Campus Pride founder terminated over alleged embezzlement of over $100k in funds
Campus Pride has terminated its founder following embezzlement allegations, according to a report.
The organization runs a well-known Campus Pride Index, which is considered the 'benchmark tool' for LGBTQ+ students to determine what colleges are the most inclusive and friendly towards their sexual orientation.
LGBTQ+ higher education nonprofit Campus Pride has terminated its founder following allegations of embezzlement, according to a report.
Christopher Bylone, vice chair and treasurer of Campus Pride, told Inside Higher Ed that the organization’s executive director Shane Windmeyer was fired after allegedly misappropriating over $100,000 of the nonprofit’s funding.
The organization runs a well-known Campus Pride Index, which is considered the “benchmark tool” for LGBTQ+ students to determine what colleges are the most inclusive and friendly towards their sexual orientation.
Documents surrounding the termination were left on a store counter inside the same building where Campus Pride is located, according to QnotesCarolinas.
Bylone, who joined the organization in September, told the outlet that he took steps to understand the nonprofit’s finances in meetings with Windmeyer.
“I did not come into this thinking there were problems; I just wanted to understand, what was the financial health of the organization? Where were we spending our money and were we spending our money in strategic ways?” he said. “One of the questions coming in was: How are we going to ensure Campus Pride lives past Shane? Because at some point Shane was going to want to retire … so what was the seven- to 10-year plan?” said Bylone.
Bylone said he was at first denied access to the organization’s bank account and QuickBooks accounting software, which raised red flags.
According to the report, Bylone got access to the bank account in November and QuickBooks following Windmeyer’s termination.
Bylone also said that another red flag appeared during the nonprofit’s virtual board meeting in November, when the six-person board questioned the large amount of money in the budget for phone service, office space, and Wi-Fi. Bylone said the nonprofit was based out of Windmeyer’s home, but members of the board didn’t know if the amount of money was appropriate.
After Bylone got into the organization’s bank account, he told the outlet that the nonprofit spent $250 at an LGBTQ+ bingo event which he and Windmeyer both attended, but Windmeyer was at the event in his drag persona, Buff Faye.
The board told Windmeyer on Nov. 17 that it was starting a financial review and suspending expenditures, and any payment would need to be approved by the board. They also requested that Windmeyer turn over full access to the organization’s bank account, according to Bylone.
Windmeyer responded to the email that night, stating that he made so-called bookkeeping errors and later sent a spreadsheet documenting the misappropriated funds, totaling $100,000. Windmeyer agreed to pay back the money rather than an additional investigation.
Campus Reform spoke with Windmeyer in June 2022, where he explained that colleges are a “business.”
“Campuses in order to survive, they’re businesses,” he said. “So regardless of the education, at the end of the day a college campus is a business, and the way that they make money is by recruiting students and retaining students.”
He said that the CPI is the only “education tool out there that helps campuses improve their LGBTQ campus policies, programs, and practices as well as shares with parents, family, young people, like, which campuses have what, you know, policies in place and so forth.”
Colleges and universities must pay a $225 membership fee in order to be handed a ranking.
“It’s $225 a year where a campus...has access to our professionals and we meet with them however many times they want to talk about their report to help them find resources or institutions,” Windmeyer said, adding that he gave 20 waivers in 2021.
Campus Reform reached out to Campus Pride for comment.
