CSF's Early Charitable Giving History

Our Core Focus at Christopher Street Financial is creating opportunities through relationships, helping people lead fulfilling lives. It is not just about the opportunities we create with our clients. It is also the opportunities we create by supporting many organizations within the LGBTQ+ community. We provide support through our annual charitable partnerships, our Seasons of Giving campaign, and we even have a 10:1 employee match for charitable giving. Supporting organizations is not new to Christopher Street Financial. Our archives hold a substantial amount of proof that giving back to the LGTBQ+ community has always played a major role in our over 40-year history.

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Around 1984, CSF launched a “You Can Make a Difference Campaign”. This campaign stated “Your help is urgently needed and only you can make a difference. The following organizations are all non-profits and rely on volunteer help and fundraising from gay businesses and individuals."

The organizations listed were:

Friends and Advocates of Individual Rights, Inc. (FAIRPAC) – this organization later merged with NYS Lesbian and Gay Lobby and became the Empire State Pride Agenda, known today as Pride Agenda
Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) – still around today and one of the recipients in CSF’s 2024 Seasons of Giving campaign
Human Rights Campaign Fund (HRCF)
Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund
Lesbian & Gay Community Center
National Gay Task Force (NGTF)
Senior Action in a Gay Environment (SAGE) – Today SAGE is “Advocacy and Services for Gay & Lesbian Elders. CSF recently completed a three-year gift to SAGE’s Stonewall House, New York City’s first ever LGBTQ+ welcoming senior housing.

The ad closes with “The simple truth is that if we don’t help ourselves, no one else will.”

The campaign was appreciated as demonstrated in this sampling of letters of acknowledgment, which you can click on to read:

“Now that the dinner is over and the dust has begun to settle, we’d like to take a moment to thank you.”

“Through your continued assistance, we can support our friends and defeat the enemies of gay rights legislation. Thank you making our community’s financial strength the key to respect, fair treatment and protective legislation.”

“Thank you...it serves as a model for what other community-minded businesses could do."

In 1986, to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Christopher Street Financial, and as a way to say “thank you”, CSF underwrote a series of public service ads in the gay press, soliciting support of lesbian and gay organizations. Here’s the letter announcing the initiative from CSF Founder Robert Casaletto:

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The public service ads follow, each is clickable to make larger:

And that was just the beginning. Christopher Street Financial continues to support many organizations in and outside the LGBTQ+ community through financial support, volunteer efforts, advertisements, employees serving on boards, leadership councils and committees, and even working with some as clients.

In 2024, we changed our charitable giving philosophy by moving from supporting 5-10 organizations a year to instead choosing one annual charitable partner, seeking to provide a more impactful contribution and creating a strategic plan for the partnership, including not only financial backing, but educational and volunteer opportunities for CSF and our clients. In 2024, we were delighted to be Founding Partners of Advocates for Trans Equality. That partnership will continue through March with some educational offerings in the new year and another guest blog from A4TE, about Trans Day of Visibility. We will be announcing our 2025 Charitable Partnership very soon.

We take that early ad to heart knowing that “You (We) Can Make a Difference”. We will continue to do what we can to make a difference in the lives of our clients. A difference in the lives of our community.

Watch this space as we continue to go through our history, our ads, our campaigns, our awards. And if you have a memorable moment in CSF history, we’d be delighted to hear it – you can email us here.