Black History Month provides the perfect opportunity to honor Black leaders and celebrate Black communities.

In recent months, the #BlackLivesMatter movement has shone an important spotlight on discriminatory policing and its impact on black communities and low-income communities of color. LGBTQ people and people living with HIV/AIDS, particularly trans women of color, are disproportionately impacted by the criminal justice system. With increased media attention, the question of how communities can address abusive policing is of increasing interest to both the general public and funders.

For the first time in 2014, Funders for LGBTQ Issues began tracking funding that addresses the over-criminalization of LGBTQ people. Our 2013 Tracking Report found that $1,331,870 was awarded for LGBTQ criminal justice reform and anti-criminalization work in the U.S..

In 2013, the Top 10 Funders of LGBTQ Criminalization and Criminal Justice Reform Issues in the U.S. were:

1. Arcus Foundation ($290,500)

2. Anonymous ($260,000)

3. Tides Foundation ($239,800)

4. Ford Foundation ($200,000)

5. Hill-Snowdon Foundation ($55,000)

6. New York Foundation ($47,500)

7. Calamus Foundation (Pearl River) ($40,000)

8. David Bohnett Foundation ($35,000)

9. Edward W. Hazen Foundation ($30,000)

9. Liberty Hill Foundation ($30,000)

The majority of this funding benefited organizations led “by and for” LGBTQ communities of color, which are often disproportionately affected by police and state violence. Nearly 85 percent of the funding supported statewide or local work, while the remaining 15 percent was awarded to national organizations or projects.

This year at Funding Forward, we are pleased to have two sessions that address criminalization within LGBTQ communities:

• “The Lives and Needs of LGBTQ Sex Workers and the Case for Expanded Rights and Health Funding” sponsored by Elton John AIDS Foundation
• “Critical Voices: Trans Justice in the South” sponsored by the Trans Justice Funding Project.

We hope you’ll join us at Funding Forward for these and other important conversations about critical issues facing LGBTQ communities and the ways funders can support positive outcomes. (Click here to register!)

To learn more about funding racial justice and criminalization efforts on the ground, check out www.fundersforjustice.org – an online funders’ resource developed by our partners at Neighborhood Funders Group in response to Ferguson and the national #BlackLivesMatter movements.