The Equality Fund at the Boston Foundation announces over $100,000 in grants to support LGBTQ efforts in Greater Boston

Boston – The Equality Fund at the Boston Foundation today announced $113,000 in grants to innovative nonprofits serving the diverse members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community. This year’s grantees were selected by the Equality Fund advisory board to reflect the wide range of needs and opportunities LGBTQ people in Massachusetts face in 2018.

The grant announcement also comes on the heels of last week’s release of “Equality and Equity: Advancing the LGBT Community in Massachusetts,” which was co-authored by the Fenway Institute and Boston Indicators, and was funded in part by the Equality Fund.

“The Equality and Equity report captured in a nutshell the challenge of being LGBTQ in Greater Boston. While we can celebrate progress in a number of areas, there is hard data showing critical unmet needs and continued discrimination,” said Scott Squillace, Co-Chair of the Equality Fund Advisory Board and a member of the Boston Foundation Board of Directors. “The Equality Fund exists to ensure LGBTQ-serving organizations get the current and future support they need to help meet the community demand.”

The grants range in value from $4,000 to $15,000 – with many of the grants focusing on youth and elder LGBTQ populations, along with grants to organizations targeting specific issues facing the transgender community in Massachusetts.

“We are proud to be able to again support a great slate of organizations that are meeting today’s needs for LGBTQ people, young and old,” said Catherine D’Amato, Co-Chair of the Equality Fund Advisory Board and President and CEO of the Greater Boston Food Bank. “We will continue to strive to meet those needs as we continue to build a permanent endowment for tomorrow.”

To date, donors have made over $7,000,000 in gifts and legacy commitments to the Equality Fund. To learn more about the Equality Fund, its history, and ways to make donations or pledges in support of the Fund, visit the Equality Fund page on our website.

The list of 2018 grantees follows.

Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC): $15,000
To support MTPC’s efforts to scale its trans-specific representation in identity documents initiative.

GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, Inc. (GLAD): $12,000
To address the challenges LGBTQ inmates face within the MA correctional system.

Fenway Institute: $10,000
To support research and report on the state of the LGBT community in Massachusetts.

Boston Alliance of LBGTQ Youth: $7,500
To support two cohorts of youth leaders planning and implementing Youth Pride and the Trans Youth Summit.

Massachusetts Asians and Pacific Islanders for Health: $7,500
To strengthen the Asian Pride program, by supporting a focus on the community facing outreach, community health workshops, program awareness and recruitment.

Fenway Community Health Center, Inc.: $5,000
To support the LGBT Elders of Color Outreach Initiative provides opportunities for social inclusion and resources on aging to elders of color through hosting community building events.

Greater Boston PFLAG: $5,000
To support the Youth in Care and Custody of DCF support project. It will provide foster parents with the tools and education to welcome an LGBTQ young person into their home.

Health Law Advocates, Inc.: $5,000
To support the Transgender Health Project, which helps low income transgender consumers to overcome frequent and unjustifiable denials to health care, primarily for gender affirming services.

Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for the Aged: $5,000
To support Aging Out , which will deliver workshops and training materials to over 40 chaplains and caregivers at area hospitals, to improve the culture of care for LGBTQ seniors.

History Project, Inc.: $5,000
To support the Out in the Community series,  a three-tier project that will engage LGBTQ communities of color to collect, preserve and share LGBTQ history.

History Unerased, Inc.: $5,000
To support History Unerased and the creation of six LGBTQ-themed interactive multi-media posters targeting students in grades 6-8.

Palaver Strings Inc.: $5,000
To support a musical program that portrays the original stories and life experiences from Boston's LGBTQ older adult community through music, song and spoken-word.

Silver Lining Mentoring: $5,000
To support mentoring relationships for LGBTQ initiative participants for youth impacted by foster care ages seven and older.

Ethos: $4,000
To implement Conversations on LGBT Aging through expert-led talks, a social lunch and a resource fair of LGBTQ senior service providers.

SpeakOUT Boston: $4,000
To support The Transgender and Gender Non-conforming Speaker Program, which will increase awareness of the 2018 Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination referendum and understanding of the importance of maintaining gender identity within the civil rights protections of Massachusetts law.

The Equality Fund Advisory Board also may recommend small grants to other Greater Boston organizations performing LGBTQ-related work that conform to Equality Fund and Boston Foundation guidelines. Those grants totaling approximately $13,000 this year. Recipients included:

Partners Healthcare

OUT MetroWest

AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts

Multicultural AIDS Coalition, Inc.

Theater Offensive, Inc.

Home for Little Wanderers

Camp Lightbulb

Keshet

Minister of Loneliness

888 Women's History Project

nAGLY

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The Boston Foundation, Greater Boston’s community foundation, brings people and resources together to solve Boston’s big problems. Established in 1915, it is one of the largest community foundations in the nation—with net assets of $1.1 billion.  In 2017, the Foundation and its donors paid $135 million in grants to nonprofit organizations. The Foundation is a close partner in philanthropy with its donors, with more than 1,000 separate charitable funds established for the general benefit of the community or for special purposes. It 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.