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Our Fund on Our Side

Our Fund / Our Fund on Our Side

Our Fund on Our Side

With LGBTQ lives and livelihoods under threat in the state of Florida (and beyond), The Our Fund Foundation is fervent in our commitment to protecting and uplifting South Florida’s LGBTQ community.  Our Fund is South Florida’s only LGBTQ-specific community foundation and we understand the importance of our work at this critical juncture.  With annual investments currently of $1.5 – $2M in South Florida LGBTQ causes, we are unmatched in our impact on South Florida LGBTQ lives.

Because of our unique position to affect the lives of LGBTQ people in the region, we are taking action to combat the fear, disinformation and hate that is being disseminated by the leaders of Florida’s anti-LGBTQ and anti-equality movement.

These are some of the initiatives The Our Fund Foundation has supported in the past 90 days:

  • We are partnering with the University of Miami to support a study on the impact of the Parental Rights in Education Act (Don’t Say Gay) on LGBTQ children, families and teachers.  The one-year statewide study will provide the first estimates of the impact of the policies in order to arm those who wish to repeal PREA or prevent its enactment in other states with evidence of its ill effects.  Our Fund raised funds to provide grants to partnering agencies and also provided the leverage and an introduction to the Gill Foundation (a leading powerhouse in LGBTQ advocacy and grantmaking) so that UM could launch the study statewide.
  • With LGBTQ youth being a focus of the anti-gay LGBTQ policies being enacted, we are bringing together 3 LGBTQ-serving agencies to create LGBTQ youth housing in South Florida.  A 6-month trial completed in February with a 6-bed facility in Broward and plans are being finalized to secure a larger facility in Summer/Fall 2023.  To date, over $600,000 has been raised by Our Fund and our Donor Advised Fundholders to support this initiative.  Our Fund is committing to annual support of this ongoing initiative.
  • We have created a cohort of transgender led-agencies and leaders to spearhead an initiative beginning in July to create empathy, understanding and awareness around the threats to transgender people in Florida.  $100,000 of Our Fund’s discretionary funds is committed to this Our Fund-coordinated project in 2023/2024.
  • We applied for and received a $150,000 grant from pharmaceutical ViiV Healthcare to support HIV/AIDS granting in 2023/2024 – Our Fund’s largest single year investment in HIV/AIDS since our inception.
  • We initiated an 8-week Learning Series, Next Generation of Governance, to strengthen LGBTQ-serving agencies governance structures and capacity at a time that LGBTQ-serving agencies need to ramp up deliverables and services.  12 agencies in our network participated.  The series was led by a certified BoardSource trainer and included executive coaching for each participant agency.

This is just a sample of the work we are doing and the programs that we are supporting.

We will be active and alert in the coming months and however long it will take in seeking out other ways we can help to support our community particularly while we are under such attack. We are prepared to assist in raising funds and in coordinating the appropriate response with other organizations so that we will in the end win this battle and protect the quality of our LGBTQ lives in South Florida.

A big thank you to donors to our Annual Fund, to our Donor Advised Fundholders and to our Legacy Society members whose thoughtful planning will allow Our Fund to continue and expand our impact into the future.

If you would like to support our work or join our Legacy Society, please reach out to us.