The LGBT WISE grants are being made for the first time in 2006 through a new partnership with The California Wellness Foundation. This landmark program will increase the capacity of LGBT organizations in the Bay Area to provide services to LGBT elders, a population that is critically underserved-and growing. Programs eligible for funding included food and nutrition services, access to health care, in-home support, and emotional/social support for elders. In addition to receiving funding, the LGBT WISE grantees will also meet regularly to foster peer learning and create practical connections among different regions in the Bay Area. Of twelve applicants, four were selected for LGBT WISE grants totaling $150,000: Billy DeFrank LGBT Center (San Jose), Lavender Seniors of the East Bay (San Leandro), New Leaf: Services For Our Community (San Francisco), and Spectrum Center for LGBT Concerns (San Anselmo).

"As a group, these outstanding grantees represent far more than the sum of their parts," said Jewelle Gomez, Program Officer for Horizons Foundation. "Not only do they cover a diverse cross-section of the Bay Area, but they also offer distinct models from which Horizons, The California Wellness Foundation, and the growing field of LGBT elder services stand to learn valuable lessons."

Community Issues grants, the longstanding touchstone of Horizons' grantmaking, also entered new territory in 2006. This year, the foundation refined the issue areas in which it made grants and-for the first time-made a limited number of renewable grants. Horizons was also delighted to have supported arts grants with funding from the Hewlett Foundation and health-related programs with additional funding from The California Wellness Foundation. Twenty-eight organizations, selected from more than a hundred proposals by a diverse and expert review panel, received a total of $190,000 in grants.

This year's Community Issues grants also included the first awards from the LGBT Community Endowment Fund, a permanent fund established in 2005 and built primarily through planned gifts. "Just a year after launching the LGBT Community Endowment Fund, Horizons couldn't be more proud that the fund is already bearing fruit for our community," said Roger Doughty, Horizons' Executive Director. "Even as we build for the long-term-creating permanent resources that the LGBT community needs and deserves-it's an honor to carry out the wishes of Dr. David Shupp, Joie Hubbert, and other generous donors who have entrusted their legacies to Horizons."

Later this year, Horizons will announce the winners of the first Rickey Williams Leader Fellowships, a new program created in partnership with the community group And Castro For All. The Rickey Williams Leader Fellowships will recognize and support outstanding LGBT leaders from communities of color.

Founded in 1980, Horizons was the world's first community foundation focused exclusively on LGBT issues.

The LGBT WISE: Working to Improve Services for Elders grants are funded, and the Community Issues grants are funded in part, by grants from The California Wellness Foundation (TCWF). Created in 1992 as an independent, private foundation, TCWF's mission is to improve the health of the people of California by making grants for health promotion, wellness education, and disease prevention.

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has been making grants since 1966 to support education, culture, and the performing arts, and to address serious social and environmental problems facing society.