Microsoft pioneer leaves $65 million to LGBT and HIV/AIDS groups

Ric Weiland, one of the first employees of Microsoft and a longtime philanthropist within the LGBT community, bequeathed $65 million to a group of 11 LGBT and HIV/AIDS organizations, a gift that the Pride Foundation claims is the largest single donation to the LGBT movement. The Seattle-based Pride Foundation, which received $19 million in the bequest to use towards scholarships and grants supporting the Northwest LGBT community, will administer the remainder of the money through the Weiland Designated Fund, distributing it to the ten other recipients.

Weiland died in 2006 at age 53, committing suicide after struggling with depression. He is survived by his partner, Mike Schaefer, and by his nieces and nephews.

The ten organizations receiving the remaining $46 million are amFAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research; the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD); the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN); In The Life; the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC); Lambda Legal; the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG); Project Inform; and the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN).
The Weiland Designated Fund will pay out funding to the ten awardees in installments over the next eight years. Lambda Legal announced Feb. 25 that the fund's award to Lambda totals more than $11 million, the largest donation ever received by the organization. Paula Ettelbrick, executive director of IGLHRC, announced in an e-mail to members that Weiland had left nearly $1.6 million to the organization, a gift she called "unprecedented."