Many in the San Diego GLBT and allied communities provide generous donations that help The San Diego LGBT Community Center serve the more than 25,000 youth, seniors, families, and people living with HIV/AIDS and cancer in our community. Moreover, your dedication and generosity provide a lifeline of services, information, resources and community connection to thousands more. For that, we cannot thank you enough. Your leadership makes it possible for the San Diego GLBT community to proudly proclaim that we are invested in caring and providing for our own.

Today, because of the global and national economic crisis, The Center faces unprecedented challenges. The needs of the community are growing and becoming more desperate and the resources with which to address those needs are shrinking. This past week, The Center took aggressive action to address those challenges.

While cost-cutting plans began in May 2008, none of us anticipated economic crises of this magnitude. After careful review of all economic and financial information available, The Center board and management team believe these aggressive actions are necessary to prevent even further fiscal erosion and to preserve our ability to serve the community while we – along with so many others – weather this economic storm.

November closed with what might appear to be a modest 2 percent actual-to-budget deficit; however, the trend since late September is starkly downward and spiraling at an increasing trajectory. That trend is important because autumn is traditionally the most active fund-raising season of our budget year. More importantly, like most not-for-profit organizations, December is the month in which The Center receives much of its annual revenue because of end of the tax-year donations. Our December donation levels are among the lowest we have seen in eight years. These are some of the facts that led us to aggressive action.

We take seriously our commitment to serve the needs of the most vulnerable among us, as well as the community at large, and our duty to act as responsible stewards of the resources you provide.

The actions we have taken are as follows:

We have reduced our overall workforce by 10 percent through a series of layoffs that were completed this week. These layoffs were extraordinarily painful and included staff members who have given their heart and soul to the organization and the community for several years. They included layoffs at Behavioral Health Services, the Hillcrest Youth Center, the development department and the Youth Housing Project. These layoffs were designed in part to minimize program impacts. The program changes required to accommodate the reductions include an extra evening of closure at the Hillcrest Youth Center and a reduction in the availability of some mental health programs. On the whole, however, we will be able to continue to offer the wide array of services upon which the community relies, even though a reduced number of staff will be asked to do more with less.

Staff salaries have been reduced by 9 percent with the use of both unpaid time off and salary cuts. Senior management salaries were reduced an additional 5 percent, to ensure that management costs continue to be reduced even further than our current management ratio of 9 percent of total costs.

A variety of smaller benefits adjustments were also made and additional smaller expense items were reduced to achieve even more savings.

It is our hope that these actions, difficult as they are, will help to ensure the continued stability of The Center, improve cash flow and, most importantly, enable us to continue to fulfill our mission during this incredibly tumultuous time.

Thank you to all of you who have given generously throughout this year. Your donations make the Youth Housing Project, the Hillcrest Youth Center, Senior Services, HIV Services, Family Matters, Latino Services and our public policy education work possible. In times like these, we are especially grateful for you and the support you provide.

For those who may be able to make an additional tax-deductible year-end contribution of any amount, please consider one today. You may make that contribution online or by check. For more information, visit www.gaylesbiantimes.com/links/1095. And, please do not hesitate to call or e-mail me with questions, comments or feedback. You will find my contact information at www.gaylesbiantimes.com/links/1095. Your input is valuable always, but most particularly at times like these.