Global LGBTI Funding Summit – Cape Town, November 2024
2024 Year in Review
Executive Director’s Letter
Matthew Hart
A Call to Action: Meeting the Historic Moment to Defend and Support LGBTI Movements
Dear Colleagues, Friends and Partners:
We are in a time of profound geopolitical challenges and heightened threats to the lives, safety, and needs of LGBTI communities—especially in the Global South and East. Today, there is a demand to reaffirm our commitment to sustain funding and collective action for LGBTI rights and movements.
The stakes may have never been higher, but neither have the opportunities for transformative change.
At the Global Philanthropy Project’s first-ever Global LGBTI Funding Summit in Cape Town, nearly 200 grantmakers committed to work together at a scale that matched the urgency of the moment.
The launch of the Fund Our Futures Campaign at the Summit was a movement milestone in our shared journey: a commitment to mobilize $150 million in new funding for global LGBTI movements, with $100 million already secured from 28 philanthropic institutions and governments.
The challenges are stark: stronger anti-gender movements, rising authoritarianism, and a global funding landscape in flux. Yet, these challenges also create opportunities for bold leadership and innovative resourcing strategies. With drastic cuts to Official Development Assistance (ODA) already announced and more looming, the resilience of LGBTI movements hinges on commitments from philanthropy and courageous government leadership to fill the documented gaps.
We invite you to join the Global Philanthropy Project and:
- Commit to Bold Funding: Join the Fund Our Futures Campaign and help secure the next $50 million in transformative funding.
- Expand and Innovate: Join GPP’s efforts to develop public-private partnerships that accelerate resources for LGBTI communities in regions most at risk of losing funding.
- Strengthen Regional Movements: Leverage GPP’s groundbreaking research insights, including the new Global Resources Report and State of Trans and Intersex Organizing reports, to ensure funding reaches the communities and regions most in need.
- Support Trans and Intersex Inclusion: Participate in trainings like Mobilizing for Trans Futures to align your funding practices with the values of inclusion and justice.
- Engage, Learn, and Debate in Global Conversations: Attend GPP’s donor convenings, including the upcoming ILGA Asia Donor Pre-Conference in Kathmandu, to strategize alongside fellow grantmakers.
History will remember how we have responded in this pivotal moment. It will record whether we stood firm in defending human rights and, through our grantmaking, capacitated LGBTI movements to thrive and win, or whether we faltered in strong headwinds.
This is our opportunity to defend, accelerate, and expand the resources committed to our many LGBTI movements’ struggle for dignity, liberation, and rights.
I invite you to join GPP and our community of grantmakers. Let’s meet this historic moment together.
Onward,
Highlights of the Year
2024 in numbers
100 million USD
New Commitments
133,000+
Viewed GPP website
711
Attended GPP events in person
574
Attended GPP online events
264
Grantmakers reporting global grant funding for 2021-2022
6
New reports
6
Publication languages
Convenings
GPP at…
2024 Dignity Roundtable in Ottawa, Canada
IDAHOT+ Forum
15th AWID International Forum
2024 Equal Rights Coalition Conference
Webinars
Research
LGBTI Pathways Project
2024 saw the first in-person meeting of the Pathways Global Steering Committee, where decisions were made about the project’s regions and global research questions. The Pathways team consulted extensively about the West Asia and North Africa region during the year and worked with the Technical Team and Global Steering Committee to finalize the Global Survey questions. The year closed with recruiting the first region’s Lead Organization and Regional Steering Committee in Latin America and the Caribbean. Learn more.
Advocacy
Engaging Government and Multilateral Funders
In 2024, GPP prioritized a number of donor governments that were identified as key opportunities for increased LGBTI funding. In partnership with national civil society organizations, GPP produced reports to the Canadian and Danish governments to provide recommendations for how each government can increase its support to the global LGBTI movement. These reports were accompanied by briefings and engagement with government representatives. Building on the successful engagement that led to Australia’s announcement of a new strategy and fund for LGBTI issues in its foreign policy at Sydney WorldPride 2023, GPP continued to work in partnership with Equality Australia to encourage the government to increase its commitment to support to the LGBTI movements in Asia and the Pacific.
Engagement with priority donor governments directly led to governments attending the Global LGBTI Funding Summit, and to new funding announcements. Three donor governments (Denmark, Germany, and Norway) have contributed US$7 million to the Fund Our Futures Campaign.
Engaging Philanthropy
In 2024, GPP hired Katrina Anderson as Director of Philanthropic Field Engagement. Katrina will develop a strategy to lead GPP’s engagement with institutional philanthropy to mobilize resources for LGBTI movements in the Global South and East. Building on the momentum from the Fund Our Futures Campaign, in 2025, GPP will deepen its accompaniment to select philanthropic institutions, providing tailored research and analysis to make a case for bolder commitments to LGBTI communities.
Task Forces & More
Responding to Anti-Gender Ideology (RAGI) Task Force
This grantmaker task force is dedicated to strengthening and expanding philanthropic support for a robust, coordinated, and well-informed response to “anti-gender ideology” forces. In 2024, the task force met monthly. Looking ahead to 2025, this task force will focus on providing grantmakers with opportunities to strategize and coordinate to mitigate the harms of geopolitical and funding shifts on LGBTI and inclusive gender justice movements due to anti-gender and anti-rights movements. To express interest in joining the Responding to Anti-Gender Ideology Task Force, as a grantmaker, please fill out this form.
Co-chairs:
Prachi Patankar
Brett Davidson
Medina Haeri
Heather Benjamin
Trans and Intersex Funding Task Force
This task force transitioned to fewer meetings in 2024, prioritizing in-person engagements in broader philanthropic spaces, including HRFN’s Funding Futures Festival, Central American Donor Forum, and the AWID Forum. Looking ahead to 2025, key priorities include ensuring the utilization of the key findings and recommendations from the State of Trans and State of Intersex Organizing reports. Task force meetings will continue to be a space to share updates, strategies, challenges, and opportunities to increase the amount and quality of funding for trans and intersex-led movements. If you are a grantmaker interested in joining the Trans and Intersex Funding Task Force, please fill out this form.
Co-chairs:
Félix Endara
Viviane Simakawa
Regional Cafés
In 2024, GPP hosted four regional cafés that met twice a year per region. The cafés focused on the regions of West Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. These cafés provide informal spaces for regional grantmakers to share lessons, challenges, and trends in each region, discuss resource and research needs, and share information about grantee partners when needed. If you are a grantmaker who wants to join a regional café. Learn more about GPP’s regional cafés here.
GPP in the Media
Northeast Now Right Now
French-speaking LGBTQ+ activists want Canada to do more to address funding gap
December 9, 2024
Organizational Development
GPP Infrastructure Development
In 2024, GPP welcomed several new staff members! In February, Aurore Guieu joined GPP as the Government Relations Advisor to work alongside Dave Scamell on our government relations and advocacy. In April, Marla Swanson joined as GPP’s Director of Development and Advancement. In August, Ari Kajtezović joined GPP as the Operations Manager, and Katrina Anderson joined as Director of Philanthropic Field Engagement.
Three team members were also promoted in recognition of their years of dedicated work. Ezra Nepon was promoted to Deputy Director, Marina Gonzalez Flores was promoted to Director of Public Engagement, and Jay Postic was appointed Senior Program Officer for Research after many years of working with GPP as a consultant for the Global Resources Report.
Throughout the year, GPP also worked with two new consultants on specific initiatives: Eirene Chen joined as Senior Consulting Advisor for Humanitarian Financing, Sarah Gunther joined as the Global LGBTI Funding Campaign Manager to support the creation and implementation of the Fund our Futures Campaign, and Nico Amador, who built the curriculum for Mobilizing for Trans Futures: Trans-Inclusive Grantmaking Training.
New staff:
Aurore Guieu
Marla Swanson
Ari Kajtezović
Katrina Anderson
GPP Members
Thank you to GPP’s 2024 Board of Directors for their support and partnership.
- Francisco Buchting, Horizons Foundation Vice President of Grants, Programs, and Communications (Treasurer)
- Rebecca Fox, Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice Vice President of Programs
- Alli Jernow, Arcus Foundation Social Justice Program Vice President (Secretary)
- Mukami Marete, UHAI-EASHRI Executive Director (Co-chair)
- David Sampson, Baring Foundation Deputy Director (Co-chair)
Thank you to GPP’s 23 member organizations for your partnership in 2024 and beyond!
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our members and other partners for your essential support. Your contributions have enabled GPP to grow and achieve a remarkable impact this year! To discuss supporting GPP or a specific project, please contact Marla Swanson, Director of Development and Advancement.