This article was co-published with Inside Philanthropy.
With a new administration that is now openly allied with transgender people, their rights and their safety, there’s a chance we’ll see new avenues of progress opening up in coming years. That could also mean more and larger funders turning their attention to trans issues.
Philanthropic support for U.S. trans communities has, in fact, been on the rise in recent years. According to Funders for LGBTQ Issues, support for U.S. trans communities grew from $9 million to $28.6 million between 2014 and 2018. That’s an encouraging trend, but this remains a relatively small niche in the foundation world, especially considering the scope of need.
While LGBTQ-focused organizations and philanthropies like the Arcus Foundation and the New York Women’s Foundation do fund trans communities, a handful of smaller groups led by and for trans people have been working hard on these issues for years, and deserve to be in the spotlight as this area of funding expands. What sets these groups apart is their specific focus on transgender communities and direct support for individuals and trans-specific organizations.
Below are four of the most influential and impactful trans funding groups in the philanthropy world today, each with its own definition of trans justice and its own unique theory of change.
Trans Justice Funding Project
Founded in 2012, the Trans Justice Funding Project is a grantmaker collective aimed at funding trans-led organizations that seek justice for their communities. The funder has many public donors, including co-founder Karen Pittelman, who is active in Resource Generation and also co-founded the Chahara Foundation, which spent down in 2008.
Operating under the widely held tenet that organizations that focus on trans rights should be run by trans people, the TJFP boasts that its application process is simple and accessible to make applying easier for the often overworked and underfunded groups they fund.
The TJFP operates as a non-charitable trust, which the collective says gives them “the freedom to give money to groups without forcing them to get a fiscal sponsor or have nonprofit status, especially since both will require all kinds of paperwork and reporting.” It was initially founded as a 501(c)(3); leaders chose this unique operating structure out of concerns that the small trans-led organizations they fund may not fulfill the necessary requirements to become charitable nonprofits.
In 2020, TJFP awarded more than $1 million to 261 trans justice organizations across the country. Their grant application is open to any trans-led community organization within the United States that has an operational budget of less than $250,000 per year.
Black Trans Advocacy Coalition
For nearly a decade, the Black Trans Advocacy Coalition—one of the first nonprofits by and for Black transgender people—has been addressing the dangers, inequities and injustices faced by their communities. One of the largest organizations in the trans grantmaking space, the BTAC has both national and state affiliate chapters, and partners with international organizations to address Black trans issues around the globe.
While the group has historically focused on ending violence against Black trans people (an epidemic that claims the lives of dozens each year in the United States and hundreds of people worldwide), the COVID-19 pandemic has brought new and daunting needs for the community. BTAC has worked to fill those gaps with its coronavirus-specific fundraising that aims to provide health, housing and employment to Black trans people during the pandemic.
Along with providing essential goods like food, PPE and safe sex kits to Black trans communities, BTAC has also established a COVID-19 microgrant program for Black trans people who experience homelessness, are struggling students, are HIV positive, or are community elders.
Trans Lifeline
Along with providing a critical hotline for trans people in need in both the U.S. and Canada, Trans Lifeline is also a nonprofit that offers microgrants to trans people. Launched in 2014 to address the increasing problem of trans suicides, the 501(c)(3) charity began offering microgrants in 2016 that assist with name change fees as well as support for currently and formerly incarcerated trans people, from commissary funding to post-release support.
To date, Trans Lifeline has redistributed more than $730,000 to trans people in need—a model based on the mutual aid framework used by and for trans communities to encourage support outside of the traditional nonprofit model.
Grantmakers United for Trans Communities
After creating a 2015 report detailing the minuscule share of philanthropic giving to trans groups, Funders for LGBTQ Issues created the Grantmakers United for Trans Communities initiative to foster a culture that puts trans-led organizations front and center in the philanthropy world. The group highlights this need by issuing easy-to-understand talking points about the state of trans funding, including that “for every $100 awarded by U.S. foundations, only 3 cents focuses on trans communities.”
Part of GUTC’s work focuses on educating funders of the unique issues that trans communities face by dispersing reports on the state of trans issues, which often highlight the multi-faceted issues trans justice organizations are tackling, such as economic and health disparities, a need for safety, and efforts to secure civil rights.
While not a grantmaker per se, along with its educational work, GUTC has a fellowship program for trans and gender non-conforming people that provides them with training, networking, job coaching, career counseling, mentorship and a stipend to help them enter the philanthropic giving world. Per the organization, this initiative was inaugurated in 2018 to help “develop trans leadership in philanthropy.”
“While the number of trans-identified people employed within the philanthropic sector has been increasing,” GUTC noted, “trans-specific professional development opportunities remain lacking.”
