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 March 27:
We are temporarily closing the Emergency Assistance Grant Round. We will be awarding the first 100 grants we received, and we now have a waiting list of 100 that we are fundraising to make grants to. We know this is a challenging, stressful time, and we are sending our support. If we are able to raise the funds to reopen this grant round, we will.
After an influx of applications, we are adding all new Community Response Grants applications to a waiting list. Thank you for your ideas, passion, and enthusiasm as we work to move resources to projects supporting LGBTQ Southerners.
Update March 26:
This grant process opened on March 25, and within 14 hours we received 103 applications for Emergency Assistance Grants from 10 Southern states. We are processing those applications now, which will expend the $10,000 we had dedicated for these grants, and we’ve created a fast-growing waiting list.
COVID-19 Rapid Response Grant Round
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 round to quickly route funds to individuals, families, and community organizations across the LGBTQ South. The grant round of $25,0000 will be distributed through CSE’s Southern Equality Fund.
This special grant round 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. CSE will distribute a total of $10,000 through emergency assistance grants of up to $100; with big thanks to Gender Benders, a longtime partner of CSE, for donating $5,000 for these emergency grants.
UPDATE MARCH 27: We are temporarily closing the Emergency Assistance Grant Round. We will be awarding the first 100 grants we received, and we now have a waiting list of 100 that we are fundraising to make grants to. We know this is a challenging, stressful time, and we are sending our support. If we are able to raise the funds to reopen this grant round, we will. We are adding all new Community Response Grants applications to a waiting list.
COVID-19 Community Response Grants
Anyone can apply for a grant of up to $500 to fund a project 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 and providing support as part of this $7,500 grant category.
UPDATE MARCH 27: We are temporarily closing the Community Response Grant Round and adding all new Community Response Grants applications to a waiting list. If we are able to raise the funds to reopen this grant round, we will. Thank you for your ideas, passion, and enthusiasm.
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. This $7,500 grant category will support at least three grants to community partners.
Special Thanks
The Campaign for Southern Equality will distribute a total of $25,000 through Emergency Assistance funds, Community Response Grants, and Frontline Grants to Direct Service Providers. Big thanks to Gender Benders, a longtime partner of CSE, for donating $5,000 for Emergency Assistance Grants; and, for their support of the Southern Equality Fund, to foundations including Arcus Foundation, Freeman Foundation, Laughing Gull Foundation, Mandel-Rodis 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? A generous donor to the Campaign for Southern Equality has pledged to double every dollar we raise for the next round of grants, up to $15,000. Your $5 will automatically become a $10 gift thanks to the match pledge. 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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