Overview of 2024 Data
In 2024, U.S.-based foundations awarded $178,199,489 to support domestic LGBTQ communities and issues.
These funds were awarded by 445 foundations through 5,043 grants to 2,408 grantees in 2024.
For more than 20 years, Funders for LGBTQ Issues has compiled grant data to track philanthropic support for LGBTQ communities and issues in the United States.1 To develop the latest Resource Tracking Report, grantmakers submitted data for LGBTQ grants awarded in 2024, and the Research Team supplemented this information with data obtained from IRS Form 990s to identify additional LGBTQ grants from that year.2
This site summarizes key findings from the 2024 Resource Tracking Report: LGBTQ Grantmaking by U.S. Foundations. We invite you to explore the interactive graphics below and then read the full 2024 report to dig deeper into the latest data related to philanthropic support for LGBTQ communities and issues across the United States.
Funder Landscape
For many years, LGBTQ grantmaking has largely been driven by a small group of leading funders, which is both a testament to their commitment to our communities as well as a vulnerability for the sector overall because any changes in strategic priorities, leadership, or staffing at one or more of these top foundations can have significant ripple effects across the sector.
In 2024, the top ten funders awarded 53%, and the top 20 funders awarded 69% of the total LGBTQ philanthropic funding awarded in that year. The remaining 425 funders for which we have data awarded only 31% of the total funding in 2024.
It is important to consider that U.S. foundations awarded less LGBTQ grant funding in 2024 when comparing funding amounts across years. As a result, the LGBTQ philanthropic landscape was more top-heavy in 2024 than the previous year; the top 20 funders awarded 69% of total funding in 2024, and 61% of total funding awarded in 2023. However, the top 20 funders in 2024 awarded over $7 million dollars less than the top 20 funders in 2023 ($145 million in 2023 compared to $137.7 million in 2024), so it is vital to consider total funding awarded as well as the percentage of total funding when reviewing these analyses.
Click the visualization below to explore the decrease in grantmaking from the top funders of LGBTQ communities and issues in 2022, 2023, and 2024.3
Impact of 2025 Federal Funding Cuts
In the early days of the second Trump Administration, the federal government instituted widespread funding freezes and dismantled entire agencies, which ultimately led to unprecedented and devastating funding cuts across a variety of programs, initiatives, and departments, both domestic and global.4
Given that the LGBTQ grant data for this report were collected in Fall 2025, we collaborated with our research partners at the Global Philanthropy Project to ask foundations about the anticipated impact of these federal funding cuts on their funding sources, LGBTQ funding portfolios, and funding priorities. A total of 50 U.S.-based foundations responded to these survey questions in Fall 2025.
Funders for LGBTQ Issues then circulated the same survey in Spring 2026 among foundations that had directly submitted their 2024 LGBTQ data to gauge whether the federal funding cuts had impacted these foundations any differently in the early months of 2026. The data from this survey, collected at both time points, are presented in the graphs below.
Multi-Year Grantmaking
The average duration of LGBTQ grants awarded in 2024 was 1.2 years. This was consistent with the average LGBTQ grant length of 1.2 years in 2022 and 1.1 years in 2023.
Over half of the grants awarded in 2024 (51%) were intended to support 12 months of activities, while less than 8% lasted 13 months or longer. In 2024, 35 foundations awarded at least one grant that was longer than 12 months, while only five foundations awarded all multi-year grants that year. The average length of multi-year grants awarded in 2024 was 2.6 years, and the longest multi-year grant that was awarded that year was for 6 years of general operating support for a feminist base-building organization.
Based on the available data, foundations continued to underutilize multi-year grantmaking across the sector in 2024, a trend that limits the ability of grantees to plan programs and initiatives beyond these limited horizons. While many intermediary organizations would like to implement multi-year giving, institutional philanthropy has not increased funding to intermediaries in such a manner to carry out this best practice.
Populations Supported
Which populations are served by this funding?
The Resource Tracking Report characterizes grants that support specific populations within the broader LGBTQ community to identify gaps in funding and highlight opportunities for foundations to make more strategic grantmaking decisions.
Hover over the different colored circles in the graphic below to reveal the total funding for each LGBTQ population in 2024. Each circle represents $1 million.
Consistent with a trend documented since 2021, the majority of LGBTQ grant dollars awarded in 2024 (77%) were awarded for the LGBTQ community generally. Transgender, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary (TGNCNBi) communities and issues received 19% of total funding that year ($33.3 million). Very little funding was allocated to any other specific LGBTQ populations in 2024, including intersex, two-spirit, and bisexual people; no LGBTQ grants were dedicated to asexual people.
Similar to recent years, philanthropic support for LGBTQ communities of color was not generally focused on one racial or ethnic group in 2024. A total of $68.3 million worth of LGBTQ grants specifically focused on serving LGBTQ communities of color and over half of those funds ($36.9 million) did not specify a particular racial or ethnic group. Funding for LGBTQ communities of color generally decreased by 12% from 2023 to 2024.
Change Over Time
How has funding for LGBTQ communities and issues changed over time?
Foundations based in the U.S. awarded a total of $178.2 million in LGBTQ grants in calendar year 2024. This was a decrease of $31.2 million, or 15%, from the $209.4 million in LGBTQ grants that were awarded the previous year. When adjusted for inflation, LGBTQ grant funding fell by 17% from 2023 to 2024.
The decrease in LGBTQ grant funding documented in 2024 continued a downward funding trend that has been documented since foundations awarded an all-time high of $258.1 million in LGBTQ grants in 2022.
The decrease in LGBTQ grant funding documented in 2024 continued a downward funding trend that has been documented since foundations awarded an all-time high of $258.1 million in LGBTQ grants in 2022. The effects of the steady drop in overall LGBTQ funding since then can be seen in almost every area of LGBTQ philanthropy, as presented in the Data Explorer and the full 2024 report. The primary takeaway from this analysis is that overall LGBTQ funding did not increase substantially enough to respond to growing anti-LGBTQ, anti-rights, and anti-democracy movements at the time these grants were awarded.
LGBTQ grant funding specifically for transgender, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary (TGNCNBi) communities decreased by 9% from $36.4 million in 2023 to $33.3 million in 2024. This continues the downward trend in funding for these communities following the all-time high of $48.2 million in 2022.
This funding trend for TGNCNBi communities is especially concerning given that trans people of all ages, their families, and the health care providers that support them have been directly targeted at every level of social life–from public school boards to the Trump-Vance Presidential Campaign in 2024.
A total of $68.3 million worth of LGBTQ grants specifically focused on serving LGBTQ communities of color and over half of those funds ($36.9 million) did not specify a particular racial or ethnic group. Funding for LGBTQ communities of color generally decreased by 12% from 2023 to 2024.
LGBTQ grants specifically serving Black communities totaled just under $19 million in 2024, which was an 8% decrease from the prior year. This finding continued the downward trend of funding for Black LGBTQ communities and issues from the all-time high of $35 million in 2022 in response to the watershed funding racial justice movements were awarded after the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.
Funding for all other LGBTQ Communities of color, including Latinx, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI), Indigenous, and Middle Eastern communities also decreased from 2023 to 2024, which is especially concerning for AAPI, Indigenous, and Middle Eastern LGBTQ communities which were each awarded 1% or less of the total LGBTQ funding awarded that year.
Click the legend on the graph below to customize which racial and ethnic groups are visible.
Anti-Trans Legislation
A record-breaking 701 anti-trans bills were introduced at the national and state levels over the course of 2024 as funding awarded for TGNCNBi communities and causes continued to decrease from prior years.5 The bills sought to deprive transgender people of their rights in a wide range of public life, such as: employment, marriage, adoption, incarceration, student athletics, and the military, with over half of them focused on education and healthcare. A total of 88 anti-trans bills were introduced at the national level while the remaining 613 bills were introduced in 44 states and 51 of them passed in 2024. The most anti-trans bills were considered in Oklahoma (60 bills), Missouri (47 bills), and Iowa (39 bills).
Transgender Population Estimates, Anti-Trans Bills, and TGNCNBi Funding at the State Level
The graph below compares the amount of TGNCNBi-specific grant funding awarded by state with both transgender population estimates by state and the number of anti-trans bills introduced at the state level in 2024.6 Based on this analysis, it is clear that many more anti-trans bills were introduced in states where very little, if any, TGNCNBi funding was awarded in 2024.
Moving forward, more grant funding specifically for TGNCNBi communities across all states and territories is vital to ensure that grantees can run programs to meet the needs of their communities, as well as push back against anti-trans bills and ballot measures.
Geographic Focus
Where does this funding go?
The Resource Tracking Report identifies grants that were awarded to support LGBTQ communities and issues at the local, state, regional, and national levels. This analysis highlights geographic locations that may lack targeted funding.
Local, State, and Regional LGBTQ Funding, by U.S. Region
When disaggregated by geographic level in 2024, LGBTQ grantmaking decreased across all levels–local, state, regional, and national–compared to 2023. For a complete analysis of LGBTQ funding by geographic level, check out the full 2024 Report.
The Southeast region continued to be awarded the highest amount of funding in 2024, building on the 27% increase that was documented from 2022 to 2023. A total of $38.9 million was awarded through LGBTQ grants focused on this region, comprising 22% of total funding awarded in 2024. This was an 8% increase from the 2023 funding level of $36.1 million.
LGBTQ grant funding for the Pacific region also increased slightly from $28.1 million in 2023 to $28.3 million in 2024, but funding for the Midwest, Northeast, and Mountain regions decreased considerably by 20%, 41%, and 42%, respectively. Consistent with prior reporting, few LGBTQ grants were awarded for activities in the U.S. territories. Only Puerto Rico and American Samoa were awarded dedicated LGBTQ grants, while $0 were awarded to support LGBTQ communities and issues in Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Local and State LGBTQ Funding, by U.S. State
Use the buttons below to explore maps of total LGBTQ funding by state, as well as funding specifically for TGNCNBi communities and issues by state.
All LGBTQ Funding by State
Consistent with 2023 LGBTQ grant data, no other state besides California received more than $10 million in LGBTQ state and local funding in 2024. LGBTQ grant funding to support activities in California had decreased by 43% from $30.6 million in 2022 to $17.6 million 2023, but increased by 21% to $21.2 million in 2024. Funding to support LGBTQ-related activities in New York decreased slightly from 2023 to 2024, but funding for other safe havens like the District of Columbia decreased by almost half during the same period.
TGNCNBi Funding by State
Similar to 2023 LGBTQ grantmaking data, philanthropic support for TGNCNBi communities and issues varied widely across U.S. states and territories in 2024. The most funding for TGNCNBi communities was awarded to grantees whose work focused in California ($3.2 million), New York ($1.8 million), Florida ($1.1 million), and Texas ($1.1 million). No dedicated grants were awarded for TGNCNBi communities in the following states in 2024: Iowa, Kansas, New Hampshire, North and South Dakota, and West Virginia. Long-term investment in movement infrastructure that can meet the needs of trans communities in each state is vital, but was not adequately funded in 2024 given the wide variety in state-specific TGNCNBi funding across the country.
Grant Details
What types of grants does this funding support?
The Resource Tracking Report provides more information about the type of support, as well as the issues and strategies that LGBTQ grants supported in a given year. The graphics below represent the breakdown of 2024 funding by type of support and issue, as well as funding specifically allocated to address the impact of COVID-19 on LGBTQ communities nationwide.
Type of Support
The majority of LGBTQ grant dollars awarded in 2024 (54%) provided program support and 44% provided general operating support. The 2024 data indicate a widening gap between program and general operating support, returning to pre-2022 levels. U.S.-based foundations awarded one fifth fewer dollars for general operating support in 2024 than in the prior year.
General operating support is vital to LGBTQ movement organizations, providing flexibility to respond to community needs and strengthen their organizational capacity, while maintaining ongoing programmatic work.7
Issues Addressed
Across almost all issue areas, LGBTQ grant funding decreased in 2024. Unlike 2023 funding levels, more LGBTQ grant funding was awarded to support health and wellbeing activities than civil and human rights activities in 2024, though overall funding for both issues decreased during this time period.
Funding for LGBTQ civil and human rights activities decreased by 32% from $63.3 million in 2023 to $43.2 million in 2024. Funding dedicated towards the health and wellbeing of LGBTQ communities decreased by 19%–from $61.7 million in 2023 to less than $50 million in 2024. The decline in funding for both issues is troubling given the increase in anti-LGBTQ legislation from 2023 to 2024–many of which targeted the specific health needs of LGBTQ people.8
Please reference the working definitions Funders for LGBTQ Issues uses to categorize grants that support particular issues as part of the Resource Tracking Methodology.
Conclusion
Philanthropic support for LGBTQ communities and issues is absolutely critical to supporting a diverse, intersectional, and robust field of queer advocates, movement organizations, and intermediary funders. It is the hope of Funders for LGBTQ Issues that the latest resource tracking data can enable institutions to design and implement grantmaking strategies that more effectively support LGBTQ and allied movements given the harsh realities and unique needs of our communities across the country. To put LGBTQ grantmaking in context, the $178.2 million in funding for LGBTQ communities and issues in 2024 was a tiny fraction of all $109.81 billion that U.S. foundations awarded that year.
For every $100 awarded by U.S. foundations in 2024, only 16 cents specifically supported LGBTQ communities and issues in the United States. This was a decrease from 20 cents for every $100 awarded in 2023.
For every $100 awarded by U.S. foundations in 2024, only 3 cents supported TGNCNBi communities, which was a decrease from 3.5 cents per $100 awarded in 2023.9 To put this in perspective, total funding awarded by U.S. foundations in 2024 roughly equates to $364 per person in the entire country, but the $33.3 million in dedicated funding for TGNCNBi communities equates to just $12 for each trans person in 2024. By this measure, foundation funding per trans person is only 3% of foundation funding per cisgender person.
The 22nd edition of the annual Resource Tracking Report documents the latest trends in LGBTQ philanthropy, and contextualizes the shifts in the funding landscape in light of key political, economic, cultural, and environmental events occurring during calendar year 2024 when these LGBTQ grants were awarded. For more than two decades, these reports have analyzed the latest LGBTQ grant data to identify gaps in funding and present clear and actionable recommendations for U.S. foundations.
Recommendations
For Grantmakers:
- Use the latest resource tracking data to organize within your institutions and make strategic funding decisions to diversify funding sources for grantees, maximize the impact and efficacy of every grant dollar, and help stabilize support for LGBTQ communities and issues in the long term.
- Get resources as close to the ground as possible, including through grantees that are trans- and BIPOC-led. If you would like suggestions of community foundations and other intermediary entities that fund grantees working at this intersection, please contact us at Funders for LGBTQ Issues.
- Support LGBTQ communities that are not funded at a level that is in line with their lived realities, including lesbians and queer women, as well as intersex, two-spirit, bisexual, and asexual people; people of color who identify as AAPI, Indigenous, or Middle Eastern; those that live in the U.S. territories; queer immigrants and refugees; and sex workers.
- Increase multi-year giving to decrease grantees’ overhead expenses and demand on their staff capacity, thereby more effectively supporting grantees to achieve the long-term social change they seek to make.
- Increase flexible, general operating support and multi-year giving to decrease grantees’ overhead expenses and demand on their staff capacity, thereby more effectively supporting grantees to achieve the long-term social change they seek to make.
- Fund state-based campaigns to restore or protect federal funding for programs and services that support LGBTQ communities, especially in the U.S. South.
- Submit your LGBTQ grantmaking data directly to Funders for LGBTQ Issues to ensure that your foundation’s work is reflected in future Resource Tracking Reports. Please see how we use and protect your data here.
- Join Funders United for Democracy and Trans Justice (DTJ), an initiative that builds new learning spaces for philanthropic organizers to learn about the systemic threats facing trans communities and strategize to mobilize resources accordingly.
- Sign onto the Grantmakers United for Trans Communities (GUTC) Pledge to publicly express your foundation’s support for and solidarity with trans communities and identify action steps to build a more trans inclusive workplace.
- For Grantmakers in the U.S. Southeast or with a regional commitment to the South: Learn more about how to more effectively serve LGBTQ communities in the region with support from the Out in the South Program.
For LGBTQ Movement Organizations:
- Use the latest resource tracking data to inform your organization’s programs and fundraising strategies.
- Refer to relevant reports for support in navigating the LGBTQ philanthropic landscape.10
- Contact us at [email protected] if you have any questions about the data or want to discuss ideas for how to use this information to support your work.
For Individuals:
- Share these key findings with your networks, particularly those who may not be familiar with LGBTQ issues or social justice more broadly.
- Connect with Funders for LGBTQ Issues (@lgbtfunders) on social media to stay informed about the latest updates in LGBTQ philanthropy.
Read More
References
- To access past Resource Tracking Reports and other research publications, please visit our website: https://lgbtfunders.org/published-research/.
- For more information about the methodology used to develop Resource Tracking Reports, please reference the Methodology section starting on page 46 of the 2024 Resource Tracking Report.
- This graph includes funds awarded for the purpose of regranting in order to account for the total funding that each U.S. foundation awarded for LGBTQ communities and issues in 2024. This is the only figure on this page that includes funds awarded for regranting. Regranting is “the act of acquiring a large grant and using the funds from that grant to create, manage, and finance smaller grants in turn.” For more information, please see: Aswell, S. (2021, March 16). The Complete Guide to Regranting. Submittable Blog. https://blog.submittable.com/regranting/
- White House. (2025, January 20). Establishing and Implementing the President’s “Departent of Government Efficiency.” https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/establishing-and-implementing-the-presidents-department-of-government-efficiency/
- Trans Legislation Tracker (n.d.). 2024 anti-trans bills tracker. https://translegislation.com/bills/2024
- Funders for LGBTQ Issues reviewed multiple anti-LGBTQ bill trackers to develop this analysis. While we recognize the ACLU Anti-LGBTQ Bill Mapping Project recorded a total of 533 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced at the state level in 2024, we decided to use data from the Trans Legislation Tracker for this analysis because of the latter’s specific focus on tracking anti-trans bills at the national and state level. The Trans Legislation Tracker recorded 701 anti-trans bills that were introduced in 2024 (of which 88 were national bills). The goal of the analysis herein is to highlight the relationship between state-level trans populations, dedicated philanthropic funding for TGNCNBi communities, and anti-trans bills, so opted to include Trans Legislation Tracker data rather than ACLU data that does not differentiate between bills that specifically target trans communities compared to the LGBTQ communities generally. For more information, please see: Trans Legislation Tracker (n.d.). 2024 anti-trans bills tracker. https://translegislation.com/bills/2024
- Dale, E.J. (2026). Funding LGBTQ+ projects: Navigating the U.S. philanthropic landscape. Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University. https://www.arcusfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Funding-LGBTQ-Projects-Navigating-the-U.S.-Philanthropic-Landscape.pdf
- American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). (2024, December 6). Mapping Attacks on LGBTQ Rights in U.S. State Legislatures in 2024. https://www.aclu.org/legislative-attacks-on-lgbtq-rights-2024
- Giving USA. (2024, June 25). U.S. charitable giving totaled $557.16 billion in 2023. https://givingusa.org/giving-usa-u-s-charitable-giving-totaled-557-16-billion-in-2023
- Funding LGBTQ+ Projects: Navigating the U.S. Philanthropic Landscape, Dale, E., Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University, 2026.
Credits
The first iteration of the 2023 Resource Tracking Data Explorer was designed by Laura Laderman of Laura Laderman Consulting, LLC in 2024 in partnership with the following staff at Funders for LGBTQ Issues: Hala Hassan, Alyssa Lawther, and Sammy Luffy. This resource was updated in 2025 and 2026 by the following Funders for LGBTQ Issues staff: Hala, Alyssa Lawther, and Sammy Luffy.