Not one to let a social media campaign escape her, Lady Gaga is letting her Facebook fans decide how she should donate a million dollars. Though she certainly could use a new creative director and better prosthetics, you can’t argue with Gaga for going the more charitable route with her gay-earned dollars. The artist better known for making awesome music videos to otherwise terrible pop songs has partnered with the Robin Hood Foundation in New York to give $1 million to five non-profits working with homeless or at-risk LGBT youth.
Those in the running? The Door, Hetrick-Martin Institute, Lawyers for Children, Safe Horizon, SCO Family of Services.
Here’s the catch. The money will be distributed according to the number of votes each organization gets on Facebook: $500,000 for the most votes, then $200,000, $150,000, $100,000 and $50,000, respectively. So unlike Katy Perry at the Grammys, no one is walking home empty-handed when the winner is announced at a special benefit concert on May 9.
But how exactly will these non-profits use Mother Monster’s megabucks? We did a little investigating as to how the organizations were planning on funneling the donation money. Using their statement of functional expense, we found out the dollar figure that goes directly to programming rather than to administrative costs. Here’s how their efficiency breaks down…
Safe Horizon (watch their campaign video above) will funnel the money into their Streetwork program with a 24-bed emergency shelter and two drop-in centers with access to counseling, hot meals, clothing, showers and health services, according to Liz Roberts, chief programs officer. Safe Horizon’s non-profit efficiency ratio: 84 cents to the dollar.
Hetrick-Martin Institute will launch a new program, HMI-To-Go, according to executive director Thomas Klever. The program will offer training and other resources to smaller gay youth groups outside NYC and help make their organizations sustainable. HMI’s non-profit efficiency ratio: 74 cents to the dollar.
Lawyers For Children (watch their campaign video above) plans to increase legal staff to fund litigation and legislative advocacy on behalf of LGBT youth in foster care, according to spokesperson Lauren Kernan. The money will also be used to print and distribute a handbook informing gay youth of their rights and resources. LFC’s non-profit efficiency ratio: 86 cents to the dollar.
The Door will continue operating their 65-unit housing complex for disconnected youth (26% of which identifies as LGBT). Those aging out of the foster care system in New York City face a lack of resources from the government, according to spokesperson Amanda Peck. The Door’s non-profit efficiency ratio: 87 cents to the dollar.
SCO Family of Services (watch their campaign video above) has foster homes that replicate the family living experience for homeless youth and provide more than the minimum the government housing contracts, including mediation for severed biological families, according to executive director Gail Nayowith. SCO’s non-profit efficency ratio: 93 cents to the dollar.
Which organization do you think deserves Gaga’s money the most? Now that you’re a little more informed, let us know and go vote!
joe Mondo
Those are all within conventional standards for administrative ratio.
Is Queerty trying to make a big deal out of something very ordinary?
IAbuseGays
Or they are just telling you that the money will be put to good use – hence the question mark at the end of the title.
George W. Tush
All too often, the money stays at the top in non-profits.
No one carefully scrutinizes the management to ascertain if what was characterized as “services” were actually services or were actually the services the money was designated to provide. A lot more sunshine needs to shine on non-profit managers and their reporting habits.
meego
United Way is a good example. By the time your dollar trickles down to the actual needy person, you’re lucky if there’s 10% left on your dollar.
Blue
Pop music might not be your cup of tea, but if you think Gaga makes bad pop songs, you are definitely don’t know what you are talking about
NoelG
Gaga writes bad pop songs? When you’re willing to put up your bona fides against Elton John’s, Sting’s, Cher’s, and the many other singer/songwriters who extoll her talents, then you opinion will carry some weight.
SKOC211
Color me shocked. Queerty is back for less than a day and has already published an article that attempts to mislead and attack Gaga on the outset but, by the end, proves she’s continuing to do absolutely amazing work on behalf of the LGBT community. So you resort to quips about needing a new creative director – Nicola Formichetti is a genius, have you seen what he’s been doing with Mugler!? – and how she writes bad pop songs.
Welcome back, assholes.
ewe
She bores me to no end. I never liked Diana Ross changing outfits every entrance either.