David Jobin named new CEO

Anthony Timiraos is retiring this time—really.

He had worked for a national accounting firm for 15 years before serving as the chief financial officer for another company in New York. He retired for the first time shortly before starting his own successful business. Then he retired again before making the move to South Florida with his husband in 2003.

But once again, “I got bored,” Timiraos admitted.

So he took another job, this time as the CFO for the Community Foundation of Broward, the grant-making agency that supports many of the non-profit organizations working across the county.

While at the Community Foundation, Timiraos recognized a significant lack of funding for the many organizations that provide services to the large LGBT community, one quarter of one percent of grants from all charitable foundations.

“If we don’t support our own, nobody is going to do it for us,” he realized.

Nearly five years ago, Timiraos joined together with a group of friends—Chuck Loring, Coleman Prewitt, Dick Schwarz and Mark Ketcham—to establish Our Fund, a charitable foundation with the sole mission to serve the LGBT community.

Timiraos, 62, who had extensive experience serving on non-profit boards and served seven years as the treasurer of Lambda Legal, was tapped to guide the foundation. Our Fund quickly grew, attracting both local and national support. More than $3 million in grants have been made and the fund holds more than $2 million in assets.

A number of individuals and families have designated Our Fund as beneficiaries of their estates and pledges for future gifts continue, but Timiraos and his board are most proud of the impact Our Fund is already making in the community:

“We’ve reached respectability and confidence from the community,” he said. “And have funded projects from Miami all the way up to Palm Beach.”

Our Fund has placed special emphasis on the significant growth of LGBT seniors, leading to the Protect Our Elders initiative in partnership with SAGE. Our Fund is also collaborating with SunServe, The Pride Center and Compass in Palm Beach County and launching new programs to support the increasing number of homeless LGBT youth.

Despite the recent victory for same-sex marriage, the fight for equality is not over and Our Fund can continue to play a key role.

“One of the ways to win full equality is through education,” explained Timiraos. “Both the gay community and the straight community. It’s not enough to win in the courts of law, we have to win in the courts of public opinion.”

But don’t expect Our Fund’s activities to curtail with his retirement. Timiraos promises exactly the opposite under the new leadership of David Jobin, who leaves the Stonewall National Museum & Archives in Fort Lauderdale after nearly three years as executive director.

In those years, Jobin oversaw an aggressive program to develop his museum’s board of directors and fundraising program and saw the opening of the museum’s Wilton Manors gallery, a new cultural and historical landmark on Wilton Drive’s entertainment district.

“I’m really excited about the opportunity, having worked alongside Our Fund at Stonewall,” Jobin said. “The work they do and the impact they have on the LGBT community are important.”

Jobin understands the crucial role foundations such as Our Fund play for non-profit organizations. Before moving to South Florida to lead Stonewall Museum, he served as executive director of the 250-voice Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C., at the time the largest in the country. He also has 20 years of experience managing theater and arts organizations in the San Francisco Bay area and Pittsburgh.

He plans to focus on better meeting the ever-changing needs of non-profits and continuing to expand the foundation’s footprint in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. Jobin will futher develop the foundation’s donor base and strike more collaborative partnerships with other LGBT organizations.

“There’s still work to be done,” he said, but he has the complete confidence of his predecessor, who called Jobin, “a great thinker who is also down to earth and a hands-on individual.”

Timiraos continued, “I am thrilled that David is going to be taking over. You have no idea how excited we all are. We’re confident he’s going to take Our Fund to a whole new level.”

As Jobin prepares for his first day at the foundation’s Wilton Manors offices, he has one overarching goal, “to make South Florida the most livable community for LGBT people in the country, maybe even the world.”