This Is Really Sad.

A great Pride Center just got its breath knocked out of them… a Pride Center life blood is their 501(c)3 tax exempt status almost all of the people and businesses that donate use it as a tax write off. That is one of the reasons why I donate especially for businesses.

When I was the Executive Director one of my duties was to make sure our treasurer filed the 990 tax exempt form. A couple of times I had to hound him but it was filed each year, for us it was really simple… “Did your organization make less than $10,000? Yes. And it was done, I imagine it is more complicated for a large non-profit.  But to file with the IRS each year is the ED’s “Prime Directive,” the results of that inaction…

New Haven Pride Center Furloughs Eight Of Nine Employees
The Arts Council of Greater New Haven
By Lucy Gellman
January 20th, 2023


An anchor of New Haven’s LGBTQ+ community has furloughed eight of its nine staff members for the immediate future in a bid to stay financially afloat during a time of sustained uncertainty.

On Friday afternoon, the New Haven Pride Center (NHPC) announced that it is temporarily furloughing eight of its nine remaining staff members starting Jan. 23 because it is no longer able to make payroll. The center will be keeping on staff its interim executive director, Juancarlos Soto.

Board President Dolores Dégagé Hopkins and board members Hope Chávez and Nick Bussett told the Arts Paper that they hope the furlough of the rest of the staff members will last no longer than a month.  

These furloughs come nearly three months after the Pride Center announced that it had lost its tax-exempt nonprofit status and terminated its former longtime executive director after failing to file multiple years’ worth of tax forms.

This is the results of his inaction; eight people are not bring in a paycheck!

The furloughing of these eight employees does not mean that they’ve been fired. But it does mean that they won’t get paid by the center until the organization brings them back onto the payroll. It also means that they won’t be working for the center during that team, leaving the formerly vibrant and program-rich organization with a working staff of one.

I have worked with their Executive Director, he seemed a very nice amiable person but what he did was a dereliction of duty that had very far reaching ramifications.

At the time of Dunn’s termination in November, the center had a staff of 12. It now has a staff of nine (and as of next Monday, a temporary staff of one). When pressed on how long it took the board to learn about the 990s—the IRS does ask if a board reviewed the forms—Chávez  said that the board “had a lot of trust” in the organization's previous leadership, and was under the impression that necessary paperwork for taxes, institutional partnerships, and grants was all submitted properly and on time.

There is a very simple way to check if the paperwork has been filed.

Around the end of April I went on a website that list 990s, I went and looked to see what the latest 990 Connecticut TransAdvocacy Coalition was filed and I usually sent a friendly reminder to our Treasurer (And just checking it, CTAC hasn’t filed last year’s 2021 990!).

Soto also praised the Triangle Community Center (TCC), Junta for Progressive Action, and Fair Haven Community Health Care, which have helped to keep the Pride Center’s food pantry stocked and helped bring in coats, hats and mittens for the clothing closet. He and staff have worked to ensure that affinity and support groups and the center’s youth internship program continue without interruption. 

I have been working with their Manager of Support Services and others to start up an elder LGBTQ program our next meeting is scheduled meeting is the 30th, but they left for another job.

Ta’LannaMonique Lawson-Dickerson, who came onboard in August of last year, wiped tears from her face as she described her dedication to her work—and the fact that she does not expect it to end anytime soon. As a single mom raising two kids, she said that the timing of the furloughs is difficult—she has been hoping to buy a home that will move her family out of Newhallville, which has been subject to so much violence that her kids don’t play outside anymore.

Sadly the Executive Director’s inaction has a direct consequences on people lives!

“I implore people to remember that the folks in these walls, that work in this building, are people too,” he had said earlier in the day. “They are trying their best to navigate a difficult situation, to show up for themselves, for their families, our community while maintaining a commitment that we hold sacred to keep the doors to the Center open. We signed up for this work knowing that in good times this was not gonna be easy work.”