Six months after supporters of the San Diego LGBT Community Center publicly raised questions about how a $19 million donation was being spent, a growing group of concerned community members says they’re still not getting answers. The gift from the estate of Maurice Thimot and M. Rust Rawnsley, a F allbrook couple who had wanted their money to help other gay seniors, was paid in two installments: $10 million in 2022, more than the center’s annual budget, and $8.9 million in the fall of 2024. The Center, which provides year-round support services, health care and community programming for thousands of San Diegans, says the donation will be “used toward LGBTQ+ senior housing and related services.” But community members say the Center hasn’t been transparent about how it’s spending the money — or what the money was originally intended for. It’s led them to raise other worries with the nonprofit, including over limited public access to board meetings and a recently established senior advisory committee. “These are not small procedural issues,” Charles Kaminski, a longtime donor and client, told the Center’s board of directors at their meeting on Tuesday. “They are governance choices. Transparency builds trust.” In an open letter sent to the board last week and signed by more than 50 people, the group expressed frustration over how the Center has handled the donation and demanded clarity on the donors’ original intent and transparency over how the money is being spent thus far. Ted Callam, Elaine Lewis and Charles Kaminski pose for a photo outside the LGBT Community Center on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026 in San Diego. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune) “The bequest and its investment income appear to have been treated as general operating revenue and applied to routine expenses, rather than used to meaningfully and durably improve the lives of LGBTQ+ seniors,” the letter reads. Elaine Lewis, who served on the previous incarnation of the Center’s senior advisory committee for nine years before it was disbanded last year, said going public with the letter revealed that a growing number of people want clarity. “People have been feeling this way for a long time,” she said. In responding to questions from The San Diego Union-Tribune, the Center declined to share the language of the donors’ intent or any restrictions. It did not say how much of the donation has been spent and what on. “The Center, our attorneys, and auditor have come to a shared understanding that the gift will be used toward LGBTQ+ senior housing and related services,” spokesperson Gus Hernandez said in an email. “We are currently seeking what we anticipate with be the final guidance to ensure our shared interpretation follows all regulations related to charitable assets. Since reaching our shared understanding, we have paused the use of gift funds until that final guidance is confirmed,” he added. That includes pausing the $350,000 annual payments from the gift that the Center’s board had previously directed to help pay for seniors’ housing stability and related services each year for a decade. The San Diego LGBT Community Center, as seen on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune) Community members first publicly sounded the alarm about the Center’s handling of the donation last July, after the nonprofit filed a notice warning of potential mass layoffs — a preemptive move, it said, in case it lost federal funding. No date was set for layoffs, and the Center ultimately did not lay anyone off, Hernandez said. It also has not lost any funding so far in the current fiscal year. “Today, mass layoffs are not under consideration, but we remain vigilant to mitigate the impact of any future potential federal funding cuts on the Center’s programs, services and staff,” Hernandez wrote. The Center currently has no chief financial officer to manage its $32 million in assets after the last CFO left in May 2024. Hernandez says it is working with a consultant to provide financial strategy and has hired a vice president of accounting. The Center says it appreciates that its space matters to the seniors who are raising concerns and points out that its services visits for seniors were up 70% in the last year. Its senior programming includes a daily meal program and wellness and fitness activities, case management and housing support, such as helping seniors navigate housing and eviction prevention. Maggie Jacobs, center, reaches up during a seniors' exercise class at the LGBT Community Center on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune) Hernandez added that the Center has put additional staff support behind its senior services and is making an effort to increase senior representation in its communications. Seniors make up more than a third of the Center’s clientele, he added, so they use most of the spaces available at the Center. But some community members say they have a hard time trusting the Center on these issues, pointing to conflicting information it has given about its plans for the Thimot and Rawnsley donation. Last year, the Center told the Union-Tribune that restrictions on the gift precluded using it for anything like senior housing, while also saying that the plan for the donation will “prioritize senior housing and related services.” Several community members say they have stopped volunteering their time and donating money to the Center, despite being longtime donors. “You’re all over the place,” Ted Callam said of the Center. “You say one thing, and then you say another thing.” Their concerns about senior services at the organization go beyond the gift. More recently, the Center established a new senior advisory committee after disbanding the former one last April. The new group’s meetings aren’t open to the public, which the community members say heightens their concerns about transparency. They also question why the Center’s board meetings allow a total of only four minutes for public comment. “Time limits help us manage meetings with many participants,” Hernandez said in an email. “In past meetings, we have had community members who refused to stop speaking, and we did not have a mechanism in place to ensure equity in speaking time.” Memorial tiles are displayed outside the San Diego LGBT Community Center, as seen on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune) Some community concerns have been brewing for a while and made some seniors feel less welcome at the Center. For more than two decades, memorial tiles honoring late community members adorned the walls inside the Center’s lobby. In recent years they were moved outside near the front of the building. The Center says that brought them closer to its memorial garden and made them more accessible to the public, especially when the Center is closed. But for Lewis it felt “incredibly disrespectful.” For some community members, the calls for transparency and accountability at the Center are reminiscent of similar calls to San Diego Pride last year. A group of LGBTQ+ leaders and community members issued a public letter of their own to that nonprofit asking for reforms. Bob Leyh, a former San Diego Pride staffer and one of the key organizers of that effort, also signed last week’s open letter to the Center. “While they’re both two different organizations with two different boards and two different missions, they both seem at times to forget who their customer is, and that they’re community organizations,” Leyh said. Memorial tiles are displayed outside the San Diego LGBT Community Center, as seen on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune) ...read more read less