The Center on Colfax, a non-profit organization that provides free services to the Rocky Mountain LGBTQ+ community, announced this week that it will no longer accept contributions from Chevron Corporation, the multi-billion dollar energy company specializing in oil and gas.
“We are writing today to share an important step in aligning our values with our actions: The Center and Denver Pride will be divesting from Chevron and no longer accepting financial contributions from the company,” the Denver-based organization said in a statement released by email to CPR News on Thursday.
The reason for it, according to the statement, is that they have been hearing concerns from members of the Center’s community about Chevron, a $317 billion company, particularly in relation to its providing fuel to Israel, currently waging war in Gaza.
In recent weeks, a humanitarian crisis has gripped Gaza, with media images depicting graphically the starvation of Gazan citizens, many of them children.
“[A]s a community organization committed to justice and collective liberation, it is our duty to listen when our community raises concerns,” the Center’s statement notes. “Over the past year, we have heard clearly from voices across our movement - advocates, members, and partners - who have expressed concern about Chevron’s involvement in global systems of harm, including the production of materials used in weapons contributing to violence and genocide.”
The Center did not disclose the amount of money that Chevron has donated, nor what fraction that amount was in comparison with the Center’s overall fundraising total. The Center has been reluctant to share with CPR News specifics about funding, but its new Executive Director Kim Salvaggio said in an email last Friday that the total amount the Center has raised after this year’s Pride fundraising events was $2.2 million.
That amount is close to what it raised in 2024, which was $2.6 million.
The Center’s concerns about Chevron are not unique to the non-profit. Rather, the company’s actions are being posted on the websites of other organizations. According to a fact sheet published in January by the American Friends Service Committee, Chevron “is the largest producer of natural gas for Israel and the largest multinational corporation with a significant stake in Israel's energy sector.”
Also, Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS), a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality, reports that Chevron “is also the main extractor of fossil gas claimed by Israel in the Eastern Mediterranean. As such, Chevron brings Israel hundreds of millions of dollars annually in revenues from payments for its gas extraction licenses, helping to finance Israel’s war chest and its regime of apartheid, settler colonialism, and military occupation against the Palestinian people.”
Describing the divestment from Chevron as “both necessary and doable,“ the Center’s statement said it will redirect and build funding relationships with “value-aligned organizations and individuals who believe in liberation for all people, across borders and identities.”
Chevron has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Editor's Note: Chevron is a financial supporter of CPR News. Financial supporters have no editorial influence.
