“While there are so many polarizing forces currently at work in our country today, we are so proud to support many community-based organizations working toward a better future for all of us. The Laughing Gull Foundation Board is honored to be able to continue our investment in the work of stellar groups with a vision of LGBTQ equality as well as racial equity, and to provide multi-year, general operating support to the majority of our grantees.”- Meg Baesmith, LGF Board President
In 2019, LGF added three new grantee organizations to our LGBTQ Equality Program portfolio: the Movement Advancement Project to support their groundbreaking research on the lives of rural LGBTQ people in the US; and OUTRight Youth Catawba Valley and Youth OUTRight Western North Carolina, both of which provide safe, affirming spaces for LGBTQ youth in NC.
The portfolio continues LGF’s focus on North Carolina and Virginia, and on strategic opportunities to support the LGBTQ community across the US South. The LGBTQ Equality Program supports emerging organizations focused on transgender communities, and multi-issue organizations doing significant work in the LGBTQ community with an intersectional, racial justice lens.
LGF’s LGBTQ grants approved in 2019 include:
Astraea Foundation for Justice’s LGBTQ Racial Justice Fund. (Regional) $50,000 for 1 year
Equality North Carolina. (North Carolina) $225,000 over 3 years
Fund for Trans Generations, Borealis Philanthropy. (Regional) $300,000 over 3 years
Movement Advancement Project. (Regional) $50,000 for 1 year
OUTRight Youth Catawba Valley. (Catawba Valley, NC) $50,000 over 2 years
Southern Vision Alliance’s Frontlines Fund. (North Carolina) $10,000
Trans Justice Funding Project. (Regional) $225,000 over 3 years
Youth OUTright Western NC. (Western NC) $75,000 over 3 years
The following existing grantees received interim payments on multi-year commitments in 2019:
ACLU-NC Legal Foundation. (North Carolina) $225,000 over 3 years
Campaign for Southern Equality. (Regional) $450,000 over 3 years
El Centro Hispano. (Durham, North Carolina) $75,000 over 3 years
Equality Federation’s Victory South Initiative. (Regional) $90,000 over 3 years
Equality Virginia. (Virginia) $450,000 over 3 years
Freedom Center for Social Justice. (North Carolina) $325,000 over 3 years
Funders for LGBTQ Issues’ Out in the South Initiative. (Regional) $375,000 over 3 years
Health Brigade. (Richmond, VA) $120,000 over 3 years
Horizons Foundation’s Give Out Day. (Regional) $60,000 over 3 years
LGBT Center of Raleigh. (Raleigh, NC) $150,0000 over 3 years
LGBTQ Center of Durham. (Durham, NC) $120,000 over 3 years
Lynchburg Diversity Center. (Lynchburg, VA) $60,000 over 3 years
Nationz Foundation. (Richmond, VA) $110,000 over 3 years
SHIFT NC. (North Carolina) $90,000 over 3 years
Side by Side. (Virginia) $250,000 over 3 years
Southerners on New Ground. (Regional) $300,000 over 3 years
Southern Vision Alliance. (North Carolina) $120,000 over 3 years
Time Out Youth. (Charlotte, NC) $360,000 over 3 years
Tranzmission. (North Carolina) $75,000 over 3 years
Virginia Anti-Violence Project. (Richmond, VA) $150,000 over 3 years
Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities. (Virginia) $120,000 over 3 years
For further grant and organizational details, please visit
LGF’s website or contact Cynthia Renfro, LGBTQ Program Consultant, at
cynthia@laughinggull.org