Looking back on 2018, I can’t help but smile when I think about how, together, our community has created so many moments of triumph throughout this challenging year.
These are just 6 ways your support of Pride Foundation helped create a better world in 2018:
- Investing resources where they are needed most: In addition to awarding a record-breaking $550,000 to 96 organizations through our Community Grants Program, we continued to award Rapid Response Fund grants to groups addressing new and renewed threats in our communities. One of these grants went to Ori Gallery, a community space in Portland focused on empowering queer and trans people of color through organizing and the arts.
- Supporting incredible LGBTQ+ and allied student leaders: This year, Pride Foundation awarded scholarships to 130 students from across our region totaling $535,000—the largest award in Pride Foundation history!
- Bringing community together to collaborate: In January, Pride Foundation convened the first-ever LGBTQ roundtable in Alaska. LGBTQ and allied organizations shared their work with one another and identified ways to collaborate across the state.
- Defending our community’s legal rights: We supported two incredible policy wins that defeated initiatives targeting trans and gender diverse people in our region. Thanks to the organizing and storytelling work of Fair Anchorage, residents voted to uphold their local non-discrimination ordinance. Then, in July, thanks to the efforts of the Free and Fair Coalition and many other local advocates, an anti-trans initiative in Montana fell far short of collecting the required signatures to qualify for the ballot.
- Building community in rural parts of our region: In April, Regional Philanthropy Officer Tylene Carnell co-presented on a project she has been collaborating on throughout 2018: the creation of one of the first rural resource guides for Washington and northern Idaho. The presentation was part of the annual Saying It Out Loud Conference focused on addressing challenges in accessing healthcare for LGBTQ communities.
- Reflecting on the impact of HIV/AIDS to change the future: This fall, Pride Foundation made a $50,000 grant to The AIDS Memorial Pathway(The AMP). The grant will support The AMP’s efforts to collect and share stories from all communities affected by the AIDS crisis and increase awareness of the disproportionate impact HIV continues to have on communities of color, transgender people, and cisgender women.
We were excited to support Outside the Frame as one of our 2017-2018 Community Grantees. Outside the Frame supports youth transitioning out of homelessness by helping them become directors of their own films—and their own lives.
And today, we are thrilled to share the video they made for Pride Foundation!
If you haven’t made a gift to support this critical work across our region, please consider making an investment today so that we can continue making moments like this happen for generations to come.
Thank you for all the ways you’ve shown up for our communities this year. We look forward to fighting courageously alongside all of you in 2019.
Katie Carter is Pride Foundation’s Acting CEO.