“Don’t Say Gala (Gay-La)” Gala event fundraiser
The idea is that a ton of queer and body autonomy groups would come together and do a “fabulous black tie” gala event. Each guest that buys a ticket based on an organization’s email list gets a special amount earmarked for their organization. So if your mailings (Equality NM) about the event sold 5 $200 tickets ($1000) you would get $200 right off the top, since your mailing list was the one that worked.
Then as we plan the event, we would talk about how the ticket revenue would be shared, and we would have a lot of fundraising at the actual gala – live auctions, silent auctions. By taking a “Don’t Say Gala” approach and on the surface just talking about “Workforce Enablement” – then we can get banks to sponsor – and other groups that are no longer allowed to fund “DEI” initiatives. So we literally never say Queer or LGBTQ, while this is the most unimaginably queer event we’ve ever held – Drag performances, etc. Totally tongue in cheek. So the official title would be “Workforce Enablement Gala.”
The idea is that as we divide the proceeds, it’s going to paying staff and not asking volunteers who need aid themselves to go unpaid. So it’s 100% true that it’s going to workforce enablement, but the recipients tend to be Queer.