The 2023 Grantmaking call for applications closed on February 27, 2023.
Starting this year, the Equality Fund is embarking on a new strategic vision to better serve Boston’s LGBTQ+ community and contribute meaningfully to address the racial and ethnic inequities that exist within this community.
We plan to redouble our efforts to work in concert with all of the equity funds at the Boston Foundation – the Asian Community Fund, the Latino Equity Fund, the New Commonwealth Fund and Embrace Boston – at the intersection of race and ethnicity with LGBTQ+ identities. Similarly, our grantmaking approach, seen through intersectional lens, will be instrumental to operationalize this vision.
We’ll be more intentional in our work across the many diverse spaces that make up the LGBTQ+ community, so those members who identify as both LGBTQ+ and people of color, of any age and background, can be fully accepted and represented within multiple communities.
Any individual, family or organization can contribute to the Equality Fund in a variety of ways:
Starting this year, the Equality Fund is embarking on a new strategic vision to better serve Boston’s LGBTQ+ community and contribute meaningfully to address the racial and ethnic inequities that exist within this community.
The application period closed on February 27, 2023.
In June 2022, the Equality Fund announced its largest-to-date slate of grants - a total of $450,000 to 37 organizations. The Equality Fund's grantmaking funds were supplemented by a one-time, $200,000 infusion from the COVID-19 Response Fund at the Boston Foundation. All funds are given as general operating support. Those organizations listed with an asterisk (*) are receiving a $28,571 grant from the Equality Fund COVID-19 Response grantmaking program – in some cases, the COVID grant is in addition to a grant from the Equality Fund annual grantmaking program.
Bisexual Resource Center: $10,000
The Bisexual Resource Center works to connect the bi+ community and help its members thrive through resources, support, and celebration. We envision an empowered, visible, and inclusive global community for bi+ people.
(B)MEN Foundation: $11,000
(B)MEN is an inclusive group of Black men working to mobilize all Black men regardless of class, national origin, immigration status, age, sexual orientation, sexual identity, and gender expression. Our network provides support groups, conferences, and community action for black men, allowing them space to respond to their own experiences, as well as those in their community.
Boston Alliance of LGBTQ Youth – BAGLY: $38,571*
The Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth is a youth-led, adult-supported social support organization committed to social justice and creating, sustaining, and advocating for programs, policies, and services for the LGBTQ+ youth community. (Also funded via the Equality Fund COVID-19 Response Fund).
Boston GLASS: $28,571*
Founded in 1994, Boston GLASS is one of New England’s premier community centers serving and catering to LGBTQIA+ youth of color. The mission of Boston GLASS is to improve the wellbeing of LGBTQIA+ youth of color and their allies by providing a continuum of services that addresses their immediate needs, equips them with tools to make healthy decisions and live fulfilling lives, and helps create communities in which they can thrive.
Boys and Girls Club of Stoneham: $5,000
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Stoneham & Wakefield has been building pillars in the local community and across Greater Boston for nearly 50 years. After opening its doors on September 27, 1973, the organization has served generations of children and families alike. Today, they provide fun experiences and educational programming to over 3,000 members across their two locations after school and throughout the summer. We are proud to work with young people from a wide range of economic, social and family circumstances, regardless of their gender, ethnic and racial background.
Breaktime United: $7,000
Breaktime is a Boston-based nonprofit working to end young adult homelessness through purposeful transitional employment and financial empowerment. This organization empowers young adults experiencing homelessness to secure stable employment and permanent housing while bolstering the health of their communities.
Children's Friend: $5,000
Children's Friend, an affiliate of Seven Hills, has been serving children and families in the greater Worcester community since 1849. Their mission is to improve the lives of children and those who love them by creating, supporting, and strengthening families.
Coro Allegro: $10,000
Coro Allegro is dedicated to providing access to choral music to broad audiences, to performing and commissioning works by composers from underrepresented groups (BIPOC, LGBTQ+, women and gender minorities), and to serving as a model LGBTQ+ organization through artistic excellence and visibility. Through their performances, collaborations, and community partnerships, Coro Allegro strengthens community, builds bridges between disparate communities, and enriches lives in the Greater Boston area and beyond.
Ethos: $28,571*
Ethos is a community-based nonprofit dedicated to helping Boston’s seniors and adults with disabilities live at home with dignity and independence. Founded by a grassroots group of seniors and providers in 1973, Ethos has a detailed understanding of what Boston’s seniors want and need to age healthfully and safely in place, and expertise in delivering high-quality, cost-effective programs and services. Ethos is a recognized leader in spearheading new initiatives for seniors, particularly LGBTQ elders and seniors of color, and for providing the leadership to firmly establish them in our community.
Family Equality: $5,000
Family Equality’s mission is to advance legal and lived equality for LGBTQ families, and for those who wish to form them, through building community, changing hearts and minds, and driving policy change.
Fenway Health: $37,571*
Fenway Health advocates for and delivers innovative, equitable, accessible health care, supportive services, and transformative research and education. They center LGBTQIA+ people, BIPOC individuals, and other underserved communities to enable local, national, and global neighbors to flourish. (Also funded via the Equality Fund COVID-19 Response Fund).
GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, Inc. (GLAD): $10,000
Through strategic litigation, public policy advocacy, and education, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) works in New England and nationally to create a just society free of discrimination based on gender identity and expression, HIV status, and sexual orientation.
Greater Boston Legal Services: $5,000
Greater Boston Legal Services provides free legal assistance to as many low-income families as possible to help them secure the most basic necessities of life. GBLS plays a unique role in the social service delivery system. It is the agency to which other providers refer clients when no one else can help and legal assistance is needed.
Greater Boston PFLAG: $5,000
Greater Boston PFLAG is a group of parents, families, friends, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. We help change attitudes and create an environment of understanding so that our LGBTQ family members and friends can live in a world that is safe and inclusive. We accomplish this through support, education, and advocacy.
Health Law Advocates: $10,000
Health Law Advocates (HLA) is a public interest law firm whose mission is to provide pro bono legal representation to low-income residents experiencing difficulty accessing or paying for needed medical services. HLA is committed to ensuring universal access to quality health care in Massachusetts, particularly for those who are most at risk due to factors such as race, gender, disability, age, or geographic location. With its partner organization, Health Care For All, HLA combines legal expertise with grassroots organizing and policy reform to advance the statewide movement for universal health care access.
History Project: $11,500
The History Project is the only organization focused exclusively on documenting and preserving the history of New England’s LGBTQ communities and sharing that history with LGBTQ individuals, organizations, allies, and the public.
Home for Little Wanderers: $7,000
The mission of the Home is to help vulnerable children and families build permanent, positive change. They do so by ensuring the healthy behavioral, emotional, social and educational development and physical well-being of children and families living in at-risk circumstances.
Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Boston: $5,000
JBBBS believes that everyone deserves to have a friend or mentor in their lives that can have a long-lasting and transformative impact. JBBBS offers two main programs that deliver on this life-changing impact - its Children’s Program and Friend 2 Friend Program.
Massachusetts LGBT Business Network: $5,000
The services of the Business Network are designed to foster the growth of the LGBTQ+ business community and provide people with the tools necessary for financial success. The organization provides and cultivates educational programs and training, advises and mentors organizations and individuals, and serves as a resource for economic equity among LGBTQ+ people.
Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC): $11,500
MTPC works to ensure the wellbeing, safety and lived equity of all trans, nonbinary, and gender-expansive community members in Massachusetts. They educate the public, advocate at state, local, and systemic levels, and through collective action, they mobilize community, engage in capacity building, and advance community wellness and prosperity.
Outstanding Life: $10,000
The mission of Outstandinglife.org is to improve the quality of life of LGBTQ older adults in Massachusetts. They seek new creative ways to connect older adults: engaging hearts, transforming lives, and breaking down boundaries. People can still be creative and vital, no matter their age!
My Life My Choice: $5,000
My Life My Choice is a survivor-led pioneer in the fight to end the commercial sexual exploitation of children. Their comprehensive, field-tested programming empowers exploited youth to take ownership of their lives and builds a strong network of responsive providers in their communities. We provide a unique continuum of survivor-led services, including survivor-led mentoring, intensive case management, job readiness, and leadership development, mental health services, prevention education, consultation, training, and advocacy.
North Shore Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth (nAGLY): $10,000
Founded in 1992, NAGLY's mission is to honor, respect, educate, and empower LGBTQ+ youth. Serving more than 40 towns and cities north of Boston, NAGLY remains the only organization dedicated exclusively to meeting the needs of LGBTQ+ youth on the North Shore.
OUT MetroWest: $12,500
OUT MetroWest builds communities where LGBTQ+ youth thrive. They do so by offering social, supportive, and educational programs for LGBTQ+ youth from pre-K through high school.
Peter DiMuro Public Displays of Motion (PDM): $5,000
PDM illuminates the extraordinary and humane qualities of individuals and communities by creating works of dance/theatre through collaborative processes that create community, advocacy and shared values. PDM is a dance/theatre producing company comprised of a core group of intergenerational, interracial, queer to straight dance/theatre-makers, and often augmented by communities who are brought into processes for programs that are simultaneously creating new works of performance while creating deeper relationships and awareness.
Political Asylum Immigration Representation Project - PAIR Project: $7,000
Founded in 1989, PAIR ensures the due process rights of asylum seekers and detained immigrants through high-quality and reliable pro bono programs so that they have equal protection of the law and access to legal counsel without charge. Currently, PAIR supports its clients with 19 staff members; they also recruit, train, and mentor a network of over 1,500 volunteer lawyers to take PAIR cases.
Pride in Our Workplace: $5,000
Pride in Our Workplace helps all LGBTQ+ professionals and allied businesses drive positive change. By centering the LGBTQ+ perspective within important conversations, they help professionals and allied businesses create thriving workplace cultures. They spotlight impactful, often unheard, points of view on timely issues, help connect LGBTQ+ professionals with one another, and provide businesses with the tools they need to grow and lead with pride.
Quincy Pride: $5,000
Quincy Pride was created to be an organization dedicated to awareness and education, highlighting the personal rights and civil liberties of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, nonbinary, and gender-fluid individuals who are marginalized and sometimes live without access to resources and information. Through their events, special presentations, and partnerships, they seek to raise awareness and showcase the wonderful and diverse individuals throughout Massachusetts.
Respond: $28,571*
RESPOND is the first domestic violence agency in New England. Established in 1974, RESPOND has provided hundreds of thousands of individuals in Greater Boston with pioneering victim services, including the first domestic violence program serving inmates in a Massachusetts jail/prison, one of the few emergency shelters in Greater Boston to accept families of all shapes and sizes (e.g. live-in grandparents), the only homelessness prevention program in Somerville exclusively serving survivors, and unique partnerships with local Police Departments to improve outreach to victims in underserved communities.
Roxbury Youthworks: $37,571*
Roxbury Youthworks, Inc. (RYI) is a 40-year-old minority non-profit organization whose mission is to help youth caught in cycles of poverty, victimization and violence transition successfully into adulthood. (Also funded via the Equality Fund COVID-19 Response Fund).
Silver Lining Mentoring: $7,000
Silver Lining Mentoring empowers youth in foster care to thrive through committed mentoring relationships and the development of essential life skills. They are one of only a few mentoring organizations in the country exclusively focused on youth impacted by foster care.
SpeakOUT Boston: $5,000
SpeakOUT is a community of speakers working to create a world free of homo-bi-transphobia and other prejudice by telling the truths of their lives. They train individuals and organizations to use public speaking to create positive cultural change.
Teach Plus: $5,000
Teach Plus’s mission is to empower excellent, experienced, and diverse teachers to take leadership over key policy and practice issues that advance equity, opportunity, and student success. They are driven by their Student Opportunity Mandate: all students should have the opportunity to achieve their potential in an education system defined by its commitment to equity, its responsiveness to individual needs, and its ability to prepare students for post-secondary success (in college and career) in an innovative economy.
Trans Community of New England (TCNE): $12,500
TCNE's primary mission is to provide support, personal growth opportunities, and social connections for transgender people and their allies in the Greater Boston area, southern NH and throughout New England. They do so in a confidential, respectful, and safe space for individuals to engage in full self-expression of their gender.
Together Estranged: $5,000
Together Estranged (TE)'s mission is to support and empower those estranged from family members while enhancing social understanding for the de-stigmatization of estrangement. They primarily support women and the LGBTQ+ community ages 24 to 44 who've been abused, neglected, or unaccepted by family for being LGBTQ+.
Translate Gender: $5,000
Translate Gender is a collective-based, consensus-run, nonprofit organization that works to generate community accountability for individuals to self-determine their own genders and gender expressions. They accomplish this goal through workshops, consultations, mediations, and facilitated discussions in agencies, organizations, schools, universities, at conferences, and in the workplace.
Victory Programs: $28,571*
The mission of Victory Programs, founded in 1975, is to open doors to recovery, hope and community to individuals and families facing homelessness, addiction, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C, and/or other chronic illnesses.
In 2021, the Equality Fund announced 30 grants totaling $145,000 to LGBTQ+-serving organizations, during the Fund's annual Pride celebration. Grantees include:
Bisexual Resource Center: $4,000
The Bisexual Resource Center works to connect the bi+ community and help its members thrive through resources, support, and celebration. We envision an empowered, visible, and inclusive global community for bi+ people.
Boston Alliance of LGBTQ Youth (BAGLY): $8,500
The Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth, is a youth-led, adult-supported social support organization, committed to social justice and creating, sustaining, and advocating for programs, policies, and services for the LGBTQ+ youth community.
Boston Pride: $3,000
Boston Pride creates change and progress in society by embracing our community’s diverse history, culture, and identities, promoting community engagement and inclusivity, and striving for visibility and respect in unity. Boston Pride produces events and activities to achieve inclusivity, equality, respect, and awareness in Greater Boston and beyond.
Breaktime: $5,000
Breaktime is a Boston-based nonprofit working to end young adult homelessness through purposeful transitional employment and financial empowerment. We empower young adults experiencing homelessness to secure stable employment and permanent housing while bolstering the health of their communities.
Bridge Over Troubled Waters: $4,000
Bridge Over Troubled Waters provides effective and innovative services to runaway, homeless and high-risk youth, helps youth avoid a lifetime of dependency on social services, guides youth towards self-sufficiency, and enables youth to transform their lives and build fulfilling, meaningful futures.
Children's Friend: $3,000
Our mission is to improve the lives of children and those who love them by creating, supporting, and strengthening families. Our commitment to care for and serve children and their families has remained constant throughout our long history.
Coro Allegro: $4,000
Dedicated to providing access to choral music to broad audiences, to commissioning and performing works by diverse composers, and to serving as a model LGBTQ+ organization through artistic excellence and visibility.
Dancing Queerly: $5,000
Dancing Queerly is an annual festival featuring workshops, mixers, discussions, and performances by and for the LGBTQIA+ community, friends, and allies. Our mission is to bring LGBTQIA+ folks with varying dance experience together in the joy of dance as audience members and participants.
Ethos: $7,500
Ethos is a private, not-for-profit organization that promotes the independence, dignity, and well-being of the elderly and disabled. Ethos achieves its mission through the coordination and delivery of high-quality, affordable home and community-based care.
Fenway Community Health Center: $4,000
Fenway Health advocates for and delivers innovative, equitable, accessible health care, supportive services, and transformative research and education. We center LGBTQIA+ people, BIPOC individuals, and other underserved communities to enable our local, national, and global neighbors to flourish.
GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD): $4,000
Through strategic litigation, public policy advocacy, and education, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders works in New England and nationally to create a just society free of discrimination based on gender identity and expression, HIV status, and sexual orientation.
Greater Boston PFLAG: $4,000
We are a group of parents, families, friends, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. We help change attitudes and create an environment of understanding so that our LGBTQ family members and friends can live in a world that is safe and inclusive. We accomplish this through support, education, and advocacy.
Health Law Advocates: $4,000
To provide pro bono legal representation to low-income residents experiencing difficulty accessing or paying for needed medical services. HLA is committed to ensuring universal access to quality health care in Massachusetts, particularly for those who are most at risk due to such factors as race, gender, disability, age, or geographic location.
History Project: $5,000
Focused exclusively on documenting and preserving the history of New England’s LGBTQ communities and sharing that history with LGBTQ individuals, organizations, allies, and the public.
LGBT Elders of Color: $9,500
LGBT Elders of Color conducts outreach to isolated lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender older adults of color, to build community through social engagement events, creative programs, and provide necessary resources for health care and aging services. Particular emphasis is on locating and supporting this population.
Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC): $5,000
MTPC works to ensure the wellbeing, safety and lived equity of all trans, nonbinary, and gender-expansive community members in Massachusetts.
My Life My Choice: $4,000
At My Life My Choice, we fight the Illegal sex trade by harnessing the strength of survivors. We empower youth to defend themselves and demand a society that does not tolerate the buying and selling of children.
OUT MetroWest: $5,500
OUT MetroWest builds communities where LGBTQ+ youth thrive. It offers more than a dozen free meetings and events for LGBTQ+ youth and allies each month. They serve youth from communities across eastern and central Massachusetts.
Peter DiMuro Public Displays of Motion: $5,000
Peter DiMuro/Public Displays of Motion (PDM), is a dance/theatre production company, comprised of several intergenerational dancers and dance-makers. Their work, spanning decades, has included the lives of LGBTQ+ communities worldwide, from the early days of the AIDS crisis mid-’80’s, to some of the first works to include a spectrum of the community, including trans artists over 20 years ago.
Political Asylum Immigration Representation Project (PAIR): $4,000
Serves low-income asylum-seekers from across the world, unaccompanied minors, and immigrants who are unjustly detained, guiding them through the first step on the journey to becoming United States citizens.
Project Out: $5,000
Project OUT provides support and financial assistance to transgender and gender non-binary individuals who do not have access to life-saving gender-affirming services & products that allow for authentic living. Through education, advocacy and gender-affirming programs, Project Out is dedicated to eradicate bias against the transgender community while empowering the trans community to live safely and authentically each day.
Quincy Asian Resources (QARI): $4,000
QARI's mission is to foster and improve the social, cultural, economic and civic lives of immigrants and their families in order to benefit Quincy and its neighboring communities. Through collaborations and partnerships, we provide culturally competent services, such as workforce development, adult education programs, youth development, and cultural events as well as information and referrals to public or other community organizations.
RESPOND: $4,000
RESPOND partners with individuals, families and communities to end the serious public health issue of domestic violence. RESPOND strives to achieve its mission through prevention, intervention and education services that promote safe, healthy relationships.
School of Arts and Social Justice At Make Shift Boston: $5,000
Make Shift Boston is a collectively-run co-working, events and community meeting space striving to offer Greater Boston an affordable place to be, a safe space to organize, and a sanctuary space for LGBTQ people, People of Color, Immigrants, and persons with disabilities.
Silver Lining Mentoring: $5,000
Empowers youth in foster care to thrive through committed mentoring relationships and the development of essential life skills.
South Coast LGBTQ Network: $5,000
Seeks to build and maintain a comprehensive support network for LGBTQ individuals and families across the age spectrum.
Trans Club of New England: $5,000
TCNE’s primary mission is that of being a social and support club for transgender peoples in the New England region.
Transgender Emergency Fund of Massachusetts: $5,000
The Transgender Emergency Fund is the only organization dedicated to supporting low-income and homeless Transgender individuals in Massachusetts. The Transgender Emergency Fund assists with homelessness prevention, shelter assistance, nutrition assistance, prescription co-pay assistance, transportation and escort to medical appointments.
Victory Programs: $5,000
The mission of Victory Programs, founded in 1975, is to open doors to recovery, hope and community to individuals and families facing homelessness, addiction, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C, and/or other chronic illnesses.
Y2Y Network: $4,000
Y2Y Network is building student-led programming to interrupt the cycle of homelessness for a generation of young adults. Y2Y Network employs a youth-to-youth model to provide a safe and affirming environment for young adults 18-24 experiencing homelessness. Y2Y guests have opportunities to collaborate with service providers, other youth experiencing homelessness, and student volunteers to create sustainable pathways out of homelessness and develop skills for long-term success.
Founded: 2012, as the first endowed LGBTQ fund in Boston
Grantmaking: Most grants made annually, with decisions announced in June
David Aronstein, Consultant and Community Leader
Nineequa Blanding, Vice President of Grantmaking, Health Resources in Action
Eric Brown, Senior Vice President, KeyBank
Elyse Cherry, CEO, BlueHub Capital
Catherine D'Amato, President and CEO, Greater Boston Food Bank
Jude Erondu, Analyst, Pathstone Federal Street
Arlene Fortunato, Senior Vice President for Advancement, Greater Boston Food Bank
Dean Hara, Consultant and Community Leader
Billy Lagor, Interim Chief Growth Officer, The Juice Plus+ Company
Andrea Light, Senior Director, U.S. Knee Commercial Marketing, Smith & Nephew
Cameran Mason, Chief Development Officer, Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Ricardo Rodriguez, Founder, Ricardo Rodriguez and Associates
Alexandra Schuman, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, Alexion, and