48 Grants Awarded to Bay Area LGBTQ Organizations, Totaling Over $400,000
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48 Grants Awarded to Bay Area LGBTQ Organizations, Totaling Over $400,000
Horizons Foundation’s Flagship Funding Program Supports Bold, Grassroots Solutions
January 30, 2020, San Francisco – Horizons Foundation, the world’s first LGBTQ community foundation, today announced its latest slate of grantee partners through its flagship Community Issues Funding Program.
“Our latest grantee partners are advancing innovative ideas with transformative potential for our community,” said Francisco O. Buchting, vice president of grants, programs, and communications. “Our SF Bay Area LGBTQ Community Needs Assessment makes clear that our community still has significant unmet needs, and these organizations offer bold solutions to fill the gaps.”
“As the foundation celebrates 40 years, these grantee partners — across the nine counties of the Bay Area, across many facets of LGBTQ life and identity — exemplify the work our community needs to live freely and fully,” said Horizons’ President Roger Doughty.
Among the new slate of grantee partners are 48 organizations that together received $415,734 in funding. Horizons’ total grantmaking since 1980 now exceeds $48.6 million.
The full list of these organizations can be found here. The new slate of grantee partners includes a variety of organizations and projects, some of which focused on:
- Fighting LGBTQ homelessness. For example, Homeless Youth Alliance was awarded a grant to provide case management for LGBTQ homeless youth; Dolores Street Community Services, to support Jazzie’s Place, the first LGBTQ homeless shelter in the nation.
- Protecting LGBTQ rights. For instance, The LGBT Asylum Project received funding to provide pro-bono legal representation for LGBTQ people seeking asylum; Swords to Plowshares, to support LGBTQ veterans, including advocating for benefits that were denied due to LGBTQ status at time of discharge.
- Creating LGBTQ art. As one example, Sins Invalid received funding to support their disability-justice performance project that celebrates artists with disabilities, especially LGBTQ artists of color; Vallejo Stonewall Film Festival, to make the festival a permanent event as part of LGBTQ Pride in Solano County.
- Promoting LGBTQ health. Face to Face: Sonoma County AIDS Network, for instance, was awarded a grant for their work to end HIV locally; Queer LifeSpace, for their programs that provide mental-health and substance-use services to the LGBTQ community.
- Advancing justice for LGBTQ prisoners. For example, California Coalition for Women Prisoners received a grant to support #MeTooBehindBars, a campaign to stop correctional officers’ attacks against transgender inmates; ABO Comix, to amplify the voices of LGBTQ prisoners through art.
Horizons’ Community Issues Funding Program uses a venture philanthropy approach, which looks favorably toward innovative, grassroots solutions to our community’s emerging needs, especially those of the most under-resourced segments of our community. Awarded by a community panel of activists and experts, these grants typically fund general operating expenses. Grants are funded in part by Horizons’ LGBTQ Community Endowment Fund, a permanent source of resources for the community.
Horizons thanks Hewlett Foundation and California Wellness Foundation for their partnership in the Community Issues Funding Program.
About Horizons Foundation
Horizons Foundation (www.horizonsfoundation.org) envisions a world where all LGBTQ people live freely and fully. The world’s first community foundation of, by, and for LGBTQ people, Horizons invests in LGBTQ organizations, strengthens a culture of LGBTQ giving, and builds a permanent endowment to secure our community’s future for generations to come. In 2020, Horizons is celebrating its 40th anniversary. Learn more at horizonsfoundation.org.
