GLBT Profiles - Making Giving An Integral Part Of Our Lives.
A Silicon Valley gay entrepreneur shares what motivates him to give both time and money to issues and organizations that matter.
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By Mihail S. Lari | Contact
Mihail is CEO of a Silicon Valley company that is building Web 2.0 services such as Blogit. He has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, USA Today, and on CNN and Salon.com.
Mihail serves on the Board of Directors of SITE Santa Fe, and was Technology Co-Chair for John Edwards for President 2008.
He has previously served on the boards of GLAAD, Project Inform, and Harvard Alumni Association, and is co-author of The Dual City.
In 2004, the American Immigration Law Foundation honored him for contributions that have enriched the country.
Mihail received a Masters in Architecture from Rice and an AB from Harvard College.
Mihail and his partner, Scott Murray, who leads program management at eBay, call Palo Alto and Santa Fe home.
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BACKGROUND
Growing up in Pakistan, my family had a long history of being active in politics and the community. Therefore the idea of giving back was ingrained in us early on, and I supported local causes by raising money from classmates and selling art I had created. Photography became a passion for me when I was 12; armed with a half-frame camera, I visited construction sites to photograph buildings designed by my mother.
When I arrived at Harvard College in the mid-1980s, I didn’t know who I really was or what I wanted to be, but I gravitated towards photography as my concentration and then headed to architecture school at Rice University still deeply in the closet.
TAKING THE PLUNGE
I founded my first company in Chapel Hill with my brother who had just finished college there. The local HRC dinner was my first introduction to the organized LGBT community. Surrounded by like-minded people in black-tie (we cleaned up well!), I was thrilled beyond belief to hear speakers such as out Congressman Steve Gunderson.
When I moved our company’s headquarters to San Francisco, a close friend introduced me to GLAAD. I decided it was time to stop worrying about whether my investors or people back home knew about my sexual orientation. Within months, I had become a major donor and joined the national board. As a technology person, I was quite aware that this decision would mean that the words “Gay” and “Lesbian” and “GLAAD” would now forever show up next to my name if anyone Googled me.
WHY WE GIVE
I realized almost immediately that giving to GLAAD was not only about helping others who were less fortunate as maybe traditional giving often presumes. Giving to an LGBT organization is as much about helping ourselves. I was successful yet still a second-class citizen, and I couldn’t even start to imagine how other people not as privileged managed to cope with life’s challenges.
While a lot has changed in the last 10 years – this year my partner and I are required to file a tax return in California as a “married” couple – there is still much that needs to be done before we are truly equal in the eyes of the law and large swathes of the country.
GIVING STRATEGY
Our giving strategy is based on what is important to us. We give where there’s a need, where our giving will have the most impact, where the organization appreciates and benefits from what we have to offer, and where we have a significant current interest.
While there may be dozens if not hundreds of credible causes and organizations at any given time, we are able to narrow our focus by using the criteria important to us. We often start small, sometimes only a $250 donation, in an effort to get to know an organization and its values first.
We have given to GLAAD in the past because we felt that media was the most effective way to change people’s hearts and minds, and to Project Inform as HIV infection rates began to rise amongst gay men. Our current focus is supporting emerging artists, contemporary art museums and youth art education in Santa Fe where we have a home.
BOTH TIME AND MONEY
Our giving almost always closely parallels where we can also give our time as an advisor or board member, where we believe in the mission enough to open our home or reach out to our network to raise money, or where our technology experience and contacts can help an organization achieve an unrealized goal.
Our giving philosophy may be very different from other donors who are either willing to give money or to give their time but not both. Our decision to support a cause means that we intend to help in every possible way, and this often requires that we invest both time and money.
While we have a pretty methodical way of giving – we have a spreadsheet which is pre-filled with commitments for the next few years – we are sometimes willing to support a new cause when it makes an emotional and logical connection for us.
INTERNALIZING OUR GIVING
Last year, we began to feel it was important that we get involved in presidential politics for the first time – since the last choice of president has impacted LGBT lives so adversely. Although we hadn’t budgeted for it, we ended up supporting John Edwards for president in every possible way: maxing our donations, holding a fundraiser at our house, heading up a policy taskforce and traveling to Iowa.
It was an all-consuming decision and the outcome didn’t turn out the way we had hoped it would but we’re very glad that we got involved. Senator Edwards has had a positive impact on the Democratic race and the issues that are being discussed today.
Our giving choices are an integral part of our lives, and as important as any other major decisions or projects we take on. We hope that more and more members of the LGBT community will continue to set an example for the next generation of donors. We know we have been greatly inspired by the role models we got to know early on such as Al Baum and Jim Hormel.
