What's Wrong With Exxon?
For 22 years, the annual AIDS Walk has been the premier fundraising event of Fort Worth’s AIDS Outreach Center — the only nonprofit HIV/AIDS organization in the city. It supports seven surrounding rural counties and provides a full host of services — mostly free of charge. The majority of its clients are black or Hispanic and range in age from children under 12 to seniors over 64.
The AIDS Walk regularly brings in some $50,000 annually. For years, XTO Energy was among its many key local corporate sponsors. In both 2009 and 2010, XTO donated $10,000 to the march. But in 2011, XTO’s contributions abruptly stopped.
“It hurt us. It definitely hurt us,” says Penny Rowell, the Center’s special events coordinator. “It is a very, very large loss for us. A very large and very unexpected loss, too.”
What changed? “The Exxon Corporation bought XTO out,” Center Development Associate Randall Gentry explains. “We have tried since then to regain their support, but they will not support us at all whatsoever. Exxon is much more skeptical of writing a check to an AIDS organization.”
http://www.advocate.com/print-issue/current-issue/2013/09/03/whats-wrong-exxon?page=0,0
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