kors said, "We have to see what happens in the court case in the short term."

However, he added, "We need to continue building our base of our supporters," and talking to people who don't support marriage equality.

"We need to continue to learn as much as we can on how to best move people," said Kors. He said the group's working closely with organizations such as the African American-centered Jordan Rustin Coalition through the Let California Ring project to continue developing and testing messages, "so we know the best messages and we're prepared to respond to whatever our opponents bring at us."

Kors said Let California Ring's door-to-door and messaging work is focused primarily on communities of color, as well as encouraging people "to have these conversations on their own."

He hopes an analysis of door-to-door work will be completed by early next year.

Shorter, the director of marriage and coalitions, recently said, "What we really, really value" more than trying to find a single message "is the power of having conversations with people. ... I don't think there's a silver bullet message for any one community."

In addition to the door-to-door work, which has primarily been part of the EQCA Institute, Kors anticipates more election-related activity, which isn't part of the institute.

"We now know there will be several special elections for legislative seats for next year," he said.

Those seats include the one that had been held by the late state Senator Jenny Oropeza (D-Long Beach), whom EQCA had supported. She died October 20 and was posthumously re-elected this month.