Supporting Marriage Rights and Other LGBTQ Gains, An Essential Grant Making Imperative
Karen Zelermyer, Executive Director, Funders for LGBTQ Issues
Funders for LGBTQ Issues works to ensure that philanthropic resources reach the full diversity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer communities. Whether it’s grantmaking for marriage equality, the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell," safe schools or cultural competency in health care, our overriding concern is to make sure that huge portions of the LGBTQ community are not left behind or left out. We know from our work tracking and benchmarking the funding that approximately three quarters of the 300 foundations currently funding LGBTQ issues do not fund LGBTQ organizations led by people of color. In 2007, only 10 percent of all LGBTQ-directed dollars (which represents less than 0.02 percent of all philanthropic dollars) reached communities of color, 3 percent targeted transgender and gender non-conforming populations and less than 1 percent targeted LGBTQ people who are economically disadvantaged. That’s simply not good enough.
We believe that a racial justice lens must be brought into LGBTQ funding and that an LGBTQ lens must be brought into racial and social justice funding. To this end, Funders for LGBTQ Issues conducts education and advocacy with foundations, focusing on goals like making sure that affirmative action policies at non-LGBTQ foundations are inclusive of sexual orientation and increasing the number of people of color on LGBTQ foundation boards of directors.
When we started our campaign to increase LGBTQ racial equity grantmaking, the most common feedback from funders was that they simply didn’t know who to fund. As a solution, we have developed a database of LGBTQ organizations of color. We’ve also produced reports on LGBTQ organizations of color and created a spokes council of over 100 LGBTQ activists of color. (See below for links to these resources.)
As part of Funders for LGBTQ Issues Racial Equity Campaign, our Racial Equity Regranting Initiative has made matching grants of up to $150,000 to community foundations and funds around the country to support capacity-building, leadership development and the long-term support of LGBTQ organizations led by people of color. This regranting initiative is particularly critical now given the current economic downturn and in the wake of Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative, and other costly campaigns for marriage equality around the country.
Funding for marriage equality and other local, state and national legislative campaigns has inevitably diverted resources away from other important work in the LGBTQ community. This trend will likely continue as upcoming important campaigns emerge and mobilize in various states. In this climate, it’s important for grantmakers to be sensitive to what is at stake for the most vulnerable LGBTQ organizations, especially those based in communities of color, and to ensure that the funding for these campaigns is inclusive of these communities.
While these organizations are some of the most vulnerable, it’s also true that they are some of the most resilient—many have been surviving for decades with very little funding and operating as projects of fiscal sponsors as opposed to having their own 501c3 status. A practical way in which funders can diversify their grantmaking to reach underserved LGBTQ communities is to adjust their guidelines as necessary in order to ensure that “sponsored” projects are not excluded from consideration as potential grantees. This is important in light of current resource needs as well as the historic under-funding of LGBTQ organizations of color.
We should also be mindful of the fact that backlash and increased hate crimes against LGBTQ people often come in the wake of progress made. The fact that hate crimes against LGBTQ people are currently at their highest rate in more than a decade is evidence of this reality. The frontline LGBTQ organizations that serve the victims of actual and potential backlash and hate crimes are among those that are most vulnerable and under-funded.
The marriage issue is very complicated within the LGBTQ community. Some believe that benefits like healthcare should not be tied to the institution of marriage. But as long as marriage remains a primary institution through which important benefits and legitimacy are conferred, everyone should have the right to participate in it.
I believe we are at a moment in which there is growing synergy and awareness about the fallout that results when we fail to invest in communities of color and to advance the leadership and visibility of people of color within the LGBTQ movement. For instance, the safe schools movement is looking very intentionally at how to build multiracial collaborations, especially within urban areas. Many faith-based communities are also increasingly investing resources in developing congregations that affirm LGBTQ people while simultaneously working across lines of race.
Despite our defeat on Proposition 8 last fall in California and the other legislative challenges currently on ballots in other states, I operate from the assumption that—whether it takes ten years or twenty years—we will ultimately have full marriage equality in the United States. We will get there by continuing to identify key opportunities and conduct strategic state-by-state organizing. Our challenge, as we do this work, is to make sure that all the members of our LGBTQ community are empowered and embraced.
Karen Zelermyer is the Executive Director of Funders for LGBTQ Issues. Previously Ms. Zelermyer was Deputy Director of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice where she spearheaded the organization’s first endowment campaign. Ms. Zelermyer has also served in various capacities Women Make Movies, Women In Need, Women’s Funding Network, Media Network, Children’s Express, National Association of Latino Media Producers, War Resisters League, United for Peace and Justice, WHEAT Trust (Capetown, South African), New York Women Against Rape and the Rainbow Coalition.