|
||||
|
||||
|
Thursday, Aug 21, 2008
|
||||
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||
|
|||||
Microsoft millionaire's estate gives $65 million to Pride Foundation |
|
 |
|
| Microsoft millionaire's estate gives $65 million to Pride Foundation | |
| by Nick Ardizzone -
SGN Staff Writer In 1976, Ric Weiland joined his high school classmates Bill Gates and Paul Allen at their little-known company, Microsoft, located then in Albuquerque, New Mexico. One of the corporation's first five employees, the openly Gay Weiland was integral to Microsoft's success and was able to retire quite comfortably by 1988 in order to pursue philanthropy full-time. Suffering from chronic depression, Weiland committed suicide in June of 2006 at the age of 53. The extent of his will recently revealed that he left Seattle's Pride Foundation a staggering $65 million - the largest single bequest ever made to the GLBT movement. The Seattle Gay News spoke with Pride Foundation Executive Director Audrey Haberman and Director of Community Giving Zan McColloch-Lussier about the record-breaking donation and the dedicated, thoughtful man behind it. A DEDICATED ACTIVIST AND PHILANTHROPIST Haberman recalled Weiland's first donation to Pride. "He actually made his first gift to us in '88," she said. "It was really interesting how many [groups that Weiland donated to] said that his initial donation was a small, $50-$100 gift. & He started reading and learning more about them, and as he liked what they were doing, he steadily increased his gifts." "One of the things he talked regularly with us about was that & he felt that his strength was in managing his money and giving his money to good causes," Haberman said. Weiland researched the organizations and observed how they spent his initial donation. "If he really trusted them, he'd give them their gifts in a really unrestricted way, with a lot of trust that they knew best how to use that money." "I think that was a really key philosophy of his, and it says a lot about him," Haberman said. "He was a very analytical person." Weiland was so impressed with the Pride Foundation that he involved himself in the inner workings of the organization - an unusual step. "He was actually not involved with most of the organizations he gave to," Haberman explained, "but he served on a grant review committee with us and then served on our board from '97 to 2001." In 1998, Weiland served on the Pride committee that created the plan to persuade companies to add sexual orientation to their non-discrimination policies. At the time, less than half of the Fortune 500 companies had policies that complied with Pride's standards. The first two corporations Pride set its sights on were McDonald's and GE. "McDonald's accepted," said Haberman, "but GE was reluctant." Weiland - shy and not fond of public speaking - agreed to speak at a GE shareholders meeting. Haberman remembered the 1999 visit. "He gave a really great speech. He stood up at this meeting in front of [former CEO] Jack Welch and gave this speech about being a kid and going to the New York World's Fair and seeing the GE exhibit, and how that solidified his interest in engineering. & and how it was really important for companies to have policies that protected everybody and let everybody be who they were in the workplace." Jack Welch was impressed with Weiland's heartfelt testimony and maintained contact with him. The following year, GE changed their policies in accordance with Pride's suggestions. According to Haberman, GE was held in such high regard that many other Fortune 500 companies followed suit and adapted the non-discrimination policy over the next few years. MILLIONS IN DISTRIBUTION AND ENDOWMENT "He never told us we were in his will," Haberman said, recalling the organization's initial surprise at Weiland's donation. "We had no conversations with him about his thinking." The group received its first, relatively small dispersement from Weiland's estate in June 2007, and was told to expect a second installment at a later date. It was not until the second dispersement in December that the Pride Foundation was informed of the enormity of Weiland's generosity. Weiland specified that the $65 million donation be split into three parts: $46 million in a designated fund to be given to ten national organizations, a $3 million endowment for Pride scholarships, and a $16 million general endowment for Pride. McColloch-Lussier explained the wisdom behind Pride's role as distributor. "We're a community foundation, so instead of each of those ten groups having to create what we already have - which would be redundant - Ric & was able to give [the money] to us and direct who he would like it to go to over the next eight years." The ten recipients of the Weiland Designated Fund are the Foundation for AIDS Research (amFAR); the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD); the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN); the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission; the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF); Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG); Project Inform; the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN); In The Life Media; and Lambda Legal. Haberman said Pride has shouldered the financial responsibility earnestly. "Ultimately, we were incredibly touched by the trust that he had for this organization to handle a gift of that size. There were very few restrictions on the way that he gave this gift, and I think that, what I interpret, he knew that we would handle it and manage it and administrate it well." The remaining $19 million money remains in the form of endowments. "Essentially, what endowment means is we must maintain the & principal forever," explained McColloch-Lussier. "What you do with an endowment is you invest it in such a way you get some growth on it, and then you're able to spend from the growth and not from the principal." "It's so important to us that the community have clear expectations, because we don't want people to think, 'well, they can send us millions of dollars,' when in fact, that's not true," he said. "It's really important for us to be transparent." The money is being managed by Walden Asset Management, a financial institution in Boston. "The thing that Walden has is expertise in shareholder activism work, and we want our money working for change," Haberman said. The returns on the $16 million endowment will, by 2012, yield a sustainable 5% - $800,000 - which can then be spent annually. "We are doing everything we can to get as much as we can out to the community, but it's going to take us five years to do this in a way that's responsible," said Haberman. "Even in 2012, having $800,000 - when you look at the requests that we get from scholarships and grant recipients, it's nowhere near what these groups and individuals deserve." "It's still going to take the entire community of donors & to continue to give if we want to meet the needs of our community," added McColloch-Lussier. "IT'S THE BEGINNING, BUT IT'S ALSO THE MIDDLE" In the past, Haberman recounted, "There have been several really important [donations] & and there have been some pretty significant bequests given to us." She cited the bequests given by Brian Day, Alan Tonning, and Gray Lambert as setting a precedent. In this way, Weiland's donation "is the beginning, but it's also the middle." "We've been doing it this way for a long time; we've learned a lot. We know a lot of what we're doing well, and we know a lot of what is unmet as a result, and so those are some of the questions that we will be exploring internally." "Certainly we know that this money will be used for granting to organizations all throughout the Northwest," said McColloch-Lussier, gesturing broadly to a well-marked wall map. "We know it'll be used for the leadership and development work that we do all throughout the communities we work in, and with our scholars. But right now, the timing is interesting because our board is just embarking on our strategic planning process for 2009-2012, so they are able to do that planning with this in mind: that we will have these assets, that they're going to grow, and what they're going to generate every year. We assume that there will be some new initiatives that we might decide [are] the best ways to create equality in the Northwest, but right now there's nothing concrete." "What this will mean, though," added Haberman, "is that we've been doing this regional work - which we feel is really important - and [the donation] will allow us to do it better." McColloch-Lussier remarked on how Pride could now have an "enhanced relationship" with national groups based in Chicago or New York. "There are so many people here who are so active, we want to make sure they get the chance to interact face-to-face with the leaders of our community." Even so, "Our mission is regional," Haberman stated. "Our commitment is funding in the Northwest." Although Weiland was committed to the Northwest, he left the majority of his money to national organizations. "The organizations named in his will were all groups he was supporting in his lifetime," Haberman said. "He did do a significant amount of local giving in his lifetime ... but it seemed like, in his will ... he wanted to support primarily national organizations, and that my guess is that he felt that one of the ways he could accomplish [national and] local giving was to give us a significant gift, because we support so many local organizations that he supported, that he cared about, locally and regionally." Haberman paused while she thought back on Pride's benefactor. "I think that he chose his connection with Pride Foundation in that same spirit," she ventured. "He really liked the idea that he was giving with other people. He knew he could establish his own foundation if he wanted, or he could do his own thing, but what he talked about consistently was the idea that he was giving along with other people, and people giving at all kinds of levels - almost all less than him - but nevertheless, they were doing it together." |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 post your own information onthe Seattle Gay Blog |
 |
copyright Seattle Gay News - DigitalTeamWorks 2007
USA Gay News American News American Gay News USA American Gay News United States American Lesbian News USA American Lesbian News United States USA News
USA Gay News American News American Gay News USA American Gay News United States American Lesbian News USA American Lesbian News United States USA News