This grantmaker convening in Southern Africa — May 27-30, 2018 — will bring together funders across LGBTI and Feminist issues to build solidarity, strategy, and momentum around support of LGBTI-affirming faith communities, and resistance to the use of religion to harm or advance discrimination against LGBTI people around the world.

Within our range of grantmaking areas and global regions, we use different language to describe and define this source of harm: the Religious Right, religious fundamentalisms, religious conservatisms, neo-conservatisms, and more. Across these terms, we understand a spectrum of discrimination and opposition to the sexual health, reproductive justice, and human rights of LGBTI people.

Following a series of smaller grantmaker convenings and conversations, this event aims to:

• Utilize previous meetings’ recommendations and guidance, to set a new point of departure for the sector;
• Convene key philanthropic leadership and essential field thought-leaders and academics to problem-solve and strategize;
• Create a shared sense of the opportunity for catalytic research to impact new models of grantmaking;
• Establish clear goals and strategy for a more collaborative and aligned approach to supporting progressive faith communities, civil society advocates, and other allies in countering attacks.

Towards these goals, the convening is organized with four pillars — Grantmaking Strategy; Donor Collaboration; Learning from Concrete Experience; New Knowledge — and four frames:

• Understanding the Opposition: Exploring the dynamics and mechanics of anti-LGBTI agendas within faith and religious institutions.
• Case Studies: Exploring success and failure in funding resistance and resilience, examples of donor collaboration and coordination.
• Hearts and Minds: Examples of funding media advocacy, progressive faith leadership, and other LGBTI-affirming movement strategies.
• Connecting the Dots: Cross-movement strategies for resisting anti-LGBTI faith/religious agendas.

Global Philanthropy Project (GPP) and an advisory committee of key concerned grantmakers has engaged a research consultancy to develop a report intended to inform this convening.  The research is intended as a tool for those grantmakers aiming to confront anti-LGBTI efforts from faith-based institutions who aim to influence or derail social, political, and legal gains of LGBTI communities around the globe. Although not a primary audience, we intend for this research to be of use to a broad Sexual Health and Reproductive Rights (SHRR) grantmaker audience.

All registrants will be invited to a pre-convening telebriefing on the research results.

Thank you to the GPP Members and Partners participating in the Advisory Committee for this convening and research consultancy.