Patrick M. Flaherty is the Gill Foundation’s director of policy advocacy programs. Within the national center, he manages the process for selecting the national state-based organizations outside of Colorado that receive grants, as well as strengthening state-focused LGBT civil rights initiatives. He will also develop collaborations with other funders supporting similar programs.
Patrick earned bachelor of arts degrees in both speech communications and political science and a law degree from the University of Denver. He was a trial attorney for nine years and partner at Rothgerber Johnson & Lyons, one of Denver’s largest and oldest law firms. During that time he became involved in the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership program where he served as volunteer executive director from 1994 to 1996. In 1996 he was accepted into the Colorado Trust Fellows Project, which is designed to groom leaders for the nonprofit sector. The two-year program included a Masters in Nonprofit Management from Regis University, a leadership development program and an internship in the nonprofit sector. Most importantly it launched Patrick’s career in nonprofit management. As he says of his career change: “I left the active and lucrative practice of law to pursue the causes I cared about most.”
After finishing the Nonprofit Management program, Patrick became executive director of the Denver-based Project Angel Heart, an award-winning nonprofit nutrition provider. At that time the organization served only people living with HIV/AIDS and was in a crisis caused by the evolving HIV epidemic and fiscal shortfalls. Patrick helped secure the fiscal health of the organization, manage a 700% increase in clients, and exponentially expand service boundaries. He focused on returning Project Angel Heart to a mission not limited to HIV/AIDS but including people with other life-threatening illnesses. In 2000 the Colorado Business Council named Project Angel Heart its Outstanding Nonprofit of the Year. And in 2002 Project Angel Heart earned the Julie and Spencer Penrose Award for the Most Outstanding Nonprofit Organization in Colorado from the El Pomar Foundation.
Patrick served from 1998 to 2004 on the Board of Directors of the AIDS Nutrition Services Alliance. He has also been a volunteer at both the Alexander Foundation, which provides financial assistance to ensure the well-being and personal growth of gay men and lesbians living throughout Colorado, and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Race for the Cure. He continues to volunteer at Project Angel Heart.
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