The Victory Fund: A brief history
Believe it or not, the concept of the Victory Fund began with two straight women — two straight women whose political races were being observed by two visionary and well-connected gay men.
The 1990 gubernatorial campaigns of Barbara Roberts of Oregon and Ann Richards of Texas were being observed, supported and discussed by two of the gay community's most seasoned political activists and fund-raisers: Vic Basile and Terry Bean. A longtime gay activist and the LGBT community's first major donor and fundraiser, Terry Bean was the lead fundraiser for Barbara Roberts' campaign. Vic Basile, a fundraising consultant in Washington, DC, had just completed a stint as head of the then Human Rights Campaign Fund.
Basile and Bean talked frequently about these important races and about how a relatively new group called EMILY's List had dramatically leveled the financial playing field for these candidates. EMILY's List, founded in 1985 by Ellen Malcolm, started as a network of donors who agreed to contribute at least $100 to two or more women candidates recommended to them by the List. By linking thousands of donors from across the country, EMILY's List had, almost overnight, enabled women candidates to be financially competitive with their well-funded male opponents.
Bean and Basile wondered whether the same model could be made to work as well for openly gay and lesbian candidates. Wondering led to planning, and then to developing a list of possible board members. If the effort was to have any chance of succeeding, it would need a group of experienced fund-raisers to serve on a board of directors, and a dynamic executive director to run the organization. Both concluded that, not only was all of this possible, it was desperately needed. There was just no substitute for having our own seats at the table.
Within days of that election, a potential executive director materialized when Dallas gay activist William Waybourn spoke with Basile by phone. Waybourn had been astounded by the success of EMILY's List in raising money for Ann Richards. Basile told Waybourn the same could be done for openly LGBT candidates because the model was fully portable; i.e., it could be reconfigured to do for LGBT candidates what it had so effectively done for women candidates. He told Waybourn that he had been discussing just such an idea with Terry Bean, but that neither of them could take on the position of executive director. Waybourn volunteered and agreed to meet Basile in Washington the following month to help launch the new organization.
During the next several months, Basile, with crucial help from Bean, sought financial commitments from major funders and recruited a founding board of directors selected for their outstanding fund-raising and political prowess. Committing to serve on the board, and to raising $10,000 each for the new organization, were political consultant David Mixner, attorney Roberta Bennett and physician Scott Hitt from Los Angeles; professional athlete Lynn Greer from Columbus, Ohio; Dallas AIDS Resource Center director John Thomas; San Francisco businessman David Detrick; Human Rights Campaign Fund officials Tim McFeeley and Hilary Rosen; Washington, DC, government affairs representative Howard Menaker, and Terry Bean. The funds they raised would be used to sustain the operation of the Victory Fund until a sustaining level of support from memberships could be reached.
On May 1, 1991, the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund was formally created as a non partisan, multi-candidate, federal political action committee. Waybourn was hired as executive director and Basile signed on as the principal strategy and fundraising consultant. Primarily through the vehicle of direct mail, individuals were invited to join the organization with a contribution of $100 or more, and to agree to make two additional $100 contributions to at least two Victory Fund recommended candidates within a two year election cycle. As candidates met the criteria of the Victory Fund, they were recommended to the donor network. Members had the discretion to write their checks to the candidates of their choice, but were requested to send them to the Victory Fund where they were bundled and forwarded to the candidates in a massive show of community support.
In the fall of 1991, Seattle City Council candidate Sherry Harris became the first candidate recommended to the Victory Fund donor network, then consisting of 181 members. The overriding question at that time was whether or not members from one region of the country would contribute to the campaigns of candidates running for office in another part of the country. The answer was an overwhelming "Yes!" Contributions rolled in from Victory Fund members, eventually totaling more than $14,000. With Victory Fund help, Harris beat a 24-year incumbent to become the nation's first openly lesbian African-American city council member.
Growth came at a rapid rate following that stunning victory. Victory Fund strategists had set a modest goal of raising a total of $80,000 for six candidates during its first election cycle. Instead, the Victory Fund raised more than $263,000 for 12 candidates, six of whom won their races.
Brian Bond lead the organization as executive director from 1997 to 2003, and in 1998, the Victory Fund was instrumental in electing to the U.S. Congress Rep. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, the nation’s first member of congress ever elected to that body for the first time as openly gay.
Victory Fund board member Chuck Wolfe was named executive director in 2003. Under Wolfe’s leadership, revenue grew from $1.5 million in 2003 to $4 million in 2006. Breakthrough wins during those years included the election of Lupe Valdez as Sheriff of Dallas County, Texas — the first female, first Latina and first out lesbian ever to be elected to that position. Nicole LeFavour was elected to the Idaho state senate, becoming the first openly gay person ever elected in the state. In 2006, Rep. Patricia Todd of Alabama, Rep. Kathy Webb of Arkansas and school board member Henry Fernandez of Indiana became the first openly LGBT elected officials in their states. That same year, the Victory Fund endorsed 88 candidates—its largest slate ever. Sixty-seven of those 88 went on to win their races.
On that first day of May in 1991 when Victory was launched, just 49 openly LGBT elected officials served in the U.S. Today, the vision of Victory’s founders is being realized in remarkable ways. At the beginning of 2007, more than 400 out elected officials serve at all levels of government.
This remarkable growth and these amazing breakthroughs are a testament to the courage and insight of people like Vic Basile and Terry Bean, and to the dedication and commitment of the thriving national donor network they helped to create.
