We can hardly believe it either: Not only did we write a blog about a budget—you clicked on it!
But if you’re like us, you know a budget can be a thing of beauty. It not only provides a guide for how we carry out operations, it is also a deep reflection of how we are living out our values, and how we are implementing our organizational strategy.
Budgets tell a story, and this story dives deep into the core elements of the work that drives us every single day: our people, our strategy, our resources, our values, and our impact.
For us, a creating a 3-year budget for the first time is important. It not only serves us in long–term planning, it helps us to accommodate gaps in some years and surpluses in others and provides a better guide to how big we are able to dream—and how big we can invest in our communities. It is also going to create the opportunity to do things we’ve wanted to do for a long time—like make multi-year grant awards that require a longer budgeting trajectory (more details to come on that soon!).
Ultimately, this budget will allow our work together to be even more mission-aligned and future-oriented. Our shiny, new 3-year budget will help us translate our strategic plan into action as we work to:
1. Mobilize More Resources: As the only LGBTQ+ community foundation in the Northwest, Pride Foundation is uniquely positioned to work with supporters across the region who have a deep commitment to justice. Together, we raise funds that ripple out into our communities and help meet the critical needs of LGBTQ+ people and our families. Our budget tracks our bold but realistic goals over the next 3 years to mobilize more resources across the region to make this happen.
2. Expand Programming:
- Grantmaking: Since our founding—but especially during the pandemic—our grantees and community partners have relied on Pride Foundation and partner funders to help support their incredible work on the ground. Over the next 3 years, we plan to grow our grant amounts and programming to ensure community organizations have flexible funding to rebuild from the pandemic, and far into the future.
- Scholarships: Education is getting more expensive for students with every passing year. Our goal over the next 3 years is to increase our scholarship award amounts and explore other ways to help Pride Foundation Scholars thrive in school and beyond.
- TRANSform Culture: We plan to deepen these community-led efforts to shift the culture in the Northwest to be inclusive and safe for trans and non-binary people, centering BIPOC within this work.
3. Invest in Organizational Development: We will make intentional investments in the development, growth, and sustainability of our organization with the explicit continued goal of centering racial justice in everything we do.
4. Grow our Philanthropic Advocacy: Of everything we’ve learned over the last 36 years as an organization, one of the clearest is that we aren’t going to build a more equitable and just world alone. In that time, and particularly in 2020, we’ve successfully worked with partner foundations, locally and across the country, to raise awareness of the importance of investing in LGBTQ+ communities. Over the next three years, we will continue deepening those relationships even further, and we will continue to do everything we can to help steward resources to our communities through this advocacy.
As we embark on these exciting plans, we’ll continue to share more every step of the way. This budget, these plans—all of our work—is possible because our community is behind us every day. We couldn’t be more grateful for all of the ways that we get to show up in and for our communities, or more thankful that you are right by our side.
Katelen Kellogg is Pride Foundation’s Communications and Outreach Manager.