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Fund for Trans Generations’ Latest Grantees Focus on Health, Healing, and Safety

Feb 14, 2019 | Grantee News & Updates, News & Updates

In January, Borealis Philanthropy’s Fund for Trans Generations (FTG) awarded $1.32 million in general support, rapid response, and capacity building grants to 55 organizations across the United States.

Launched in 2016, the FTG is a donor collaborative fund that works with activists and organizations for a future where transgender, gender non-conforming, and nonbinary people live with freedom, safety, and self-determination.

“With the support of this grant from the Fund for Trans Generations (FTG), we are eager to continue our work of providing outreach and prevention services to decrease HIV rates for trans people, and to provide other critical wellness services for our community,” said Arianna Lint, the founder of Arianna’s Center, an organization that engages, empowers, and lifts up the trans community of South Florida. “I first connected with FTG at Creating Change two years ago when Ryan Li and I filled out my grant application together in the lobby during the conference. The flexibility and trust that FTG prioritizes in its grantmaking makes it possible for us to focus on our work.”

During this grantmaking cycle, grantees continued to identify health, healing justice, education, safety from violence, and criminalization as some of the most high-priority issue areas they are focusing on. Given the increasing threats the transgender, gender non-conforming, and nonbinary communities are facing in this political moment, grantees also shared the need for more strategy sessions and gatherings with trans-led organizations and allies.

One of the FTG’s central grantmaking priorities is to provide significant resources to emerging, nascent organizations that have had limited access to national funding streams. All of the FTG’s grantees have budgets of less than $300,000, and the majority have budgets under $100,000. Recognizing that sustained support is necessary for organizations to build infrastructure and momentum, the FTG awarded renewal grants to 51 previous grantees.

For grantees receiving renewal funding, many expressed the importance of organizational development grants that offered coaching support and support for travel, conferences, and trainings.

“When we talk to people doing the work on the ground, they continue to share a deep desire to build strength internally in their organizations, which will drive long-term, impactful, and powerful organizing wins,” said Micky B, a member of the FTG Advisory Committee. “Having physical office space, stipends and salaries to pay staff and members, retreats to plan organizational strategies, and healing spaces for community members who have experienced harm are all essential parts of movement building.”

The FTG is a grantmaking initiative of Anonymous Donors, Arcus Foundation, Laughing Gull Foundation, and NoVo Foundation. For more information about the FTG, please visit the Fund’s page on the Borealis website. The FTG also houses a “Rapid Response” fund for groups responding to unanticipated events and strategic opportunities. Download the FTG Rapid Response FAQ for details.

Please see below for a list of FTG grantees: