The Community Issues Funding Program is Accepting Applications Until August 25.

We are pleased to share that Horizons’ flagship funding program, Community Issues, is now accepting Letters of Interest (LOI). The 2025 Community Issues Program provides support for LGBTQ organizations and programs serving the LGBTQ community in the San Francisco Bay Area

RFP Presentation

Wednesday, August 6, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. PT
Wednesdy, August 20, 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. PT

Changes include adding a Letter of Interest (LOI) to its process, lifting the $1 million annual budget cap for eligibility, broadening funding priorities, and more.

Drop-In Office Hours

Wednesday, August 13, 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. PT
Wednesday, August 20, 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. PT

Can't make the webinar, or have additional questions? Register for drop-in office hours with Horizons' Senior Program Officer Joshua Delfin.

If the office hours listed above don’t work for your schedule, or if you’d prefer to set up a one-on-one appointment to discuss your letter of intent (LOI), please email grants [at] horizonsfoundation.org.

Horizons’ flagship grantmaking program, Community Issues provides support to LGBTQ nonprofit organizations and programs based in our local community: the nine counties of the San Francisco Bay Area. Central to our mission, supporting these organizations’ programs, services, and advocacy helps advance a world where all LGBTQ people live freely and fully.

This year, Horizons expects to award substantially more funding than ever through Community Issues. We are committing these additional resources to respond to two critical and interconnected realities: the sharp decreases in funding from federal, state, county, and city sources, and the growing strain on LGBTQ organizations and programs caused by the current presidential administration and escalating anti-LGBTQ sentiment nationwide.

In light of these profound challenges, Horizons will provide more stable, sustained, multi-year support to help LGBTQ organizations continue their essential work in increasingly difficult conditions.

As we have since our founding, Horizons remains committed to ensuring that these grants deepen investment in historically under-resourced parts of the LGBTQ community, particularly those most impacted by the current anti-LGBTQ political climate and persistent inequalities. Through Community Issues, Horizons utilizes a systems-based grantmaking model that reflects our commitment to sustainability, equity, and responsive support for the SF Bay Area LGBTQ nonprofit ecosystem and the LGBTQ community it serves. We continue to focus on trust-based philanthropy and multi-year funding.

Horizons Foundation Grantees at our 2025 LGBTQ Grantee Partner Celebration

We know that the LGBTQ community’s needs and opportunities constantly evolve, and it is essential to examine our grantmaking approach and priorities. Horizons 2018 LGBTQ Community Needs Assessment underscored the continuing significant challenges and often disproportionate needs the LGBTQ community faces in the SF Bay Area.

To help target our funding and achieve greater impact for the LGBTQ community, Horizons Foundation has updated our grantmaking strategy. Horizons seeks to strengthen our Community Issues grantmaking emphasizing the centrality of supporting organizations that are based in our community and led by LGBTQ people.

We proudly reaffirm our commitment as a community foundation to an “Open Door” policy in our community grantmaking, intentionally offering a wide range of LGBTQ nonprofits opportunities to seek funding.

About Community Issues Grants

Open door policy

Community Issues is open to all nonprofits and fiscally sponsored programs that meet eligibility criteria and whose work falls within these overall funding areas:

Advocacy

Arts

Community
Building

Health and

Wellness

Geographic Focus

Request support for an LGBTQ organization or program/project based within one or more of these SF Bay Area counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma.

General Operating Support

Horizons favors general operating support grants for LGBTQ-primary organizations because we know that this is the funding our organizations need most.

GRANT SIZE AND DURATION

Award Size: The Foundation plans to increase the maximum grant amount once again—marking the third consecutive year of growth. For 2025, we expect the average grant size to range between $25,000 and $30,000. This is an average and not a fixed amount; actual grant sizes will vary based on the number of applications we receive, available resources, community needs, and other factors. We will also aim to make larger individual grants where possible.

Multi-Year Grants: We anticipate awarding a greater number of multi-year grants in 2025. Last year, 45% of all grants funded were multi-year, and we expect that proportion to grow in the upcoming cycle.

Key Updates to the 2025 Community Issues Program

Lift the $1 Million annual budget cap eligibility

For 2025, the Community Issues program will accept applications from LGBTQ-primary organizations of any organizational budget size. This change will maintain alignment with the LGBTQ-primary definition while expanding access to organizations with a range of capacities and infrastructure. LGBTQ-primary organizations are defined as organizations:

whose missions include the LGBTQ population as the primary focus of the work;
whose staff and boards predominantly reflect the LGBTQ community (65% or more);
and which primarily serve LGBTQ people (65% or more).

Horizons will continue to accept applications from LGBTQ-focused programs that have annual program budgets of $1 million or less from non-LGBTQ-primary organizations. The applicant must demonstrate that the program serves a specific area in the nine-county SF Bay Area where LGBTQ-primary organizations do not provide sufficient, comparable services or reach a specific LGBTQ population.

Broaden Funding Priorities

The Community Issued program has expanded its priorities beyond the current focus on specific populations and organization types. This shift enables Community Issues funding to support a more ecosystem-wide strategy that encompasses a broader and more integrated range of LGBTQ organizations across four interconnected areas: Arts, Health and Wellness, Community Building, and Advocacy.

For any questions about changes to Community Issues, please contact us at grants [at] horizonsfoundation.org

Eligibility

Be a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization, or provide documentation that the organization is fiscally sponsored by an organization that has 501(c)(3) status
Request support for an organization or program/project based within one or more of these SF Bay Area counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma
An organization can only submit one application per tax ID number. Fiscal sponsors are exempt.

Please note that the following are not eligible for support:

Requests from outside the SF Bay Area
Requests for costs incurred prior to the date of the grant award
Requests from government agencies
Requests for capital support, including construction and renovation
Requests for sponsorship (see our LGBTQ Donor Engagement Program)

Application Process

Community Issues is adding a Letter of Interest (LOI) to its process, allowing organizations to express their interest in a grant from Horizons Foundation. Selected organizations will then be invited to submit a full application for a Community Issues grant.

1
Review the foundation’s guidelines: Before applying for a grant, it is important to review Horizons Foundation’s guidelines and eligibility criteria. This will help you determine if your organization and proposed project align with our mission and priorities.
2
Submit a Letter of Interest (LOI): The first step in the application process is to submit an LOI.
3
Complete a full proposal: If your LOI is approved, you will be invited to submit a full proposal. This will require more detailed information about your organization, including supporting documents.

Key Dates

Request for Proposal (RFP) and Letter of Interest Portal Opens — July 30, 2025
Letter of Interest Due — August 25, 2025 at 12:00 p.m.
Invitation to Submit Full Application Sent — October 7, 2025
Full Application Due — October 30, 2025
Notice of Awards – November/December, 2025

Apply to the Community Issues Funding Program

We look forward to receiving your proposal and hearing about your work and your goals. Thank you for your interest in the Community Issues program — and for all the work your organization does for the LGBTQ community.