SAN FRANCISCO - Horizons Foundation has announced a new granting program to help a core group of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people of color organizations and individuals develop their capacity to play sustaining leadership roles in the LGBT community. The new program-called POCIBLE: People of Color Initiative to Build Leadership and Effectiveness-extends Horizons' long commitment to addressing the particular and persistent challenges that LGBT people of color and organizations face.

"This is a concerted effort to strengthen people of color LGBT organizations on multiple levels: their infrastructure, their leaders, and their connections with other POC/LGBT groups and the broader LGBT community," said Jewelle Gomez, Horizons Foundation's Director of Grants and Community Initiatives. "This program has been in the works for a while, but in the wake of Prop 8, its launch couldn't be more timely. Across the board, everyone agrees that more people of color needed to have their voices heard during the campaign. I'm thrilled that Horizons Foundation is taking the lead on funding practical solutions."

POCIBLE includes two types of grants, based on the size of an organization's budget. Grants for larger organizations fund multi-year projects to increase the nonprofit's capacity to fulfill its mission; examples include fundraising planning, staffing, or IT needs. These grants also provide money for the organization's executive director or board chair to receive professional coaching, a very powerful element brought forward from Horizons' Strategic Partnership Program for LGBT leaders. Grants for smaller organizations focus on specific, short-term projects-such as hiring a planning or fundraising consultant-that will help build infrastructure for groups in the early stages of their development.

"While grants for capacity building may not sound exciting, in reality this kind of investment is desperately needed by our community organizations," said Roger Doughty, Executive Director. "It's also a type of funding that's fairly difficult to come by, making the POCIBLE program all the more important."

Horizons Foundation's Rickey Williams Fellowships also became part of POCIBLE. Named for a Bay Area activist, the fellowships offer a stipend to emerging or "second-tier" leaders (such as a development director or program director) to work with a POCIBLE grantee organization on their capacity building project, as well as to receive coaching. Organizations of all sizes could nominate potential fellows. "If we're going to change the face of the LGBT movement," said Gomez, "we need to cultivate the next generation of LGBT leaders."

Convenings, which will bring together POCIBLE grantees as well as other POC/LGBT and non-POC/LGBT organizations, constitute the third main element of the program. These gatherings-which leaders of color have consistently stated would be beneficial to them and their organizations-create space for the groups to learn from each other, share resources, establish mentoring relationships, work collaboratively, and ultimately build a more cohesive community.

Horizons Foundation has partnered with several other funders in supporting POCIBLE, including Funders for Lesbian and Gay Issues, the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, and The San Francisco Foundation. The Rickey Williams Fellowships are also supported in collaboration with the community group And Castro For All.

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