We are living in a time of profound crisis. In a moment when, yet again, our country has confirmed that the personhood and autonomy of Black and Brown communities, trans and gender-nonconforming (TGNC) people, migrants, and sex workers is not only precarious but conditional, I turn to one absolute truth: We will be free. The path to liberation demands a clear and full vision that radically centers not just the safety, but the beauty of LGBTQ communities of color.

It is a path grounded in great love; it is a path that demands great risks.

As philanthropy considers what this moment requires, we must go to the wisdoms of Black and Brown TGNC movement leaders fighting on the frontlines across our country. We must turn to the lessons of our elders and ancestors who lived through frightening and fearful times with great love and courage before us. I am remembering Stonewall, a safe haven for drag queens, runaway youth, and other community members seeking a space where they could just be. I am remembering Storme DeLarverie, a Black butch woman believed to have thrown the first punch at Stonewall in defense of her people, as police attempted to destroy a site of resistance. Think of what it took to stand in resistance, in belief that there are better teachers than fear and hate.

We are living in times when fear is being used to target communities. Conservative forces within the United States and beyond are using fear to criminalize Black trans women, drag queens, critical race theory, and reproductive rights. Their efforts are having a devastatingly powerful effect. In the past two years, over 300 anti-trans bills have been presented in state legislatures across the country, and the far right is accumulating resources and power at a rapid pace. And last week the Supreme Court delivered a decisive blow against constitutionally protected abortion rights in a decision that jeopardizes settled case law that gave us the rights to marriage and intimacy.

This is nothing new. We know this because trans and gender-non-conforming people, undocumented LGBTQ folks, sex workers, and people of color have been telling the larger movement for decades about how the state weaponizes criminalization.

I would be lying if I said that I am not afraid of what will come. We are in an age of insurrections, where the thin veneer of gentility gilding white supremacy has been discarded. I’ve been holding Mariama Kaba’s words close to my heart: “Let this radicalize you, rather than lead you to despair.”.

The truth is, we have what we need to build the world that our people so richly deserve. Instead of turning to despair, I am calling on philanthropy to rise in this moment to dig deeper, to act more boldly, and use love as our most urgent teacher. Now is the time to root ourselves in philanthropic practices that call for greater generosity and care.

What if philanthropy partnered with movements all the time?

I am inspired to see the rapid growth of funding from just a trickle of support from a handful of foundations in the 1970s to a growing field of foundations making sustained investments to LGBTQ organizations and causes. Our 2016 Tracking Report found that U.S. foundation support for LGBTQ communities surpassed $200 million for the first time. However, I would be remiss to not offer critical context to this milestone. The sharp rise in LGBTQ funding we saw in 2016 was driven in large part by approximately $30 million in funding in response to the Pulse Nightclub massacre in Orlando.

As a sector, we have to ask ourselves why so often a great tragedy happens before philanthropy actually makes bold moves. I think we have to ask ourselves:What would happen if we were in partnership with movements all of the time? What does it mean that the most generous giving comes when we witness tragedy? What would it mean to have this expansive practice of generosity daily and recognize that for so many communities, tragedies are happening every day?. They just simply don’t make the evening news.

This week Funders for LGBTQ Issues published new research documenting the scale of philanthropic investment for LGBTQ communities and issues from U.S.-based foundations.  Despite the ongoing cataclysmic threats to LGBTQ rights, U.S. foundations invested $201 million in LGBTQ communities in 2020. This is a 4 percent decrease from 2018 when we last reported on these trends. Considered in the context of all spending from U.S.-based foundations, this means that in 2020, for every $100 awarded by U.S. foundations, only 23 cents specifically supported LGBTQ issues.

And despite the rapid growth of attacks against trans and gender-nonconforming communities, support for TGNC people is stagnating in a moment when we need significant growth. In 2020, TGNC communities still received only 4 cents for every $100 awarded by U.S. foundations.

A call for bold, ongoing investment

Our research and experience working to mobilize philanthropy to stand up for LGTBQ people tells us a story, and its message is clear: We need expanded and diversified funding within LGBTQ philanthropy that is nimble and unrestricted. We have to find ways to bring in new foundations, and help them recognize that whether their priorities are the arts, climate change, racial justice, neighborhood development, workers’ rights, or housing instability, any priority that does not actively center the leadership, wisdoms and communities of Black trans and gender-non-conforming communities will fail.

It is this ethos that shaped our program, Grantmakers United for Trans Communities (GUTC). Founded in 2017, GUTC calls upon philanthropy to pledge a deepened commitment to TGNC communities that is reflected in their leadership, hiring practices and giving, as well as, offering a fellowship program for TGNC leaders in philanthropy. It is this same commitment that led us to join the Trans Future Funds Campaign, a trans- led call for $10 million in new philanthropic dollars this year. We are honored to support this work alongside Fund for Trans Generations at Borealis Philanthropy, the Third Wave Fund, the Transgender Strategy Center, the Black Trans Fund, and the Trans Justice Funding Project.

The wins of this campaign reflect critical philanthropic organizing by trans leaders over the past several years. The Ford Foundation recently announced their commitment to doubling its investment in TGNC communities over the next five years, and also signed on to the GUTC Pledge. Our most recent tracking report found that $34.5$28 million in philanthropic dollars are invested in TGNC communities annually;, Ford’s commitment will single- handedly increase this investment by a third by 2027. We need more foundations to stand up at this moment.

As we close out Pride Month, I call on philanthropy to honor the legacy of the Pride movement, and move forward boldly to build the freedoms that ancestors like Storme, Marsha, Sylvia, Audre and Urvashi fought for. It is time to fund boldly—in partnership with movements—at the intersections of our fight for liberation. It is time to use philanthropic power, will, and resources and pour that into trans and gender-non-conforming movements fighting at the frontlines. We must take action with the understanding that our freedoms are undeniably and inextricably bound together. It is time for foundations to speak out in this fight. As James Baldwin reminds us, “to be silent is not only criminal, but suicidal. For if they come for you in the morning, they will come for me at night”.

Saida Agostini-Bostic is president of Funders for LGBTQ Issues.