Organizations Filed Purposes:
The LGBTAP is the only San Francisco nonprofit organization exclusively dedicated to providing accessible legal representation for LGBT asylum seekers who are fleeing persecution due to their sexual orientation, gener identity and/or HIV status.
The LGBT Asylum Project reaches underrepresented, marginalized communities who would otherwise be unable to access high-quality legal support and representation. One hundred(100) percent of clients identify as LGBTQIA, 89 percent are people of color, and 25 percent are living with HIV/AIDS. Clients are 92 percent maleand 8 percent female. Of these, 4 percent are transgender, 2 percent FTM and 2 percent MTF. Our clients originate from countries that are known for extreme and violent persecution of LGBT communities.
The LGBTAP served 338 LGBTQ+ immigrants and far exceeded the projected number of 150. These include pending and new cases as well as legal consultations. Due to Shelter-In-Place, we were not able to hold our in-person walk-in clinics. However, this did not stop our services. We were able to quickly adapt to the SIP regulations and switched all of our services, including our monthly legal clinics, to an online intake system. This enabled our legal clinics to become an ongoing virtual service to people seeking refuge from persecution and violence. Our online Intake System is available to all LGBTQ+ immigrants 24/7.We provided fiscal sponsorships to 2 volunteer-based Bay Area LGBTQI community projects: Parivar Bay Area and The Fathers Project, helping them raise over $75,000 in 2020. The Fathers Project highlights the AIDS epidemic and Parivar Bay Area creates safe spaces for South Asian Trans and Gender Non-Conforming (GNC) individuals. With our partnership with Parivar and other main Bay Area LGBTQ+ nonprofit organizations, we were able to provide financial support to more than 700 mainly TGNC individuals who had extreme financial hardship during this pandemic.Our trainings got restructured. Although we were not able to provide our in-person volunteer trainings in 2020, we managed to retain our dedicated volunteers and volunteer attorneys kept online correspondence for our legal services. We also acquired an Of Counsel Immigration Attorney, Dodi Gomez Paloma to our team.We maintained our partnership with Golden Gate University School of Law where our staff created first Immigration Clinic of GGU. On 02/03/2021, we had an asylum approval for a gay man from Jordan who fled his home country due to mistreatment and persecution because of his sexuality. This case was a group effort finalized in success by the GGU students, under direct supervision of our Legal Director. We established new partnerships and had four fellows in 2020 from Legal Services Funders Network, San Francisco Human Rights Commissions Queer & Trans Youth United in Power, and City and County of San Francisco - Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs' DreamSF.We did not lay off any staff member during the pandemic and were able to hire Chava Hernandez as our Paralegal in June 2020.Before COVID-19, the LGBTAP would offer pro bono or low-bono legal services for LGBTQ+ immigrants. Once the pandemic started, we decided to offer all our services 100% free of charge thanks to grants and support from foundations like The Bigglesworth Foundation. So, our clients can focus on getting food or housing without having to worry about paying for legal services during these trying times.In terms of advocacy and recognition, The LGBTAP were elected by public voting as the "Community Organization Grand Marshal of the 50th Anniversary of San Francisco LGBT Pride in 2020, with a record-breaking number of votes! For us, being chosen as Grand Marshal was a great honor - and really was all about visibility. We were also selected as the recipient of the American Immigration Lawyers Association's 2020 Diversity & Inclusion Award, especially during such a historical time for the #BlackLivesMatter movement when diversity & inclusion is needed most. AILAs Annual Awards are the highest recognition of achievement and contributions in the national immigration law community. Academy of Friends, a 40-year-old nonprofit organization in San Francisco, and the LGBT Asylum Project organized the 40th Academy of Friends GALA in February 2020, which was the first AoF Gala that made net profit in recent years thanks to the effort of the LGBTAP Board and volunteer team.
Executives Listed on Filing
Total Salary includes financial earnings, benefits, and all related organization earnings listed on tax filing
| Name | Title | Hours Per Week | Total Salary |
|---|
| Okan Sengun | Executive Dir. | 20 | $48,000 |
| Rigo Bazan | Board Member | 1 | $0 |
| Sharla-Elyn Robinson | Board Member | 1 | $0 |
| Fatima Reynolds | Board Member | 1 | $0 |
| Brian Gougherty | Board Member | 1 | $0 |
| Rawi Chahwan | Board Member | 1 | $0 |
| Chisimdi Ogbodo | Board Member | 1 | $0 |
| Gulhan Yuzgec | Board Member | 1 | $0 |
| Seth Thuta | Board Member | 1 | $0 |
| Raissa Peniche | Board Member | 1 | $0 |
| Adam Li | Board Member | 1 | $0 |
| Juan Herrera | Board Member | 1 | $0 |
| Anjali Rimi | Board Member | 1 | $0 |
| Ryan Hundley | President | 1 | $0 |
| Neil Austin | Treasurer | 1 | $0 |
Data for this page was sourced from XML published by IRS (
public 990 form dataset) from:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/irs-form-990/202121359349300847_public.xml