Gill Foundation Background
Invested in Equality
The Gill Foundation arose out of a battle for equality. A 1992 Colorado ballot initiative denying lesbians and gay men equal protection in the state provoked outrage among fair-minded citizens across Colorado and the nation. One such citizen was Tim Gill, a Coloradan since boyhood, a graduate of Jefferson County's Wheat Ridge High School, and a gay man. Tim was moved to action by the attack on his and other Coloradans' civil rights. As founder of Denver-based software company Quark, Inc., Tim was in a position to invest in efforts to defeat Amendment 2, and contributed $40,000.
Amendment 2 passed by a narrow margin and was ultimately struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. Yet the attempt by some Coloradans to deny equal rights to others based on their sexual orientation had a profound effect on Tim. In 1993, he pledged $1 million to raise awareness in Colorado about the effects of discrimination. In 1994, he established the Gill Foundation to secure equal opportunity for all Americans, regardless of sexual orientation or gender expression.
In just more than ten years of existence, the Gill Foundation has become the nation's largest private foundation focused on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights. During these years, the foundation has invested more than $120 million to support programs and nonprofit organizations across the country that share its commitment to equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans.
Today, the Gill Foundation works to secure equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans and strives to involve more people in this effort. It works to enlist and educate donors to provide the effective, large-scale financial support necessary to achieve equality, and joins with like-minded organizations and individuals to put forward a shared vision for doing so. It strives to increase support for equality by improving communications with the American people, and by raising awareness of the contributions made by gay men and lesbians to society. Today, as ever, the Gill Foundation remains invested in equality.
