FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

June 25, 2024

Global Philanthropy Project

Contact: Ezra Nepon, [email protected] 

Funders for LGBTQ Issues

Contact: April Bethea, [email protected] 

Today, June 25, 2025, Global Philanthropy Project (GPP) has released the 2021–2022 Global Resources Report: Government & Philanthropic Support for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex Communities (2024).

Yesterday, June 24, 2024, Funders for LGBTQ Issues released the 2022 Resource Tracking Report: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Grantmaking by U.S. Foundations (2024).

While both of these reports include the latest funding data related to funding for LGBTQI communities and causes, GPP’s Global Resource Report has tracked global funding by philanthropic, government, and multilateral donors over the past ten years, and Funders for LGBTQ Issues’ Resource Tracking Report has tracked domestic philanthropic support from U.S.-based foundations for more than twenty years.

GPP and Funders for LGBTQ Issues collaborate closely throughout the development of both these report series as primary data partners.

The findings presented in both of this year’s reports offer a comprehensive overview of the funding landscape for LGBTQI issues around the world. Both organizations invite donors to consider the gaps in financial support for specific LGBTQI communities and causes to support strategic funding decisions, particularly in light of the escalating stigma, discrimination, and violence facing our communities worldwide.

An overview of key findings from each report can be found below:

2022 Resource Tracking Report 

This 20th iteration of Funders for LGBTQ Issues’ annual Resource Tracking Report tracks philanthropic support for domestic lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities and causes by U.S.-based foundations in 2022. Data from 6,110 LGBTQ-focused grants from 903 foundations were analyzed to produce this report.

Consistent with prior iterations of this report, the 2022 Resource Tracking Report presents a detailed overview of funds awarded in 2022 according to: top grantmakers, top grant recipients, LGBTQ focus populations, geographic distinction, type of support, as well as funding strategy and issue area. This report not only provides a snapshot of funding for queer communities and issues across the country, it also reveals funding gaps and highlights opportunities for US-based foundations to make strategic funding decisions within the current philanthropic and political landscape.

The full report is available at http://lgbtfunders.org/research-item/2022-tracking-report/.

Key findings:

• A total of $258.1 million was awarded by U.S.-based foundations to support LGBTQ communities and causes in 2022. However, this total does not tell the full story, as there was a real-dollar decrease in total funding due to the impact of inflation, which effectively washed out the nominal increase of less than 3% in funding from 2021 to 2022. To help put these numbers in context, only 25 cents specifically supported LGBTQ communities and issues for every $100 awarded by U.S. foundations in 2022.
• Similar to prior years, the trend of “top-heaviness” of foundation support—where a relatively small number of foundation sources provide a disproportionately large percentage of the funding for LGBTQ communities and causes—continued into grantmaking from U.S.-based foundations in 2022.

• Funding for transgender, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary (TGNCNBi) increased by 34% in 2022. This was a record high in funding for this LGBTQ population, though this represents only 4.6 cents specifically supporting TGNCNBi communities and issues for every $100 awarded by U.S. foundations in 2022.

• For the first time, the majority of funding from US foundations for domestic LGBTQ communites and issues came in the form of general operating support – for a total of $130.8 million – or 51% of funds awarded in 2022. General operating support is vital to ensuring that LGBTQ organizations can operate sustainably for the long term.
• Funding to Black LGBTQ communities doubled from 7 percent in 2021 to 14 percent in 2022, though total overall funding for LGBTQ communities of color decreased from 43 percent in 2021 to 38 percent in 2022.
• Funding for LGBTQ communities and causes in the Southeast decreased by 12% in 2022, which is particularly concerning given that funding for this region has never been commensurate with the needs of the population as more LGBTQ people live in the Southeast region than any other and right-wing attacks targeting LGBTQ community members in this region continue to escalate.

Alexander L. Lee, Funders for LGBTQ Issues’ Deputy Director said: “Given the escalating hostility and violence faced by LGBTQ communties from right-wing forces at work across the United States, the effective decrease in funding revealed by our research should ring alarm bells for anyone concerned about social justice, human rights, and the integrity of democratic norms and institutions. We urge all progressive funders, especially those who have not yet made substantial investments in LGBTQ communities and causes, to join us in this fight.”

The 2022 Resource Tracking Report: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Grantmaking by U.S. Foundations is now available for download at http://lgbtfunders.org/research-item/2022-tracking-report/.

2021-2022 Global Resources Report

This is the most comprehensive report to date on the state of global funding for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) issues. This biennial report documents data on over 20,000 grants awarded by nearly 1,300 foundations, intermediary NGOs, and corporations and by 16 donor governments and multilateral agencies to over 8,000 grantees during the two-year period of 2021–2022, and draws on ten years of funding history to document the change over time.

The report provides detailed data on the distribution of LGBTI funding by geography, issue, strategy, population focus, and donor type, offering a tool for identifying trends, gaps, and opportunities in the rapidly changing landscape of LGBTI funding.

The full report is available at globalresourcesreport.org

Key findings:

• • The new report documents a total of $905 million awarded across 2021-2022, showing that global LGBTI funding grew by 57%, or over $329 million (USD) compared to the previous report.
  • Over 8,000 grantees around the world received financial support in 2021 and 2022, a 35% increase.
  • While LGBTI funding has increased over time, it maintains a scarce percentage of overall global funding. LGBTI global funding represented less than 39 cents of every $100 in overall foundation funding, and less than 4 cents of every $100 in government international development assistance.
  • Funding to anti-LGBTI groups is also vastly larger than funding to the global LGBTI movement. For example, just three anti-LGBTI organizations – Alliance Defending Freedom, Focus on the Family, and the Christian Broadcast Network – reported a combined income of over $1 billion in 2021 and 2022, greater than all 8,000 grantees for global LGBTI human rights.
  • Funding focused on the United States made up more than half (57%) of the global total in 2021-2022. Global Philanthropy Project was established in 2009 to advocate for increased funding to the Global South and East, in recognition of this ongoing global funding inequity, and continues to mobilize grantmakers to address these funding gaps.

• While funding for LGBTI issues has generally increased worldwide, the rate of increase has been higher in democratic than in autocratic countries. Analyzing the amount of country-focused funding on a per capita basis, democratic countries on average received more than double the amount of reported funding than autocratic countries. 

• LGBTI individuals around the world face restricted human rights and escalating attacks including physical violence against individuals and gathering spaces, forced displacement, and murder. The funding documented in this report is responsive to these conditions, showing major increases in grants focused on emergency-response and humanitarian aid funding, and funds for LGBTI survivors of violence and LGBTI immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. 
• The top 20 funders accounted for half of all LGBTI global funding. Advocates celebrate the top funders while urging the need to further increase and diversify sources of support for LGBTI communities.

“This report is both inspiring and sobering,” said GPP Executive Director Matthew Hart, “it is a clarion call to action for philanthropists, government leaders, and international development actors to commit new financial resources at levels that meet this pivotal time for LGBTI human rights. GPP is committed to working with donors to bridge the gaps, address the disparities, and ensure that resources are directed where they are needed most.” 

The 2021–2022 Global Resources Report: Government & Philanthropic Support for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex Communities is now available for download at globalresourcesreport.org

Global Philanthropy Project (GPP) is a collaboration of funders and philanthropic advisors working to expand global philanthropic support to advance the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people in the Global South and East. https://globalphilanthropyproject.org/   

Funders for LGBTQ Issues is a network of more than 100 foundations, corporations, and funding institutions that collectively award more than $1 billion annually, including approximately $200 million specifically devoted to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities and issues. https://lgbtfunders.org/