Second Pride

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We wanted to give everyone a quick update about the processing of our donations to ILGA-Europe and BCEFA. Unfortunately, Tilia (Linden Lab’s financial arm) added a rule around wire transfers at some point between March 2022 and the last few weeks. This rule has caused us to have to contact ILGA-Europe and BCEFA for an additional piece of documentation (account numbers on bank letterhead) before the wire transfers can be sent. We wish we had been notified of this change sooner, so that we could have been ready for it, but since that didn’t happen, we have an additional delay. The request for the document(s) have been sent, and now we wait for the charities to provide the info to Virtual Hope, our donation “clearing house”, and then pass them on to Tilia. At that point the wire transfers should be sent. Our best estimate at this time is approximately 30 days.

This has also put us into a quandary about what charity to support for Glitter & Gore, Holidaze, and Mardi Gras, since whoever we choose will also need to provide the same documentation and we won’t have it before those events begin. All of the charities we had on an “approved and ready to go” list are back in limbo until we request and receive the additional information. We will likely still use one of the charities we have worked with before and simply work on the documentation while we fundraise for them.

We will continue to keep you apprised of the process as we go. Please feel free to reach out to any of the Board members if you have questions.

Lee McKay
Chairman
Second Pride

Update 10/8/2022

Tilia has still not sent our wire transfers to BCEFA or ILGA-Europe. They continue to come back to Virtual Hope, asking for more and more information about the charities. Apparently, these are new compliance rules that are federally regulated, but regardless of the source, it is incredibly frustrating to be asked for information, provide it, and then be told that it isn’t enough. To date, we, or rather Virtual Hope, has been asked to provide (for each charity):

• • Bank account numbers on bank letterhead
  • Corporate structure
  • Sources of revenue
  • Services provided
  • Countries of service
  • Articles of Incorporation

These will be requirements for all charities we choose to support in the future as well. It seems an unnecessarily high burden to place on us, when all we are trying to do is raise funds for well-known, well-respected charitable organizations. To say the least, we are frustrated.

Update 10/23/2022

Tilia has once again asked for additional information. Wire transfers have still not been sent. The additional information has been requested from the charities.

Update 11/22/2002

ILGA-Europe has received their donation! The acknowledgement letter can be seen here. We continue to work to get our donation to BCEFA and expect it to reach them soon and part one of our donation to It Gets Better Project is also beginning the process. We expect it to go much faster than the others. We will continue to raise funds for the It Gets Better Project through Holidaze and Mardi Gras.