The success of Glaad is a present and possibly future history story. This is an institution that has and continues to fight the good fight in the best interest of its constituents. A June 29, 2019 New York Times article brings us up to date:
After years of fighting homophobic news coverage and working to bring about inclusion in the entertainment industry, the L.G.B.T. advocacy organization found itself losing money, scrambling to adapt to the rise of digital media and struggling to be taken seriously in Hollywood.
“I was given a scary mandate,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, who was named Glaad’s chief executive in late 2013. “Fix it or shut it down.”
Determined to revive the nonprofit, Ms. Ellis pursued new donors, including the oil heiress Ariadne Getty and the Coca-Cola Company. She created a “rapid response” unit to contend with online media; Glaad now advises Twitter and Facebook on content policies. And she rebuilt Glaad’s credibility in Hollywood.
Fixed.
But Glaad again finds itself at a crossroads. Success has emboldened Ms. Ellis, 47, to push the organization deeper into national politics with a gutsy and potentially historic mission: to build support for a constitutional amendment that would explicitly protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from discrimination.
The article goes on to discuss Glaad's plans for this amendment including a brief environmental assessment of the prospects for this plan and, a discussion about Sarah Kate Ellis. Based on the article, much of Glaad''s current success, particularly in the fund raising arena has been because of Ms. Ellis. And this is where my concern lays. Is it true that Ms. Ellis is THE salvation of Glaad? Is there no Board of Directors who at minimum, hired Ms. Ellis and perhaps has its own network of those with resources? Or is Glaad really a one-person show and if true, is that ok?
I would offer the answer to be "no". Nonprofits are not about one-person shows even though it is often the one-person who "carries the water" day-to-day.
I will propose though that Glaad is successful because of all it has going for it including, not singularly because of, Sarah Kate Ellis. It takes the commitment of the whole to make a successful nonprofit. I hope in the future that Ms. Ellis will see that it is in her and Glaad's best interest to ensure a board member is with her when the media and others want to discuss Glaad and its work.