Tracking Report

The 2017–2018 Global Resources Report builds on two previous editions, which focused on grantmaking in the calendar years 2013–2014 and 2015–16. With this third edition, we have now documented comprehensive data through six calendar years of grantmaking, allowing us to conduct a deeper analysis of LGBTI funding trend lines over time. The report documents over 19,764 grants awarded by 800 foundations, NGO intermediary funders, and corporations and by 15 donor government and multilateral agencies over the two-year period of 2017-2018. 

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

The report finds:

• Over the two-year period of 2017 and 2018, global philanthropic funding for LGBTI issues totaled more than $560 million – an increase of $57 million, or 11 percent, since the 2015–2016 reporting period.
• In 2017–2018, global LGBTI foundation funding made up less than 31 cents out of every $100 of overall global foundation funding. For every $100 awarded by government and multilateral agencies, only 4 cents benefited LGBTI communities.
• No region outside of the United States received more than $72 million over the two-year period of 2017–2018.
• 58 percent of the 2017–2018 funding went to the Global North (Canada and the United States; and Western Europe); 31 percent went to the Global South and East (Asia and the Pacific; Latin America and the Caribbean; the Middle East and North Africa; Sub-Saharan Africa). In comparison to the 2015–2016 reporting period, LGBTI funding increased in every sub-region across the Global North and South except for Western Europe.
• 11 percent of global LGBTI funding was awarded for international work that reached across regions; this represented a decrease from 2015–2016.

The Global Resources Report series is produced in partnership with the Global Philanthropy Project.