Community Spotlight: Charlotte Gaymers Network & Jonny Saldana
The Charlotte Gaymers Network (CGN) was founded by friends Jonny Saldana and Zach Smith, who identified a need in the LGBTQ+ community to stay connected to one another in the midst of a global pandemic. CGN strives to create an inclusive environment of folks from all walks of life who are united in their passion and love for all things gaming.
Local LGBTQ+ gaming groups, or Gaymer groups, are a fixture of most major cities in the US and around the world, all of whom exist to bring together a diverse community of LGBTQ+ players who want to share their passion and build friendships. However, some groups, like CGN, go above and beyond that core programming by seeking to give back to their local communities through philanthropy programmes and becoming a 501(C)(3).
Charlotte Gaymers Network is one example of a group who have been affecting real change on the ground in the local community through programmes which have provided real improvements to people’s lives and I was excited to talk more with Executive Director & Co-Founder Jonny about their work.
Jonny started off by talking about what an amazing year 2024 has been for the organization: “2024 has been a banner year for the organization. We started the year with our Board of Directors approving a budget of about $145,000 I believe and we’re on track to raise over $500,000 this year. The growth here is absolutely incredible.”
Impressive for any non-profit, Jonny believes that this sets CGN apart from other gaymer groups: “I think from from both a fiscal perspective and with other KPIs that we track from our research, we believe that we are currently the largest LGBTQ gaymer group in the United States. We base those metrics on things like member size, social media impressions, the reach of our programmes, and I know for sure we have the largest operating budget of any gaymer group in the country.”
I asked how they managed to raise so much money and the answer was a mixture of grants, fundraising, membership fees and some commercialization. “We have national organizations such as the United Way, the Hispanic Federation, and Clean and Prosperous America who have given us five figure grants to continue doing our work. For them to recognize the the critical importance of our work and the influence that we have on the younger LGBTQ demographic is incredible. Alongside corporate sponsorships, we have also launched what we call CGN Plus. This is a premier membership plan where members can spend anywhere from $3 to $50 a month to secure them perks which include free tickets to events, free broadway shows, and other awesome local discounts.”
The team also runs a commercial arm producing gaming lounges and installations at conventions all around the US and are proud of their approach in securing gaming equipment to be able to set up these installations and arrange programming ranging from panel talks and performances.
All this funding is ensuring that not only can they arrange the usual gaymer meet-ups and events in their local community, but they can really affect change across their local communities with highly impactful philanthropic programmes. I asked Jonny to explain each programme and give me some headlines of the change they’re having, or aiming to have, with each one.
Project Blue Shell: “Project Blue Shell is a partnership with Ridge Road Middle School, where CGN adopts 12 middle school students who are excelling academically, but are facing adversity in their home life. This initiative awards customized boxes containing a Nintendo Switch, games, essential school supplies and prepaid visa, grocery and home renovation gift cards totaling $500 to the student to support them and their family. It’s more than a gift; it’s a tool to celebrate academic achievement and support through tough times.
What’s really cool about this is that we’ve gamified learning, so these students are all competing with one another to win this box. What we have seen in just one year is that school suspensions due to violence are down 77%, attendance school-wide has increased by 30% and standardized test scores have increased over 15%.”
Project Horizon: “Project Horizon is a partnership with our local hospital system where we are creating bespoke gaming rigs so children who are entering hospital stays can have the opportunity to be kids again. We want kids who are going through a hospital stay to enjoy being a kid again. What’s really cool with that, too, is that they are able to play with other kids in the ward. They’re able to meet friends, other kids who are dealing with similar things that they’re going through, and are able to make their own little community.”
Project Saturn: “Project Saturn is an eight week free STEM learning course for Title I high school students. The project is dedicated to igniting future careers in technology for these economically disadvantaged high school kids. For a lot of high school students here in Charlotte, and throughout the country, if you’re a student of color, you typically have a very limited number of options to get into college. Typically it’s through sports, performing well academically or the military. This program offers a non traditional pathway into college for these students of color and gives them the opportunity to get into high paying technology jobs.”
Project Paperclip: “Project Paperclip is a programme where we are distributing 250 laptops and 250 mobile internet hotspots to low-income LGBTQ families here in North Carolina. Gov Roy Cooper made it a priority of his Administration to tackle digital inaccessibility as people who live in rural areas just outside of Charlotte are still using dial-up internet! We’re helping end this digital divide by providing these tools to LGBTQ people, providing them with a way to plug in to digital world and gain access to resources they need.
Project Save Point: “Project Save Point is our newest project that will be hopefully launching in Q2 of 2025 and is a mutual aid fund that has a market cap of about $50,000. LGBTQ people will be able to apply for these micro grants with a cap of $1,000 per applicant. This money will be restricted for things like rental assistance, paying for groceries, paying for medicine, and most importantly, to ensure that we’re supporting our trans siblings, gender affirming care. To ensure that there is an equitable process in place so everybody can apply and get the help that they need, we’ll be having a decision committee of seven people, three will be from CGN and four will be recruited from the community at large to ensure diversity of voice and decision making.”
The results of these Projects are already being felt across Charlotte and North Carolina and these outcomes being driven by an LGBTQ+ organization is not only helping people in need, but also changing hearts and minds in people in areas of the country where LGBTQ+ discrimination is higher. “We’re creating advocates among parents when they have the realization that ‘oh my god, an LGBTQ+ organization did this for my kid?’ So that right there has created an immediate network of advocates in a community that has never had that before.”
Not content with just affecting change in their own neighborhood, Jonny and CGN are keen to provide these programmes as pre-packed projects which they say can be implemented by any other gaymer group in their own local area. “What’s really cool about these projects is that they’re built in a way to be scalable and adaptable to any location. There’s so many ways that we could recreate these projects in every city across America and do it in a way that it doesn’t eat up a whole lot of funds of the local organization, but still has that extremely deep impact on that local community.”
Throughout the conversation I was awestruck with just have driven Jonny was in his mission and what they’re building at CGN, where professional fundraising and impactful programming go hand in hand. I finished by asking about his own background and as it’s obvious that every gaymer group needs a Jonny-type person who can take the bull by the horns and drive forward positive change.
“I took one semester of an English class at college and then dropped out after realizing it wasn’t for me. I only took the class because my boyfriend’s father at the time was the teacher and I lived with them! So I was a high school graduate with no higher education, but my friends at the time knew I was a social butterfly and can talk to people really well, so they suggested I try my hand at real estate. So, at 18 I went into real estate and by 21 I had about $12 million in volume in Miami Beach real estate. I truly believe God put me on this earth to be a salesman!”
“I decided to get out of real estate right around 2016 when Trump was elected and decided to go into special interest lobbying. I worked for statewide equality organizations like Equality Florida and Equality North Carolina, where I worked as a fundraiser. I then went on to work for national organizations such as SAGE based in New York City where I managed a portfolio of high interest donors that ranged from New Jersey, New York, Palm Beach, and down to Fort Lauderdale and Miami.”
Alongside his work as Exec Director at CGN, Jonny currently works as Director of Events and Membership at Tabbris Innovation Center, working to cultivate a vibrant tech entrepreneurial ecosystem in Charlotte and the Carolinas.
You can find out more about Charlotte Gaymers Network and their work by visiting their website: charlottegaymersnetwork.com and by following them on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
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