Equality Fund at the Boston Foundation announces $88,000 in grants for LGBTQ organizations

Boston – The Equality Fund at the Boston Foundation, the first permanent, endowed fund for the benefit of members of the Greater Boston LGBTQ community and their families, today announced its fifth round of grants – totaling $88,000 – to eleven Greater Boston organizations serving the LGBTQ community.

We are excited to provide another reason for celebration during this year’s Boston PRIDE events,” said Catherine D’Amato, co-chair of the Equality Fund advisory committee. “These organizations provide valuable service to the LGBTQ community, and these grants will help them expand and further their critical missions.”

Established in 2012, the Equality Fund made its first grants in June 2013. The Fund is stewarded by the Boston Foundation, but its grant-making priorities and growth strategies are guided by an Equality Fund Advisory Committee including members of the community, donors and professional advisors in law, real estate, financial planning, philanthropy and related fields.

The Boston Foundation has pledged $250,000 in challenge grants for the Fund, as a 2:1 challenge in an effort to strengthen the Fund’s endowment as it begins its grant making. The Foundation thanks Eastern Bank, BNY Mellon and Northern Trust, as well as individual donors, for their commitment of funds in support of the Equality Fund and its grant making. The Equality Fund has already documented over $8,000,000 in testamentary gifts, which will ensure that the fund is a robust resource for the LGBTQ community over the coming decades.

“We are committed to not only provide critically needed funding for the LGBTQ community’s current needs but to build an endowment that will provide for future needs,” said Scott S. Squillace, Esq., co-chair of the Equality Fund advisory committee. “We are making great progress on both sides.”

Grants in this round of funding range from $5,000 to $12,000, for organizations serving needs ranging from health to housing, education, elder services and other support services.

The grantees selected by the Equality Fund advisory committee and approved by the Boston Foundation Board of Directors were:

Home for Little Wanderers
$6,000 to support Waltham House, a group home for GLBTQ youth.

Theater Offensive, Inc.
$5,000 to support the True Colors Studio, a series of intensive skill-building workshops focused on arts, basic life skills and social justice work.

Health Law Advocates
$12,000 to support the Transgender Health Access Project, to improve access to critically needed health services for transgender Greater Boston residents, through legal representation, training and advice, community education and outreach programs.

Fenway Community Health Center
$7,500 to support the LGBT Aging Project, LGBT Elders of Color Initiative – Flashback Sunday community event and workshop series.

Hebrew Rehabilitation Center/Hebrew SeniorLife
$6,000 payable to Hebrew Rehabilitation Center, to support the Addressing Disparities in Health Care for LGBTQ Seniors project, to train staff at Hebrew SeniorLife’s Roslindale facility and home care, in providing culturally sensitive care and programming to seniors. 

Silver Lining Mentoring
$5,000 to support the creation of a Learn & Earn cohort, specifically focused on LGBTQ foster care youth at Waltham House, for increased knowledge of life and financial skills, greater peer relationships, and progress towards their independent life goals.

Boston Gay Men's Chorus
$10,000 to support “A Peacock Among Pigeons” multi-media performance piece that celebrates diversity and exemplifies the equitable treatment of LGBTQ people in Greater Boston and beyond.

Victory Programs
$10,000 to support the Trans-health Pilot Initiative to increase cultural competency in serving the transgender community, and an expansion of the peer health navigation services for at risk and HIV+ transgender individuals.

Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition
$12,500 payable to fiscal sponsor BAGLY, Inc. to support storytelling and media training for trans individuals statewide in an effort to ensure that their voices are incorporated into broader conversation about trans nondiscrimination policy.

Coro Allegro
$7,500 to support its Quarter Century Administrative Overhaul: expanding infrastructure and upgrading its technological systems.

Boston Senior Home Care
$6,500 to support upgrades and enhancements to the Boston ElderINFO website, a resource for LGBTQ elders.

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About the Boston Foundation

The Boston Foundation, Greater Boston’s community foundation, is one of the largest community foundations in the nation, with net assets of some $1 billion. In 2016, the Foundation and its donors made $100 million in grants to nonprofit organizations and received gifts of more than $107 million. In celebration of its Centennial in 2015, the Boston Foundation launched the Campaign for Boston to strengthen the Permanent Fund for Boston, the principal endowment fund focused on the most pressing needs of Greater Boston. The Foundation is proud to be a partner in philanthropy, with more than 1,000 separate charitable funds established by donors either for the general benefit of the community or for special purposes. The Boston Foundation also serves as a major civic leader, think tank and advocacy organization, commissioning research into the most critical issues of our time and helping to shape public policy designed to advance opportunity for everyone in Greater Boston. The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI), a distinct operating unit of the Foundation, designs and implements customized philanthropic strategies for families, foundations and corporations around the globe. For more information about the Boston Foundation and TPI, visit tbf.org or call 617-338-1700.