When Pride Foundation embarked on our recent strategic planning process, we used part of this time to reflect on our mission, values, and priorities. Through the process, it became clear that we needed to adapt our community grant making program to keep pace with the changing landscape.
It has been ten years since Pride Foundation made any significant adjustments to our grants program, yet we know the dynamics within the LGBTQ community are shifting at a rapid rate. This was a great time for Pride Foundation to think about how to best support the ever-evolving opportunities and challenges facing LGBTQ people and their families, while aligning our grants program more directly with Pride Foundation’s key priorities.
The changes we are making to our grants program will provide the flexibility needed to ensure we are investing across the breadth of important issues facing our community. It also offers our community partners the freedom to do what they do best: propose smart responses to complex community issues.
As an organization that is committed to growing the movement for true and lasting LGBTQ equality, we recognize that we must create the space to support all individuals in being their full selves.
This is critical as we look for ways to address the multitude of disparities still threatening our community—even at a time when we are making incredible progress on many vital issues of LGBTQ equality.
That is why we are so excited to announce that our new grant cycle will be opening on July 1st! Please mark your calendars and stay tuned for updates on our website. Our Grant Guidelines can be found here and starting on July 1st, you can apply for a grant online here.
This year’s grant cycle will close on August 4th, and we’ll be announcing our 2014 grantees at the end of October.
Pride Foundation is committed to supporting LGBTQ people in our community who remain most invisible and vulnerable despite all of our progress. In fact that commitment has never been stronger. We look forward to working with organizations, volunteers, leaders, and partners across the region to advance equality, support LGBTQ people in their home communities, and build the power needed to effect lasting change.
We can’t wait to embark on this journey together.
See below for the changes we’ll be making to our grants program:
Current Practice (From) → Proposed Change (To)
Letter of Inquiry → No Letter of Inquiry
Focus—six program focus areas → Focus—alignment with refined Pride Foundation vision, values, and philosophy
Restricted to $5,000 maximum grant award → No restriction on maximum grant award (average is still likely to be around $7,500 with range between $5,000 and $10,000)
Review Proposals by state → Review proposals across region, using multiple screens i.e. size of organization, population, strategy, and issue area
Six month annual grant cycle from June to November → Condense grant cycle from July to October