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GARRYASEXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF GLAAD , 1997 |
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CHANGING POLICY FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES WEDDING ANNOUNCEMENTS WAS A HIGHLIGHT OF HER WORK . During her 10 years at GLAAD , one of her proudest accomplishments was lobbying The New York Times to include same-sex wedding announcements in its wedding pages . Garry and her fellow GLAAD staff spent a year-long campaign doing research on what was happening in the newspaper world and what their policies were while also educating staff atThe New York Times about why it was important to include the couples in the announcements . The paper ran its first same-sex wedding announcement in 2003 .
“ Seeing LGBT couples on the pages of The New York Times sends a very strong signal to Americans that LGBT people belong ,” says Garry .
This campaign was around the same time that the Supreme Court was debating marriage equality , so
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Garry often imagined that the people reading and seeing the same-sex couples in The New York Times wedding pages were Supreme Court justices who were “ absorbing the fact that gay and lesbian couples are side by side with straight couples in making loving commitments to one another . That couldn ’ t but help shape their opinions ,” she says .
AN ‘ ACCIDENTAL CONSULTANT ’ FOR MANY NONPROFITS . When Garry stepped down from GLAAD in 2005 to take care of her three children , she became what she called an “ accidental consultant .” Nonprofit leaders familiar with her skills would ask her for help . With her experiences inconsulting , running a nonprofit and fundraising , she believed she could create a platform that would be helpful to leaders in the nonprofit sector who needed guidance . In 2012 , she started the blog JoanGarry . com , where she
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shared her own experiences . It ended up “ totally taking off ,” with over 100,000 unique visitors every month from more than a hundred countries .
Since it seemed her voice resonated with a lot of people , Garry decided to also begin a podcast called Nonprofits Are Messy , and wrote a book called Joan Garry ’ s Guide to Nonprofit Leadership , becoming a “ Dear Abby ” of sorts in the nonprofit sector .
SHE CREATED THE NONPROFIT LEADERSHIP LAB TO HELP SMALLER ORGANIZATIONS THRIVE . Knowing the smaller nonprofits might never be able to hire their own consultant , Garry did research and realized 60 % of 1.5 million nonprofits in America have budgets under $ 1 million , with a vast majority working with budgets of less than $ 500,000 .
Along with her business partner , Garry decided to create an online membership site to help these
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COURTESY OF JOAN GARRY |
10 MAY 2022 MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE |