SAN FRANCISCO - Horizons Foundation has been awarded major grants from two of California's top foundations. Over the next three years, these grant partnerships will bring an additional $772,500 to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community in the Bay Area.

Over the past decade, Horizons' partnerships with mainstream foundations have brought millions of dollars to the community. "Horizons acts like a portal between LGBT community organizations and mainstream funders," said Roger Doughty, Executive Director. "Most foundations have little knowledge of the LGBT community, and just aren't equipped to make grants to individual organizations - especially smaller ones."

A $600,000 grant from the California Wellness Foundation will support Horizons' successful LGBT WISE: Working to Improve Services to Elders to promote healthy aging among LGBT elders, a largely invisible and critically underserved population that often faces discrimination and isolation that directly impact their health and well-being. The innovative program includes regranting funds to LGBT organizations providing direct services to LGBT elders, convening the grantees, and building a mix of programs across the region that serve the varied health needs of LGBT elders. The new grant builds on the two-year-old program.

"We're now seeing the very first group of LGBT people reach their later years in a time and place where we can find acceptance for who we are," said Jewelle Gomez, Horizons' Director of Grants and Community Initiatives. "Unfortunately, there's very little infrastructure, knowledge, and experience out there appropriate to our unique needs and concerns-but LGBT WISE is starting to change that. We're thrilled that the California Wellness Foundation has recognized everything our grantees have been able to accomplish in the program's first two years."

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation also awarded $172,500 to Horizons Foundation in support of its Community Issues grants to LGBT arts organizations. Horizons has long recognized the importance of supporting LGBT artists, both as a way to influence the dominant culture and as a powerful tool for self-empowerment and pride. The grant renewal from the Hewlett Foundation will help enrich the cultural landscape by supporting diverse creative works that represent the world through a uniquely LGBT lens.

Founded in 1980, Horizons Foundation was the world's first community foundation that focused on LGBT issues.