Ten Years of Impact: Emerging LGBTQ Leaders of Color Fund Awards $2 Million to Organizations Driving Intersectional Change

Since launching as Borealis Philanthropy’s first-ever fund in 2015, the Emerging LGBTQ Leaders of Color (ELLC) Fund has proudly resourced over $18 million to queer, trans, and people of color-led organizations to build inclusive, effective and interconnected movements for justice. This month, the Fund is proud to award $2 million in grants to 24 groups that are co-creating community safety, defending bodily autonomy, and protecting civil liberties.

Across the country, ELLC grantee partners—most of whom have been supported by the Fund since its inception—are increasing access to gender-affirming and reproductive care, challenging rising criminalization and state violence, nurturing trans and queer leadership, strengthening community-based strategies for safety and belonging, and organizing for policy change that protects all peoples’ freedom and autonomy.

The Fund’s latest awards also include its Young Trans Women of Color (YTWOC) program, created to address the historic underinvestment in BIPOC trans leadership, while amplifying the voices driving intersectional movements forward. The YTWOC consists of 16 visionary organizers across the country, each of whom receive $54,000 over two years to sustain their work and deepen their leadership across movements spanning the arts, education, policy, and more. 

As attacks against queer and trans communities continue to escalate, funders must step up their investments to BIPOC LGBTQ leadership, delivering long-term, stable, and flexible funding that sustains and strengthens the work of our next generation’s leaders. 

While this year marks the Fund’s final round of grantmaking as a standalone entity, this critical work will continue through Borealis Philanthropy’s Race, Gender, and Disability Justice thematic area— where the insights gained over the past decade will continue to inform our collective strategies and visions. 

As we carry forward this deeply vital work—through intersecting and escalating crises—we invite funders to join the Borealis community to pool and distribute resources to the frontlines of all intersectional movements for justice. To learn more about how to partner with us, please connect with us at development@borealisphilanthropy.org.