Benevolence Campaign

2022 Recipients: 

• 3Arts Chicago, (Un)Imagined Lives– Derrick Woods-Morrow is developing a new film that centers on queer, Black folx displaced by colonization and linked by speculative imaginings of joy and sexual freedom. It seeks to redefine the cultural contributions of Black folx, our relationship to land, water, and voyage—the nebulous space connecting us to various continents in the wake of slavery.
• Better Brothers Los Angeles– an organization that educates, inspires and connects the Black LGBTQ+community in Southern California and across the country. Their mission is to develop a stronger sense of community and overcome cultural and religious challenges to our orientation.
• Black Star Project– uses educational and economic empowerment programs, workshops, and events to empower Black and Latinx youth communities, including LGBTQ+ youth. 
• BTAC– is the only social justice organization led by Black trans people to collectively address the inequities faced in the Black transgender human experience. 
• Cherry Fund– has a goal of stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS through prevention, treatment, and education, and provides mental health services to groups who work with LGBT youth and their allies.
• Chicago Youth Centers– envisions a Chicago where LGBTQ+ children have the resources, experiences, and mentors they need to pursue lives of endless possibility. 
• Destination Tomorrow– believes it is helpful to empower the most vulnerable TLGBQ+ community members to take them off the path of needing emergency care. 
• Diverse and Resilient– improves the safety and well-being of LGBTQ+ people and communities in Wisconsin. 
• Empowerment Transgender Services Inc (ETSI)– enhances the lives of trans individuals by providing support, training, and education. 
• FORGE– reduces the impact of trauma on trans and non-binary survivors and communities by empowering service providers, advocating for systems reform, and connecting survivors to healing possibilities. 
• The Future Foundation– supports traumatized LGBTQ+ youth who choose to create a future worth fighting for; instead of fighting one another.  
• NMAC– normalizes discussion about race within the HIV movement, bends the curve of new HIV diagnoses, and retains people of color living with HIV in care. 
• Oasis 35 Queer Youth Center– is the only drop-in support center providing a safe, affirming space for LGBTQ youth.
• Pridelines– supports, educates, and empowers South Florida’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth.
• POWERS– supports doctors, midwives, doulas, educators, and activists committed to strengthening our communities and world through trust in pregnant people, including LGBTQ+ pregnant people.
• SMYAL– supports and empowers LGBTQ+ youth in the Washington, DC, metropolitan region. 
• Stand With Trans– empowers and supports trans youth and their loved ones. 
• True Colors United– implements innovative solutions to youth homelessness that focuses on the unique experiences of LGBTQ+ young people. 
• Visible T 365– is committed to empowering the trans community through visibility and opportunity.
• Zebra Coalition– provides high-quality, culturally appropriate programs designed to meet the unique needs of homeless and at-risk LGBTQ+ youth.

Renewed Recipients: 

• Abolitionist Teaching Network– develops and supports those in the struggle for educational liberation by utilizing Abolitionists’ intellectual work and direct action in many forms, including to support LGBTQ+ youth.
• The Attic Youth Center– creates opportunities for LGBTQ+ youth to develop into healthy, independent, civic-minded adults within a safe and supportive community and promotes the acceptance of LGBTQ+ youth in society. 
• GSAFE– creates safe and inclusive schools for LGBTQ+ youth in Wisconsin through leadership development, Gay-Straight Alliances, training educators, advancing educational justice, and deepening racial, social, and LGBTQ+ justice.
• House of Tulip– raises funds to buy and restore a multi-family property in an area of New Orleans that’s accessible to health care and employment opportunities.
• Jasmyn– supports and empowers LGBTQ+ youth by creating a safe space, providing health and wholeness services, and offering youth development opportunities, all while bringing people & resources together to promote equality and human rights. 
• Mijente– is a political home for Latinx and Chicanx people seeking racial, economic, gender, and climate justice that helps people through campaigns, connects people across a vast network and serves as a hub for culture, learning, and advocacy. 
• Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network– is a healing justice organization committed to transforming mental health for queer and trans people of color. The network envisions a world where all people have access to healing resources rooted in social justice and liberation to recover from trauma, violence, and systemic oppression. 
• Ruth Ellis Center– provides trauma-informed services for LGBTQ+ youth and young adults experiencing homelessness, involved in the child welfare system, or experiencing barriers to health and mental health issues. 
• SNaP Co (Solutions Not Punishment Coalition)- is a Black trans and queer-led organization that builds safety within their community, invests in their collective embodied leadership, and builds political power. 
• TransCenter for Youth– operates in small high schools serving the needs of trans youth by offering culturally appropriate school services and creating inclusive teaching/learning methods that serve as education models for other schools.
• TransTech– is an incubator for LGBTQ+ Talent focused on economically empowering transgender people. 
• Wordplay Cincy– creates spaces for young people, including LGBTQ+ young people, to fulfill their potential by discovering, honoring, and sharing their voices. 
• Youth Oasis– supports youth and young adults recovering from the trauma of homelessness and family separation through housing, healthcare, and advocacy.
• YWCA Madison– is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all, including LGBTQ+ youth.

Renewed HBCU LGBTQ+ Student Group Recipients: 

• Howard University Cascade– celebrates, uplifts, and advocates for all LGBTQ+ students on the Howard campus. Cascade is one of the oldest LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations on an HBCU campus and works to set the tone on a national level for how Black queer people should be treated. 
• Spelman Afrekete– offers safe, creative, and liberating spaces forLGBTQIA+ students and their allies. Provides programming that creates spaces for queer students to build community, engage in critical dialogues, and network with outside organizations that are committed to the same mission of a world free of oppression and injustice.
• University of the District of Columbia’s The Alliance Group (TAG)– transforms the culture, perceptions, and experiences of LGBTQ+ students at UCD. 
• Wilberforce University Division of Student Engagement and Success– offers students dynamic opportunities to engage in activities, programs, services, and learning while at school, which helps enhance students’ discovery of their purpose, strengthens their skills, and inspires success at school and beyond. 
• Wiley College– recognizes the hardships Black LGBTQ+/SGL students endure due to family rejection and prejudice and seeks to provide a welcoming and inclusive campus community.

If you know of an organization or student group led by and supporting Black LGBTQ+/SGL students, youth, and young adults, please nominate them for a Benevolence Grant by clicking this LINK.