PROJECT INFORM IN OTHER MEDIA ... 2008
Early Microsoft employee leaves
most of his fortune to
charity, including
$65-million to gay-rights group
(mention of Project Inform in bold below)
Richard (Ric) W. Weiland, one of the first Microsoft employees,
has bequeathed most of his fortune, worth an estimated $158-million,
to charities. The biggest single commitment, $65-million, went
to the Pride Foundation, a Seattle foundation that advocates
for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people,
and supports HIV/AIDS organizations.
Officials at the foundation announced the bequest today. Mr.
Weiland, whose estate has only recently settled, died in June
2006 at age 53. He committed suicide after years of battling
depression.
Mr. Weiland’s second biggest gift—$60-million—went
to his alma mater, Stanford University.
The donation to the Pride Foundation is believed to be the largest
bequest to support gay rights groups in the United States.
Mr. Weiland stipulated in his will that he wanted $46-million
of the bequest to be used to set up a special fund, which Pride
officials have named the Weiland Designated Fund, to benefit
10 nonprofit groups chosen by Mr. Weiland: Amfar, the Foundation
for AIDS Research; Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation;
Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network; In the Life; International
Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission; Lambda Legal; National
Gay and Lesbian Task Force; Parents, Families and Friends of
Lesbians and Gays; Project Inform; and Servicemembers Legal Defense
Network.
He earmarked the remaining $19-million for the Pride Foundation’s
endowment and its scholarship program.
A long-time donor to the 10 groups, as well as to Pride, Mr.
Weiland left specific instructions in his will about what percentage
of his donation each group would receive. He did not place any
restrictions on how the groups should use the money.
He designed the bequest so that the Pride Foundation would distribute
the money to each one of the groups in quarterly payments over
eight years. The payments will begin this year.
Of the groups willing to disclose how much money they would
receive, Lambda Legal will receive a total of about $11-million
from the fund; the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network
will receive a total of approximately $6.5-million; and the National
Gay and Lesbian Task Force will receive slightly more than $6-million.
All three groups are in New York.
Project Inform, an advocacy group in San
Francisco that helps people who have had HIV/AIDS for 20 years
or more,will receive slightly more than $1.6-million; the International Gay and Lesbian
Human Rights Commission, in New York, will receive just under
$1.6-million; Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays,
in Washington, will receive approximately $1.5-million; In the
Life, a New York organization that produces a documentary television
series on gay and lesbian issues, will receive $800,000; as will
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, in Washington.
Two organizations — Amfar, the Foundation for AIDS Research;
and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation — would
not disclose how much money they will receive from the fund.
Joining Microsoft
Mr. Weiland attended the Lakeside School, a private school in
Seattle, where he befriended Paul Allen, who worked with Bill
Gates to found Microsoft. After graduating from Stanford University
in 1976, Mr. Weiland joined the fledgling software company where
he helped design and program some of the first interface systems
for personal computers.
He started donating to Pride and to most of the beneficiaries
of the designated fund in the early and mid-1990s, giving $35
to $1,000 each time. His donations to the groups grew bigger,
often reaching tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars, by
the end of the decade.
“He was very hands off as a donor, although he closely
followed the work that was being done,” said Kevin Cathcart,
executive director of Lambda Legal, who said he thinks Mr. Weiland’s
bequest sets a new bar for financially affluent people who support
gay causes.
Mr. Weiland served as a board member of both the Pride Foundation,
and the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network. People
who knew Mr. Weiland described him as fiercely intelligent, yet
unassuming, modest, and quiet.
“He’d come to a board meeting and might say one
thing the entire time, but when he did, everyone listened very
closely,” said Audrey Haberman, executive director of the
Pride Foundation.
He also had a sense of humor, often referring to himself as
an “entreprenerd,” said Kevin Jennings, founder
of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network.
“He’d done so much to alleviate other people’s
pain and had never asked for anything in return,” said
Mr. Jennings. “He helped so many organizations, and here,
obviously, he needed some help and we didn’t even know.”
In addition to his donation to the Pride Foundation, Mr. Weiland
left approximately $8-million apiece to Children’s Hospital
Foundation and to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, both
in Seattle; $3.2-million to the Lakeside School; $3.2-million
to the National Wildlife Federation, and $3.1-million to the
Sierra Club Foundation, in San Francisco.
He also left money to Environmental Defense, in New York; the
Nature Conservancy, in Arlington, Va.; and United Way of King
County, in Seattle.
