The LGBTQ+ Center of Southern Nevada Amplifies Visibility in Year Two of its Sands Cares Accelerator Membership

The LGBTQ+ Center of Southern Nevada (The Center), a nonprofit organization that offers essential resources and care for the LGBTQ+ community, culminated its second year in the Sands Cares Accelerator at the end of 2024 and accomplished several milestones.

Most notably, The Center’s focus on marketing and communications enabled the nonprofit to launch its newest health care facility with resounding success.

In June 2024, The Center opened a second health care center, the Gavin J. Goorjian Community Health Center, where it offers primary and gynecological care as well as pharmacy services. Funding from the Sands Cares Accelerator enabled The Center to launch an advertising campaign that helped double the number of visitors within three months of opening.

Building marketing programs for the Goorjian Community Health Center, which is aimed at becoming a Federally Qualified Health Center, and the Arlene Cooper Community Health Center, The Center’s other medical facility that focuses on STI testing and is now Nevada’s largest HIV clinic, was a primary focus of The Center’s marketing and communications efforts through the Sands Cares Accelerator in 2024.

The Sands Cares Accelerator is Sands’ flagship capacity-building program for nonprofit organizations. Members are invited to join for a three-year period in which they work on developing and sustaining a strategic program or goal to accelerate their community impact.

The Center’s membership focus is up-leveling its marketing and communications capabilities to build awareness of its services, increase and sustain funding, and elevate its reputation as a leading advocate for the LGBTQ+ community.

“The funding, mentoring and strategic guidance we have received as a member of the Sands Cares Accelerator has helped super-charge our organization toward our long-term goals,” CEO John Waldron said. “The marketing capability we are building now will have impact for years to come, helping us more effectively raise funds, advocate for our community on a bigger stage and reach even more people about our offerings, particularly in health care. As we complete our last year of membership, we are ready to reach and surpass our identified goals, already a stronger, more capable organization.”

In addition to providing Sands Cares Accelerator funding for the health center media campaign and other marketing services, the Sands communications team helped The Center build out its message platform to position the organization’s impact in its three focus areas of advocacy, health and wellness, and community services.

As a foundation for this work, The Center had fielded a survey to measure its awareness at the onset of its Sands Cares Accelerator membership and found that while many in the broader Southern Nevada community were unaware of The Center, 47% of respondents had interest in donating to the organization.

Using these insights, The Center has orchestrated a significant rebrand of its offerings over the past two years through the messaging work, as well as increased visibility and storytelling opportunities by updating its website, running a radio and television campaign with the Nevada Broadcasters Association that has netted more than $1 million in airtime, and strengthening its media and social media presence.

After two years, the Center’s marketing and communications work is driving tangible results. By the end of 2024, The Center had gained 5,000 new contacts through marketing, accomplished 27,000 content interactions and cultivated 2,300 new followers on Instagram and Facebook for a total reach of more than 200,000 followers on the two platforms. Increased awareness propelled The Center to its largest Honorarium in its 30-year history, with more than 800 people attending the annual fundraising gala event last November.

The Center’s stature also has risen over the past two years. In 2024, CEO John Waldron was asked to join CEO Exchange, a collaboration of Southern Nevada’s largest nonprofit organizations that work together to strengthen the social safety net. The Center also is collaborating with the National Association of Community Health Centers, the nation’s leading advocacy organization working to advance community health centers as the foundation of an equitable health care system.

Other high-profile partnerships and collaborations cultivated during its time in the Sands Cares Accelerator include engaging with the NFL for Super Bowl XVIII as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department as advisers in multicultural community relations, strengthening the relationship between law enforcement and the LGBTQ+ community. The Center also has built its reputation as a thought leader in HIV/AIDS and substance abuse, with representatives being invited to speak at conferences nationally and internationally.

Looking ahead, The Center has a number of goals for its final year in the Sands Cares Accelerator. In 2025, the organization plans to build on its crisis communications plan and annual Impact Report, as well as produce new videos to better tell its story and engage with donors. The Center also will continue holding communications workshops for new employees and board members, solidify its brand standards and select a studio to launch a new podcast.

The Sands Cares Accelerator was inspired by Sands’ founder Sheldon G. Adelson and his legacy of creating successful businesses and giving back to communities through meaningful philanthropic involvement. Since 2017, the program has empowered Las Vegas, Singapore and Macao nonprofits to build their capacity in strategic areas and develop new initiatives to make greater community impact.

To learn more about the Sands Cares Accelerator and its focus on building nonprofit capacity, visit: https://www.sands.com/responsibility/communities/sands-cares-accelerator/