Last year, 3,000 volunteers gave 22,000 hours of service to help impact over half a million people at events, civic engagement, and educational opportunities across all of 2018. While the Parade and Festival are the largest and therefore most visible parts of our year, everything from our youth programs, to our #MeTooLGBTQ Conference, women’s programs, Latinx and APIMEDA Coalitions, and all our programs and events are made possible through the power of volunteering.
It’s important to us that the volunteers who give their time are as diverse as the populations we hope to serve. 33% of our volunteers are straight allies who give their time to serve the LGBTQ community. 62% of our volunteers identify as female, 34% male, and 4% nonbinary. 7% of our volunteers identify as transgender. 61% identify as people of color, with 29% identifying as Latinx, 12% APIMEDA, 11% black, 2% Native American, and 7% have a diverse heritage.
As a nonprofit, we count on our volunteers to make this organization run, to serve our community, and to lift up the next generation of leaders. Their talents help us thrive, their insights help us to grow, and their valuable time makes it possible for us to give proceeds from our events back out to the community. Last year alone we granted out over $170,000.
Every year at Pride, I am inspired by our volunteers. Folks who are looking for their found family and making connections while serving community. The volunteer who finds their new best friend or the love of their life. The volunteer who helps someone connect to sobriety services or HIV testing for the first time. The volunteer who gets to see the expression on someone’s face who is experiencing Pride and acceptance for the first time.
Some of our volunteers have literally been here since 1975, and some are in high school. Each of them learning and growing from one another in a beautiful mix of intersectional and intergenerational mentorship. I hope that you will consider volunteering for Pride this year at the big events or in one of our many programs and join our Legacy of Liberation.
Fernando Lopez was the Executive Director of San Diego Pride. Lopez’s years of LGBT advocacy, nonprofit management, public education, diversity consulting, media relations, guest lectures, and organizing have made them a consistent presence ensuring the struggles of the LGBT community are ever visible.
