An online petition in 2003 pushed the Human Rights Campaign into the world of online fund- and friendraising. And the organization never looked back.

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

“We’ve gotten through all of these things before,” Crowley says. “We always stay steady. Maybe we change things here and there, but we stay true to our goal of getting our message out, getting people engaged and working at raising the much-needed funds to accomplish our mission.”

Adds Grams: “It’s personal for us; it’s personal for people who give to this organization. When you have to live your life every day in fear of coming out, in fear of perhaps losing a job or an apartment, in fear of being beaten up at school …