Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Horizons Foundation serves the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community by making grants, strengthening LGBT organizations and leadership, and increasing philanthropic giving.
 

 

Horizons Foundation Receives $500,000 Grant from Community Leadership Project to Invest in LGBT Communities of Color

Horizons Foundation has been awarded a grant from the Community Leadership Project that will bring $500,000 over the next three years to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people of color organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area - one of the largest grants ever to focus on this population. The funding will provide major support for Horizons' POCIBLE (People of Color Initiative to Build Leadership and Effectiveness) program, which made its first grants earlier this year.

The Community Leadership Project is a creation of three of the Bay Area's largest private foundations - the David and Lucile Packard, James Irvine, and William and Flora Hewlett Foundations - and is aimed at strengthening nonprofit organizations that are led by or serve people of color in California. Horizons is one of only six regranting partners selected for the Project, which was launched in April 2009 to serve the San Francisco Bay Area, the Central Coast, and the San Joaquin Valley.

"It is to the enormous credit of the Packard, Irvine, and Hewlett Foundations that they've recognized the complexity of community and identity experienced by LGBT people of color and embraced an inclusive vision of diversity," said Doughty. "In making this grant to Horizons Foundation, the Community Leadership Project is playing a vital role in helping multiply-marginalized communities build bridges across some of the widest gaps between the promise of equality and its fulfillment." Read more...
 

Deadline for 2009 Community Issues Grants Now Passed

The 2009 deadline for Community Issues grants has now passed. We expect to announce this year's grantees by September - please check back.

Many thanks to all the organizations that have applied - we look forward to reading about your work on behalf of the LGBT community.
 

On the Marriage Decision

Dear friends,

So now we know. The Supreme Court of the sometimes-great state of California has told us, told the world, that a slight majority of voters can strip away a basic right from a minority. Only one justice, Carlos Moreno, got it right. The others took our state a giant step backward, shaming the court itself and our state. History called, and no one was home.

Sure, many of us had been expecting this result. We’d braced ourselves. I certainly thought I was ready. I’d had a fleeting moment of full-technicolor fantasy early this morning that, against all expectations, we’d win today, but I didn’t really believe it. We all knew from the oral argument that it didn’t look good.

Turns out, I wasn’t ready. Standing outside the courthouse with hundreds of people, knowing hundreds of thousands more were glued to TVs and computer screens, I felt like I’d been punched. Hard. A lot of people looked that way. Perhaps there’s little that can really prepare us for being told – again – that we’re not equal. It’s a message we’ve heard before – it rings in our ears, an echo of decades, centuries, a world of inequality and injustice. Inequality that sometimes has been quite literally beaten into us.

It’s hard to grasp the court’s reasoning. Just a year ago, the majority wrote with great clarity that separate can never be equal. Yet today, six of those same justices announced that, well, a little bit of inequality is, after all, acceptable. Justice Moreno said it well: “[E]ven a narrow and limited exception to the promise of full equality strikes at the core of, and thus fundamentally alters, the guarantee of equal treatment….”

Yes, this hurts. It hurts us personally and it hurts as a community, as a movement. It embarrasses us as Californians. But today isn’t the end of this fight. We know this won’t stand in the long run. We’ll voice our anger, we’ll make that anger heard – and we’ll get back to work.

On my way into City Hall this morning for a news conference, I saw Bay Area civil rights leader Eva Paterson outside the doors. She said that she hadn’t been ready either. But she recalled all the mornings that she’d “awoken to bad rulings” from one court or another. Each time, she said, she did what we have to do now: pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and fight on.

Some big decisions lie ahead. More sacrifices, too. But we know we will win. And we win starting today. I know I’ll see some of you in the streets tonight.

As ever, with respect and thanks for all you do,

Roger
 

Horizons Foundation's POCIBLE Grants Invest in LGBT Communities of Color

Horizons Foundation has announced a new granting program to help a core group of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people of color organizations and individuals develop their capacity to play sustaining leadership roles in the LGBT community. The new program - called POCIBLE: People of Color Initiative to Build Leadership and Effectiveness - extends Horizons' long commitment to addressing the particular and persistent challenges that LGBT people of color and organizations face.

"This is a concerted effort to strengthen people of color LGBT organizations on multiple levels: their infrastructure, their leaders, and their connections with other POC/LGBT groups and the broader LGBT community," said Jewelle Gomez, Horizons Foundation's Director of Grants and Community Initiatives. "This program has been in the works for a while, but in the wake of Prop 8, its launch couldn't be more timely. Across the board, everyone agrees that more people of color needed to have their voices heard during the campaign. I'm thrilled that Horizons Foundation is taking the lead on funding practical solutions." Read more...

View the list of POCIBLE grantees...
 

Look for Horizons on Twitter and Facebook

Horizons Foundation now Twitters! Keep up with the latest Horizons news and events, information about our grants, tips for LGBT donors, articles for professional advisors, data on LGBT giving, and more. Each "tweet" is limited to 140 characters, making it a quick and easy way to stay informed.

You can also spread the word about Horizons and our work via Facebook. With one click, you can let your network of friends know how important it is for each of us to give to LGBT nonprofits. Together, we'll make giving an integral part of the LGBT community.

Follow Horizons on Twitter: www.twitter.com/horizonsfdn
Become a fan of Horizons Foundation on Facebook
 

Use the QGiving Guide to Find Your Favorite LGBT Nonprofits and Make Donations

We've seen a powerful current flow through the LGBT movement these past several months. Despite the present setbacks, we know that extraordinary things happen when we join together, when we dream together, when we march together. And extraordinary things happen when we give together. From the earliest days of the LGBT movement, donations from people like you have fueled every success. At times, LGBT organizations had no other means of support. From bar fundraisers and penny jars to gala events and organized donor campaigns, the generosity of LGBT people has powered our progress and built our organizations.

That's why Horizons Foundation put together our QGiving Guide: to help you learn more about the LGBT organizations doing important work in the Bay Area - and to encourage you to give. The guide is available for free as a downloadable PDF. (We also have a limited number of printed copies; please contact us at 415.398.2333 if you'd like one.)

Your gifts, large or small, to whatever organizations or causes you're passionate about, make a difference. Thank you for your generosity, for helping build a strong, enduring, and compassionate LGBT community - for all of us.

Download the QGiving Guide...
 

RESEARCH FROM HORZIONS: Groundbreaking Study Examines Charitable Giving in the LGBT Community

By all indications, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people are at least as generous as other Americans. So why are less than 5% of them giving to support LGBT causes? More importantly, how can LGBT nonprofits capture more LGBT dollars? These are the central questions raised by new research just released by Horizons Foundation.

The first multi-part study of its kind, Building a New Tradition of LGBT Philanthropy offers a snapshot of current giving to LGBT organizations, and points to ways to expand the pool of individual donors whose untapped potential can power both the immediate and long-term success of the LGBT movement. The research is based on giving data from 39 LGBT and HIV organizations in the Bay Area, an extensive online donor survey, and a series of focus groups with LGBT donors. More...

Read the full research report...
Read the Executive Summary of the report...