Today, I am thrilled to announce our newest cohort of grantee partners through our flagship Community Issues Funding Program. Designed to support grassroots LGBTQ organizations in the SF Bay Area, especially those aiding the most underserved segments of the LGBTQ community, this program has a long history of impact – and this year is no different.

Our latest 42 grantee partners are receiving over $549,000 for their innovative and essential work in service to the LGBTQ community. I want to highlight just a handful of the projects that these grants will support:

• Building transgender community. Grantee partner San Francisco Trans March is San Francisco’s largest transgender Pride event and one of the largest trans events in the world.
• Restoring and recovering the role of Two-Spirit people. Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits is the home of the first and largest annual Two-Spirit Powwow, and seeks to create a forum for the spiritual, cultural, and artistic expression of Two-Spirit people.
• Strengthening LGBTQ-affirming environments for youth. Amor Para Todos works with schools and communities in an innovative and intersectional way in order to cultivate more accepting environments for LGBTQ youths and students.
• Supporting LGBTQ elders. Lavender Seniors of the East Bay works to improve the quality of life of older LGBTQ residents of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties through direct services, outreach, advocacy, and education.
• Preserving culture among LGBTQ people of color. Still Here San Francisco brings together queer and trans artists of different ages and racial backgrounds to create works to explore how issues such as gentrification, displacement, AIDS, and incarceration have impacted the residents of San Francisco.

Guided by principles of trust-based philanthropy, the grantmaking process continues to include Horizons’ hallmark community review panel, and grants are primarily awarded for unrestricted operating support for either one- or two-year durations. Grants are funded in large part by Horizons’ LGBTQ Community Endowment Fund, a permanent source of grant funding for the community that Horizons is building through scores of legacy gifts made by LGBTQ people in their estate plans.

Thank you so much to Horizons’ community panel for tirelessly reviewing the applications for funding, to the foundation’s donors who fuel our work, and to our incredible grantee partners working on the frontlines every day. You make our work possible and our community’s future bright.