High Impact Philanthropy: Michael Adams Of SAGE On How To Leave A Lasting Legacy With A Successful & Effective Nonprofit Organization
An Interview with Karen Mangia
Build and maintain the credibility of the organization and its leadership
For someone who wants to set aside money to establish a Philanthropic Foundation or Fund, what does it take to make sure your resources are being impactful and truly effective? In this interview series, called “How To Create Philanthropy That Leaves a Lasting Legacy” we are visiting with founders and leaders of Philanthropic Foundations, Charitable Organizations, and Non-Profit Organizations, to talk about the steps they took to create sustainable success.
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Adams.
Michael Adams is the Chief Executive Officer of SAGE, the world’s largest and oldest organization dedicated to improving the lives of LGBTQ+ older people. Founded in 1978 and headquartered in New York City, SAGE is a national organization that offers supportive services and consumer resources to LGBTQ+ older people and their caregivers; advocates for public policy changes that address the needs of LGBTQ+ elders; provides education and technical assistance for aging providers and LGBTQ+ community organizations through its National Resource Center on LGBTQ+ Aging, and offers cultural competency training through SAGECare.
Thank you for making time to visit with us about a ‘top of mind’ topic. Our readers would like to get to know you a bit better. Can you please tell us about one or two life experiences that most shaped who you are today?
I was raised in a staunchly Catholic family and attended Catholic schools until I went to college. While I’m no longer a practicing Catholic because of my church’s continuing hostility to equal rights for LGBTQ+ people and women, being exposed early on to the social justice teachings of the Church and to people like Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton and Ernesto Cardenal — who truly lived those social justice teachings — was probably the life experience that has most shaped who I am today.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? We would love to hear a few stories or examples.
Optimism, perseverance, and openness to change and growth.
What’s the most interesting discovery you’ve made since you started leading your organization?
Perhaps the most interesting discovery I’ve made since I started leading SAGE are the benefits that come with longevity and stability in the service of change movements for social justice. Prior to my time at SAGE, I tended to equate being a change agent with changing my personal and professional focus every few years. Now I’m in my 17th year as SAGE’s CEO and am the longest running leader in the organization’s history. My sense is that, overall, that longevity has been good for SAGE’s work by providing the organization with the stability that comes with consistent leadership over a long period of time, as opposed to the “roller coaster” that many (not all) non-profits experience with frequent changes in leadership. I’ve also been surprised by how personally rewarding it’s been to be a long-term organizational leader.
Can you please tell our readers more about how you or your organization intends to make a significant social impact?
It is estimated that by 2030 there will be approximately 7 million LGBTQ+ people in the U.S. who are 50 and older. Due to lifetimes of discrimination, these older folks face unique issues as they age that have only begun to be addressed by communities across the country. For example, LGBTQ+ elders often face acute levels of social isolation since they are four times less likely to have children than older Americans in general and twice as likely to grow old single and living alone. In addition, LGBTQ+ older people are more likely to face poverty, be homeless, and face serious health challenges. Discrimination contributes to, and exacerbates, these challenges. For example, half of all LGBTQ+ older people live in a state where they can be legally denied access to housing and public accommodations, and 48% of older same-sex couples applying for older adult rental housing are subjected to discrimination. These are the issues that my organization is singularly focused on addressing in order to ensure that all LGBTQ+ elders have the respect and support they deserve as they age.
SAGE is the world’s largest and oldest organization dedicated to improving the lives of LGBTQ+ older people. Founded in 1978 and headquartered in New York City, SAGE is a national organization that offers supportive services and consumer resources to LGBTQ+ older people and their caregivers and advocates for their well-being. Together with many partners across the country and globe, we support and catalyze welcoming communities and keep our issues in the national conversation to ensure a fulfilling future for LGBTQ+ people as they age. At the end of the day, we must take care of our own so they can age like the heroes they are. Our elder pioneers paved the way for the rest of us through their resilience and desire to live as their authentic selves. A community that takes care of its own and pushes for equity for all is who we are and what we do.
At SAGE, our tagline is we refuse to be invisible. That’s what our community’s elders have taught us. Recognizing that LGBTQ+ older people have often been erased and ignored, SAGE is proud to work with our elders to ensure that they age with the support and respect they deserve.
What makes you feel passionate about this cause more than any other?
SAGE’s cause is very personal to me. As an LGBTQ+ person myself, I know how our own community historically has failed to lift up and support our elder pioneers, even though we stand on their shoulders. And as a 61-year-old gay man myself, I have a keen sense of how tough it was for LGBTQ+ people in the 1970’s, and I know it was a lot worse in the decades before that. Growing up, I lived in a world that openly despised who I was. I didn’t know any out LGBTQ+ people. I felt forced to hide who I was and constrained to live a lie.
As a college student in the early 1980s, I nervously shared with an advisor that I was gay. Because she cared deeply about me, she suggested that I consider keeping it to myself so I wouldn’t hurt my career. The idea of having to think through, at such a young age, whether I could be true to myself and still have a career was really frightening, but it’s how it was — and still is for many people.
I took time off from college and spent a year abroad in Peru to find the space and courage to come out. Being far away from home and my roots and meeting my first boyfriend in Lima gave me the big push out of the proverbial closet. When I returned from Peru, I continued kicking my “personal closet door” open wider. Along the way, I benefited from the wisdom and experience of older LGBTQ+ people.
Learning from these resilient and incredible humans showed me how to navigate the challenges of being gay in the 1980’s, when the dark days of AIDS led to a hateful backlash against our community.
Today, I share my personal story as one of the multitudes of LGBTQ+ people who have spent decades pushing for our right to be treated with the full respect that every human being deserves. Fighting for respect and support for LGBTQ+ older people — and for all LGBTQ+ people — is core to who I am, it’s in my DNA.
Without naming names, could you share a story about an individual who benefitted from your initiatives?
One incredible elder who comes to mind is Diedra Nottingham (don’t worry, she’s comfortable with me sharing her story). Diedra was one of the first people to move into SAGE’s LGBTQ+ affirming residential facility Stonewall House.
For decades, Diedra had faced housing discrimination, and at points, homelessness, due to her sexual orientation. It began at 14, when she came out as a lesbian and her family kicked her out on the street. It just got worse from there. Nobody would rent to Diedra and her girlfriend, but she couldn’t go back home — her family didn’t want her. She talks about being called hateful names by her family and how hard it was having no support from anywhere.
Before coming to Stonewall House, Diedra bounced around from one unstable living situation to another and endured a steady stream of neglect and hostility in the very places where she should have felt safe — i.e. where she lived. That’s what her life was like until she found SAGE and Stonewall House, a community that was specifically designed to provide a welcoming home for older LGBTQ+ people like Diedra.
While a lot of her life was very tough, Diedra always stayed strong and never gave up. Today, Diedra remains strong and resilient and is a proud member of SAGE and resident at Stonewall House. Through her work, activism and dedication to the community, Diedra has been an absolute light at SAGE, spreading her inspiration and warmth everywhere she goes. Part of the reason I know a lot about Diedra’s story is because she recently spoke before over 800 people at our annual SAGE Awards and Gala. She was authentic and powerful — she knocked people’s socks off.
We all want to help and to live a life of purpose. What are three actions anyone could take to help address the root cause of the problem you’re trying to solve?
Respect your elders. Elder members of LGBTQ+ communities have struggled through so much to live proud and authentic lives. They’ve made it possible for people like me, and younger queer people, to live the lives of greater equality and opportunity we have today Take the time to listen to and learn from our community’s elders. Give them the respect they deserve, always. Part of that respect means watching out for them as they get old, in the same ways that they’ve watched out for younger generations in our community.
Live inclusively. Unfortunately, bigotry, hate and discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community continues to be rampant, just as racism, anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry are on the rise in our country. These are big issues to tackle, but it starts at the individual level. We have to model the change that we want. If we want our community and country to be inclusive and welcoming of everybody, regardless of their sexuality or their race or their nationality or whatever else hateful people want to bash us for, then we must start by living inclusively at the individual level. That means living in ways that we embrace people of all circumstances in our personal lives and make their concerns our concerns. It’s that simple, but we all know it’s hard sometimes since we all have been raised with prejudices and fears that we have to uproot.
Take action. As important as doing the personal work is, it’s not enough. We need to step up, speak out and make a difference in our community, country and world. If you see someone receiving hate, or experiencing discrimination, speak out. If you see hate-filled laws and policies being proposed in your community, step up and oppose them. Recognize that our ability to step up and speak out depends on protecting our democracy, so exercise your right to vote and oppose politicians who want to tear down our people or our country. Volunteer with and donate to LGBTQ+ organizations like SAGE. Educate yourself on proper practices when working with the LGBTQ+ community. Action helps move us along and gives us the power to take a stand against hatred. Do whatever you can to take a stand and support.
Based on your experience, what are the “5 Things You Need To Create A Successful & Effective Nonprofit That Leaves A Lasting Legacy?”
- Build and maintain the credibility of the organization and its leadership
Whether it’s work with community members, elected officials, funders, or any important stakeholder for a non-profit, nothing matters more than trust. The credibility of an organization and its leadership — including a commitment to integrity and truth-telling — is essential to long-term success. When I first took over the helm of SAGE, the organization was facing severe financial challenges. Because we were transparent about our challenges and told the truth, all sorts of stakeholders stepped up to help.
2. Hire outstanding staff
The most important asset for any non-profit is its staff — the talented and dedicated employees who get the work done, often under trying circumstances, and deliver against the mission day in and day out. The success of a non-profit depends largely on the talents and commitment of its staff. Hiring an outstanding staff is essential for a non-profit to make an enduring difference. The LGBTQ+ older people who are SAGE’s constituents were at the proverbial epicenter in the early days of the COVID pandemic. To protect our community’s elders, SAGE’s staff had to dive into the unknowns of an unprecedented public health crisis, operating under the most stressful of circumstances. Because we have an outstanding team, the organization was able to pivot on a dime and do the best possible job for our community’s elders in a life-threatening situation.
3. Lean into equity and fairness
For non-profits created to advance social change and justice, staying true to fundamental principles of equity and fairness is essential. Organizations that live their values internally and externally are more likely to succeed because they stay grounded in why their work matters and why people want to be a part of their cause. A number of years ago, Ritchie Torres, a new member of the New York City Council, wanted to do something meaningful for LGBTQ+ elders and asked SAGE what was needed. We proposed community centers for our community’s elders in communities of color that were not getting the services they need. Councilmember Torres (now U.S. Representative Ritchie Torres) pushed through a path-breaking initiative that, years later, is supporting growing SAGE Centers across New York City’s diverse boroughs.
4. Stay focused on your mission and keep growing your impact
Successful non-profits need the right focus of continuity and change. In a world full of challenges and problems, staying focused on your core mission is key because focus is required in order to have real and sustained impact. At the same time, we live in a changing world that is constantly (and healthily) eating away at the status quo. While non-profits need to stay focused on their mission (why they exist), they need grow and evolve their strategies (what they do) to keep increasing their impact. SAGE started more than 40 years ago as a New York City organization that wanted to create special programs for LGBTQ+ elders. Over the years, we’ve never strayed from our focus on our community’s elders, but we’ve expanded our work so that we’re now helping all different kinds of non-profit and for-profit entities across the U.S. and internationally so that their programs and products reach and serve LGBTQ+ elders.
5. Collaborate and partner well
Many non-profits are founded to create change that requires many hands. SAGE was created to improve the quality of life for LGBTQ+ older people, who face high rates of poverty, health challenges, isolation, discrimination and much more. SAGE can’t solve all those problems on our own, so we have to collaborate and partner well with non-profits and for-profits. When the already difficult financial challenges that many LGBTQ+ elders face were made even worse by the COVID pandemic, we needed to do something fast. So SAGE partnered with the for-profit start-up LifeCents to create an innovative financial wellness app for our constituents. Two years later, SAGECents is going strong, serving thousands of LGBTQ+ elders across the country.
How has the pandemic changed your definition of success?
The pandemic helped me, and SAGE, realize how important it is to be able to pivot and respond to change in the moment — the need for strategic flexibility in an increasingly unpredictable world. Being stuck in lockdown and feeling isolated is tough for any individual, but it particularly affected the older LGBTQ+ community. In fact, 59% of LGBTQ+ older people report feeling a lack of companionship and 53% percent report feeling isolated from others; 25% report having no one to call in case of an emergency. For many of our elders, SAGE is all they have. If we hadn’t figured out how to immediately pivot our programs and services when we were forced to close down our in-person operations, the results for our community’s elders would have been tragic. I wish COVID was likely to be the last unexpected disaster to hit our community and our elders, but it probably won’t be. So our vision of success has to be flexible enough to encompass approaches that we can’t even imagine today.
How do you get inspired after an inevitable setback?
It’s true that setbacks are inevitable, and in this topsy-turvy world some of the can be deeply disappointing. But I try to always remember a saying made famous by Martin Luther King, Jr. — “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Organizations like SAGE and movements for social change are in it for the long haul, and so am I. I can’t control what happens today, tomorrow, or over the course of my lifetime, but I can do everything I can to keep bending that arc a little more toward justice. That’s what inspires me to get up in the morning and keep going, regardless what happened the day before.
We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world who you would like to talk to, to share the idea behind your non-profit? He, she, or they might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)
There are so many people I would like to talk to! At the moment we’re launching SAGE’s work into a whole new strategic direction that is going to multiply our impact for LGBTQ+ elders across the country and globe. That new direction is going to require a lot of resources, so today I’d love to talk with the person who is going to help us find those resources!
You’re doing important work. How can our readers follow your progress online?
For more information on SAGE and its services, visit www.sageusa.org. We frequently will share updates regarding our community on our website. You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Thank you for a meaningful conversation. We wish you continued success with your mission.
About The Interviewer: Karen Mangia is one of the most sought-after keynote speakers in the world, sharing her thought leadership with over 10,000 organizations during the course of her career. As Vice President of Customer and Market Insights at Salesforce, she helps individuals and organizations define, design and deliver the future. Discover her proven strategies to access your own success in her fourth book Success from Anywhere and by connecting with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.
