Sat 1 Aug 2009 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
The financial situation is increasingly bleak for the nation's primary glbt counseling and support organisation which is now appealing to its members to donate what money they can spare to help cover day to day running expenses. In its latest newsletter OUTline NZ, which is largely staffed by volunteers, announces a "Give a little, Help a lot" campaign to try to relieve its staff of the increasingly fruitless task of making detailed funding applications to it's historically reliable funders such as charitable trusts and government and local body sources. Chief executive Lesley Belcham says OUTline NZ funders still have some money for specific projects but the cash to pay staff and base-level running expenses has dried up. "Many philanthropic organisations are cutting back on the levels of funding they provide and this is causing us major headaches," she says. "OUTline NZ provides an essential nationwide service to many individuals in need and does a lot of work to ensure that the rights of our community as a whole are maintained," ac cording to Belcham. The irony of relying on funding from mainstream population funders when it is often mainstream bodies that Outline NZ finds itself challenging "to make the world a safer place for people in our community" is not lost on her. "We talk of pride and then we beg for money," she notes. Belcham is urging members and people in the national glbt community at large to consider making small regular donations and asks anyone who can assist to contact the organisation, previously known as Gay
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Saturday, 1st August 2009 - 7:12pm