Funders for LGBTQ Issues' Latest Tracking Report: Some Good News, More Not So Good

The biggest piece of good news from the recently released 2021 Resource Tracking Report from Funders for LGBTQ Issues is admittedly very good: U.S. foundations’ support for LGBTQ issues and nonprofits in this country increased by nearly $90 million in 2021. That’s a large jump in just one year, from $164.3 million to $251.9 million in inflation-adjusted dollars.

The report also shows that funders seemed to shift their priorities when it comes to funding national vs. local groups. National-level funding accounted for 26% of money committed to LGBTQ communities and issues in 2021, a marked difference from 2020, when national organizations received 42% of the total funding. That makes good sense considering that much of the struggle for the basic rights and freedoms of LGBTQ people is taking place at the state level, and seems to reflect a return to pre-2019 priorities, when a higher percentage of grantmaking went to local work.

But then we come to the bad news. Foundation backing for trans-supporting groups only increased nominally, and funding for Black LGBTQ communities actually decreased in 2021. Funding also remains highly uneven, with comparably LGBTQ-friendly states, California in particular, receiving vastly more money than states where LGBTQ people, including transgender children, are facing concerted assaults on their rights. Even more concerning, LGBTQ funding remains extremely top heavy. That’s a problem because the nonprofits that rely on foundation support today could be in deep trouble tomorrow should funders pull a NoVo or otherwise decide to move on to the next shiny new thing.

All of that is particularly troubling in a country that has seen spikes in both hate crimes and discriminatory anti-LGBTQ laws. And if recent polling is accurate, LGBTQ acceptance among the wider public may be on the decline. In other words, this is no time for funders to pull back.

“A real, substantive increase” – and the flip side

This latest report is the 19th such effort from Funders for LGBTQ Issues, which has been tracking foundation giving to LGBTQ communities since 2005, when it reported on giving in 2002. Unlike the report covering 2020, this one focuses solely on U.S. funders and U.S. nonprofits. According to Senior Research Officer Alyssa Lawther, another key difference between the reports was that for this one, COVID no longer had an impact on organizations’ ability to collect and share data, making much more available. However, Lawther said, an increase in available data doesn’t account for the reported increase in giving. “The amount of giving we’re seeing in this year’s report is a real, substantive increase,” they said.

Of course, while the nearly $90 million jump in support is encouraging, the flip side of that is that in 2021, funders moved just $0.28 to LGBTQ nonprofits for every $100 U.S. philanthropy spent overall. Meanwhile, trans-serving nonprofits received only four cents for every $100 moved by U.S. funders.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to invoke David and Goliath looking at foundations’ still-minuscule support for LGBTQ nonprofits against the backdrop both of overall foundation giving and the money available to anti-equality forces (see Barre Seid’s $1.6 billion gift to conservative causes in 2022, or the $367 million in net assets reported by the anti-LGBTQ Heritage Foundation alone in 2021).

There’s also the fact that the sector remained incredibly top heavy in 2021, with 72% of giving coming from the top 20 funders alone. The two heaviest-hitting players in the sector, Gilead Sciences and the Ford Foundation, made $53.3 million and $37 million in grants respectively. The next largest grantmaker, The California Endowment, committed a comparatively scant $16.2 million, and No. 20 on the list, J.P. Morgan Chase, committed just $2.6 million. Given funders’ tendencies to change directions with new leadership, economic conditions, or seemingly on a whim, the predominance of a few top grantmakers in this space is a definite concern.

When funding and needs don’t align

In addition to the top-heavy nature of foundation support for LGBTQ nonprofits, other troubling developments highlighted in the 2021 report include an actual decrease in money committed to Black LGBTQ communities, from 12% of all LGBTQ funding in 2020 to 7% in 2021. That comes just one year after foundations across the country dedicated themselves to a greater focus on racial equality after the police murder of George Floyd. Equally discouraging, funding for trans communities basically remained the same, increasing by less than $4 million, from $32.4 million in 2020 to just over $36 million in 2021.

Instead of backing trans communities with greater resources at a time of obvious need, funders significantly pushed up the percentage of their giving that went to the general community. In 2021, that figure was 81%, while in 2020, general LGBTQ funding accounted for 68% of the money foundations moved to LGBTQ causes. In other words, very little of that additional $90 million can be said to have gone to trans groups and other LGBTQ communities in greatest need right now. As the report put it, “This rising tide has not lifted all boats.”

Foundation commitments to individual states were also highly mismatched, considering the relative threats to LGBTQ people, particularly transgender children, within those states. California, for example, was on the receiving end of $39.4 million in grants, but despite well-publicized efforts by states like Texas and Florida to target and discriminate against their LGBTQ residents, nonprofits in those states received just $6.5 million and $3.5 million, respectively.

This mismatch in funding has contributed to the ease with which underfunded states are able to pass discriminatory anti-LGBTQ laws. In 2021, for example, Montana’s LGBTQ nonprofits received just over $400,000; Kentucky’s got $397,000; and just $2,500 — pocket change, really — went to groups in North Dakota. The Republican leadership in all three states has easily passed laws that, among other things, deny healthcare to transgender children.

Citing underfunded states like Montana and the recent threats to transgender people within those states, Funders for LGBTQ Issues Deputy Director Alexander Lee said the problem is that without sufficient funding, “there’s not a critical mass of trans organizations and activists empowered enough to go toe-to-toe with the GOP” in those states.

However, the answer isn’t to take money from California and simply move it to underfunded states with hard-line anti-LGBTQ governments. In states like California and New York (the second most highly funded state at $12.3 million), Lee said, activists are “actually mapping out what could be possible if trans people weren't horribly oppressed. In the other states that are being seriously underfunded, it's really just about survival. It's like, how do you get trans kids not to kill themselves?” California alone certainly shows what’s possible: The state legislature’s LGBTQ Caucus has identified seven priority budget requests for 2023, six of which would specifically benefit the state’s LGBTQ communities.

When will funders truly support this community?

Twenty years ago, my first journalism job was as a reporter at Michigan’s LGBTQ newspaper Between The Lines. In those days, my state was one of several that passed a discriminatory anti-marriage law. It was legal to discriminate against LGBTQ people in housing and employment, and hate crimes were a real and ever-present danger. In those days, according to the second report published by Funders for LGBTQ Issues, giving was also top heavy, and foundations’ overall commitments to LGBTQ communities were several times smaller than they are today.

Today, the political and philanthropic climate is admittedly much better in many ways. Marriage equality is the law of the land (for now), and foundations are moving much more money to LGBTQ communities overall than they were 20 years ago. Here in Michigan, an anti-gerrymandering ballot proposal and our Democratic governor, secretary of state and attorney general have helped pave the way for real protections for sexual minorities. As someone who first covered issues facing the trans community back then, I can say with certainty that trans people have never been more visible, or more openly accepted, by so many cis people as they are now.

At the same time, though, anti-LGBTQ forces, some working with the explicit support of philanthropic dollars, have gone about creating the most frightening climate for sexual minorities in the U.S. in decades. A conservative majority in the Supreme Court, also partially the handiwork of conservative philanthropy, has potentially put that hard-won marriage victory in jeopardy.

Meanwhile, judging from Funders for LGBTQ Issues’ report, too many seemingly pro-LGBTQ funders continue to sit on the fence and on their money. Granted, the report collates data from two years ago, when the latest wave of discriminatory laws was just getting started, and philanthropy is nothing if not a slow-moving beast. But if funders who say they support equality don’t understand that now is the time to open their checkbooks wide, it’s hard to believe they ever will.

Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story included an incorrect pronoun. It has since been updated.

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