Through our Southern Equality Fund, we provide a pipeline of resources – including direct funding and training – to Southern LGBTQ folks doing heroic organizing in their hometowns. If you’re on this page, you’re likely seeking funding for your work, and you’ll find all the information you need to apply to the Southern Equality Fund below.
Updates to the COVID-19 Rapid Response Grant Process
Update July 13
Today the Campaign for Southern Equality closed the application for the fifth round of our COVID-19 Rapid Response Grant Program‘s Emergency Assistance Grants. We know that this has been a challenging time, and we send love and support to y’all. Please stay tuned for news of the next round of these grants, which we expect to open later this summer. Subscribe to our email list (in the footer below) for updates.
The application for Community Response Grants for LGBTQ people living in the Charleston, SC area and in Western NC remain open. Scroll down to read more about those applications.
COVID-19 Rapid Response Grant Program
As the nation confronts the significant and unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Campaign for Southern Equality has created a rapid response grant program to quickly route funds to individuals, families, and community organizations across the LGBTQ South. The grants will be distributed through CSE’s Southern Equality Fund. By the end of July we will have granted more than $200,000 in grants across all 13 Southern states.
The COVID-19 Rapid Response Grant Program has three grant categories:
Emergency Assistance Grants for Individuals and Families
LGBTQ Southerners are now able to apply for immediate financial support of $100. The easy application process is designed to move funds quickly to LGBTQ Southerners who are already experiencing the health and financial impacts of the pandemic, with a focus on those who are at particularly high risk. Applicants can use the funding for basic needs like groceries, rent/mortgage payments, prescriptions or medical bills, prevention supplies, and more. If you received an Emergency Assistance Grant in earlier rounds, you are not eligible to apply in subsequent rounds.
Live in the Charleston, SC Area?
Our partners at We Are Family are providing $3,500 in funding to support Emergency Assistance Grants for LGBTQ people living in the Charleston, SC area. If you live in the area, please apply using this link.
Apply for a Charleston, SC Area Grant
Live Anywhere Else in the South?
Emergency Assistance Grants for individuals and families living anywhere outside of Charleston, SC are closed for now, as of July 13. Please stay tuned for news of this application reopening in late summer 2020.
COVID-19 Community Response Grants
Anyone can apply for a grant of up to $500 to fund a project in the Charleston, SC area or in Western NC to meet the needs of LGBTQ Southerners in response to COVID-19. Whether it’s a project focused on connecting LGBTQ elders with meals or tech assistance, an initiative to connect people virtually to build community, an effort to address mental health challenges that will be exacerbated by social distancing, or something else, we’re looking forward to reading applications.
Live in the Charleston, SC Area?
Our partners at We Are Family are providing geographic-specific funding to support Community Response Grants for LGBTQ people living in the Charleston, SC area. If you live in the area, please apply using this link.
Apply for a Charleston, SC Area Grant
Live in Western North Carolina?
Our partners at the Amy Mandel Fund are providing geographic-specific funding to support Community Response Grants for LGBTQ people living in Western North Carolina. If you live in the area, please apply using this link.
Frontline Grants to Direct Service Providers
Staff from the Campaign for Southern Equality will direct grants to frontline organizations that provide direct services to LGBTQ Southerners at high risk of being impacted by COVID-19.
Special Thanks
The Campaign for Southern Equality is grateful for our partner organizations and donors across the South who are helping to support the COVID-19 Rapid Response Grant Round.
Big thanks to Gender Benders, Southern Vision Alliance, Blue Ridge Pride, We Are Family, and the Families and Workers Fund, a funders collaborative that includes the Ford Foundation, Schmidt Futures, and Open Society Foundation for their donations for Emergency Assistance Grants. And, for their support of the Southern Equality Fund and the COVID-19 Rapid Response Grant Program, thank you to foundations including Arcus Foundation, Freeman Foundation, Laughing Gull Foundation, Amy Mandel Fund, the Out in the South Initiative of Funders for LGBTQ Issues, and the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.
Donate to Support the COVID-19 Rapid Response Grant Round
Want to donate to Campaign for Southern Equality’s COVID-19 Rapid Response Grant Round? Click here and your gift will go directly to a grant supporting LGBTQ Southerners impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Southern Equality Fund: General Grants
The Campaign for Southern Equality has paused general grantmaking for 2020 and is directing all Southern Equality Fund resources to the COVID-19 Rapid Response grant round. Please consider applying for a Community Response grant.
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