Beyond Rainbow Washing
Wednesday, June 28, 2023
Ezra Nepon
Senior Program Officer
for Knowledge and Learning
Global Philanthropy Project
Jerry Koh
Impact Lead
New Power Labs
Ezra Nepon from Global Philanthropy Project joined Jerry Koh from New Power Labs in a New Power Talks discussion on funding to 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, looking at the challenges and opportunities that move us towards consistent, sustainable impact.
In 2019-2020, for every $100 of worldwide foundation funding, only 35 cents went to global 2SLGBTQIA+ causes.
Globally, 2SLGBTQIA+ communities are deeply underfunded. Over half of global 2SLGBTQIA+ funding is distributed within the US, and the remainder is distributed unequally across demographic populations, issue areas, and strategies for support. Ezra Nepon drew on their rich experience organizing philanthropic and government financial support for global 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, highlighting four big ideas:
1. Challenges exist across the globe. Increased equity for 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, even in the Global North, is a misconception.
In the Global South and East, 2SLGBTQIA+ funders are experiencing “closing space,” or increasingly restrictive environments where 2SLGBTQIA+ people are criminalized or at risk of state violence. There are severe risks based on the visibility of grantees and grantmakers, including data security risks, which create logistical challenges to fund groups dealing with forced migration or other emergency circumstances.
Language is another barrier. The majority of grantmakers supporting 2SLGBTQIA+ communities are working in English which can exclude potential grantees from being able to engage at all.
Similar concerns are present in the Global North, too. Trans communities are under a specific form of attack in many countries, and queer immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers face barriers to receiving support. Funding specific to intersex communities is relatively minuscule worldwide, while being among the most powerful and strategic movements within the 2SLGBTQIA+ umbrella. Queer sex workers are still criminalized across the Global North.
2. Intermediary funders can get funding to grassroots organizations.
Regional intermediary funders are the key to reaching grassroots organizations, especially those experiencing barriers to applying for funding in a traditional way. GPP sees a positive trend in the increasing support for regional intermediary funders including some of their members: UHAI, ISDAO and The Other Foundation, based in and funding East Africa, West Africa, and Southern Africa, respectively. These grantmakers use participatory funding models, where local activists bring their expertise to advise on grantmaking.
Intermediary funders also focus on specific populations within the 2SLGBTQIA+ community as, for example, the International Trans Fund and Astraea’s Intersex Human Rights Fund. Sub-populations within the “acronym umbrella” can get lost in general 2SLGBTQIA+ funding programs, and these targeted funds help ensure the inclusion of specific populations.
In Canada, funders can leverage networks such as the Enchanté Network and Dignity Network to reach 2SLGBTQIA+ organizations, and the SOGI Funders Group to support trans and gender-diverse communities in Canada (if you are interested, please reach out to Narinder Dhami).
3. The government plays an essential role in mobilizing resources to 2SLGBTQIA+ communities.
GPP’s research found that from 2019 to 2020, global LGBTI funding from donor governments accounted for 0.04% of funding for international development assistance. Yet, donor governments can mobilize enormous resources through development mechanisms, multilateral agencies, and more. It’s crucial that governments are hearing from the 2SLGBTQIA+ and broader human rights movements in their own countries to demand support not only in-country but also through international development. Canada’s government has made big commitments to both of these funding streams, and local activists continue to make the case for increases in those commitments.
4. We can, and must learn from the anti-gender movement.
GPP’s Meet the Moment report revealed that between 2013-2017, the anti-gender movement received more than triple the 2SLGBTQIA+ funding ($3.7B compared to $1.2B). Part of anti-gender organizations’ successes in collecting this funding is attributed to having sophisticated and coordinated systems to learn, co-fund, and expand their influence. They have also prioritized long-term investments in leadership development, institution-building, and the often quiet but super-effective work of a group like the Federalist Society, which funnels conservative extremist judges into the US legal system.
GPP’s recommendations to funders:
A coordinated, strategic response is needed across geographies and issue areas. GPP used the metaphor of “shimmering,” when hundreds of bees move in coordination to be perceived as one larger organism that can repel predatory hornets. Work within your network and enlist allies.
Support the broader vision of transformation alongside the urgent action needed to push back when acute attacks emerge. The local and the global are connected, and both must be resourced.
The opposition has been playing the long game, and we can learn from their lead. In practice, that means providing flexible, large-scale and long-term funding to enable grantees to activate as opportunities and threats emerge.
The issue is not a lack of money in philanthropy – it’s a question of priorities. GPP’s work is to demonstrate that 2SLGBTQIA+ communities are at the frontlines of those being attacked worldwide and that their work has a crucial role in the pushback. Grassroots organizations and larger organizations like GPP can do a lot with a little but need to be resourced to meet the moment.
