New Member Spotlight – December 2016
An important part of the GGBA’s mission is to foster community within San Francisco’s LGBT business community. Each month we will spotlight our most recent members. As you can see,…
Celebrating 2016! for the GGBA, It Was a Great Year
2016 was an incredible year for the GGBA. We said goodbye to some very cherished and loved members and we said hello to growth, opportunity and significant breakthroughs in economic…
Buy a Home in San Francisco: New Residential Lending Options for Self Employed Borrowers
By Jackie Cuneo This guest post from long-time member and GGBA board member Jackie Cuneo of Summit Funding provides advice and insider tips on finding alternatives to standard home loans…
An Interview with Sandra Escalante
By Paul Pendergast This interview, an ongoing series, is part of the GGBA’s commitment to build relationships and share our members’ successes. If you’d like to be highlighted, don’t hesitate to…
Impact Builder: Cyber Security for Small Businesses & Supplier Diversity Do’s and Don’t’s
On September 14, 2016, the GGBA launched its first in a series of Impact Builders. These educational and networking opportunities teach our businesses how to take advantage of their status…
‘Shared Retirement Confidence’ – Six steps every same-sex couple should consider taking
By Sarah Heegaard Rush, CFP®, ADPA SM, Senior Financial Advisor, Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC Published: Friday, September 4, 2015 Creating a ‘Shared Retirement Confidence’ Six steps every same-sex couple should…
2015 Top Six San Francisco Bay Area Wedding Planners and Event Planners – Sullivan and Botello
By Liz Caruana Weddings Published: Friday, April 1, 2015 Fred and Jaime are two of the sweetest wedding planners I have ever met. But more importantly as team these two…
NGLCC Business Enterprise Certification is Good For Business; Interview with Dawn Ackerman
Published: Feb. 24, 2015
Photo of Dawn Ackerman by Paul Chinn, San Francisco Chronicle
Becoming part of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce’s (NGLCC) Supplier Diversity Initiative is about more than supporting the national movement for LGBT equality. It’s about helping small businesses become recognized and make money, thereby bolstering the economic base of the entire LGBT community. The GGBA sat down with Dawn Ackerman to find out why it’s important for GGBA’s small business members to get certified to become part of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) Supplier Diversity Initiative in advance of the free LGBT Business Builder event taking place on March 2, 2015.Dawn is vice president of the GGBA Board of Directors and President, CFO, and co-founder of OutSmart Office Solutions, a full-service office interior design and space planning company. In 2012, OutSmart Office Solutions was recognized as the NGLCC’s 2012 LGBT Supplier of the Year.GGBA: You’re very involved with the NGLCC. Will you tell us why you’re so involved?Dawn: When I was living in Los Angeles in 2004, I heard from a fellow business owner that there was a new, National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, and they were having their conference in San Francisco to talk about LGBT Business Enterprise certification. I decided to buy a ticket and come to San Francisco to check out this conference. While I was at that conference, I learned about certification, and I learned that there were LGBT Chambers all over the country. I joined the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Chamber and started understanding how important certification could be for LGBT businesses—if they knew about it. We’ve been promoting it now for almost 10 years.I also met my business partner at that San Francisco conference. Over the next few years we decided we would form a new company, get certified, and work together. We formed Outsmart Office Solutions in 2007. In 2009, we went to the NGLCC conference and that's where we met Office Depot. In 2010 we became their first LGBT partner and in 2013 we became their first and only LGBT vendor with our own line of product.New California Law Aims To Help Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender-Owned Businesses
Published: Friday, Jan. 2, 2015 SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) – A first-of-its-kind law in California is aimed at helping certified businesses owned by those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. The…
LGBT-owned businesses get diversity boost
By Lisa Leff, Associated PressPublished: Friday, Jan. 2, 2015
SAN FRANCISCO -- As a Mexican-American woman who started her own consulting firm in Los Angeles, accountant Sonia Luna has taken advantage of programs aimed at helping minority- and women-owned businesses compete for government and corporate contracts. But increasingly, the fact that Luna also is a lesbian entrepreneur hasn't hurt either.
Federal agencies, organizations such as the National Football League and more than one-third of Fortune 500 companies are now trying to expand their vendor pools by explicitly encouraging bids from gay, lesbian and transgender contractors.
The little-known outreach efforts mirror long-standing "supplier diversity" initiatives aimed at creating economic opportunities for businesses owned by racial minorities, women and disabled veterans.
"It allows me to be even prouder of who I am," said Luna, who hopes her firm, Aviva Spectrum, will benefit from a new California law requiring large utility companies to report how much they spend with LGBT contractors. "And it allows the marketplace to acknowledge a class that has been denied recognition as a minority group."
The trend has not been without controversy.
NFL Inroad – Gay Businesses Offered Opportunities for 2016 Super Bowl
By Kevin Majoros , Washington BladePublished: Thursday, Dec, 4, 2014Over the past few years, several professional, college and Olympic athletes have come out of the closet. And the sports communities from which they come have launched diversity training programs and guidelines to educate their athletes, coaches and staff.It is safe to say that the sports world is paying attention to the LGBT community.Earlier this summer, it was announced that the United States Tennis Association had become a corporate partner with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and would be opening their supply chain to LGBT-certified businesses.And now, the National Football League has announced that the San Francisco Bay Area Super Bowl 50 Host Committee will include Bay Area LGBT-certified businesses in its Business Connect program for contracting opportunities related to the Super Bowl championship game to be held at Levi’s Stadium on Feb. 7, 2016.
The Outfield on SiriusXM: SF Bay Area leaders on the kinds of LGBT businesses needed for Super Bowl 50
By Eddie Robinson, The Outfield, SirusXM Entertainment Published: Monday, Nov. 17, 2014 Listen to GGBA Public Policy Chair Paul Pendergast and San Francisco Bay Area Super Bowl 50 Host Committee…