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 Dear Members and Supporters,
Thank you for making this our most successful fund-raising year to date – you donated $204,000 to the LGBT Fund this year, enabling us to receive the full $50,000 matching grant from Funders for LGBTQ Issues! This will enable us to make about $230,000 in grants this year, an approximate 50% increase over last year.
Achieving this required a lot of effort from a lot of people, and wonderful generosity from you, our donors. Special thanks to Meredith and Mark Frisch, Glenn and Michael Miller, and Carrie King and Tina Wirth for hosting wonderful and well attended events. And thanks to our grantees for their presentations at the events, and again to you for your generosity.
Funders for LGBTQ Issues also recently issued its annual tracking report (for the year 2015) of the largest funders for LGBTQ issues, and I am pleased to report that The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida (where the LGBT Fund is housed) was ranked #1 nationally with over $1 million in grants in 2015! This includes the grant-making by the LGBT Fund, as well as grants made from donor advised funds at The Community Foundation. This is a great achievement, and we all owe a great deal of thanks to The Community Foundation for its leadership in working for full inclusion of the LGBT community. Thank you!
As described in more detail below, the LGBT Fund Steering Committee is in the middle of work on developing grant recommendations for 2017 – 2018, which will be circulated to the Members in late September before being voted on at our Annual Meeting on Tuesday, October 3rd.
Also as described in more detail below, in early August we are launching the Jacksonville Area Community Assessment Project, a survey of the LGBT Community in Jacksonville which we are conducting with the support of the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law. Our goal is to get at least 1,000 responses so that we will have a better understanding of the LGBT community in Jacksonville: who we are, what we care about, and how we are experiencing life. The results of the survey will help inform the LGBT Fund’s grant-making, as well as be available to the LGBT community and local policymakers, businesses and others as they contemplate the LGBT community. This will be the most comprehensive look at the LGBT community ever undertaken in Jacksonville. All of us involved in the effort are very excited!
Finally, I hope all of you are enjoying the summer. For me, it is being a fun time, of spending more time with the kids, family summer trips and a slightly slower pace. But soon, it’s back to school and the intensity of fall. So let’s grab a few minutes of peace and quiet before it all gets going again!
Thank you as always for your support and enabling the work of the LGBT Community Fund for Northeast Florida.
Michael R. Meyers
President
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We DID It!
The LGBT Community Fund for Northeast Florida received a $50,000 matching grant from Funders for LGBTQ Issues. To receive the full grant amount, we needed to raise $100,000. Congratulations! We exceeded the goal, and will receive the full $50,000 from Funders for LGBTQ Issues.
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The LGBT Community Fund, working with local LGBT leaders like Cindy Watson and others at JASMYN, and in partnership with the Williams Institute, is launching the Jacksonville Area Community Assessment Project, a survey of the local LGBT community. The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law is the leading research center in the US conducting rigorous, independent research on sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy. The work grew out of local conversations a group of LGBT leaders were having about the data available on Jacksonville’s LGBT community, and a call to the Williams Institute ultimately led to this exciting collaboration.
The goal is to obtain at least 1,000 responses from LGBT individuals who live, work, pray, play or receive services in Jacksonville. The survey includes questions on demographics, socioeconomic and family status, health, substance use, being out, religion, elders, quality of life, social outlets, law enforcement, and discrimination. It will provide a comprehensive look at the LGBT community, which we plan to use at the LGBT Fund as well as make available to the LGBT community, local policymakers and businesses, all designed to help better understand how to make Jacksonville fully inclusive for the LGBT community.
In terms of process, with guidance from Williams we formed a Community Advisory Board (CAB), a group of “connectors” to different parts of the LGBT Community. The CAB has met four times, and provided input on the areas of inquiry of the survey and developed plans on how we get to 1,000 responses, including from all parts of our diverse community. One of the great parts of work on the survey has been meeting and working with these connectors in our community.
The survey will be open for about three months, after which the Williams Institute researchers will compile the results. The next step will be putting together a preliminary report of the findings, which will then be presented at local community meetings to obtain feedback on the results. Finally, the results of the surveys and the feedback will all be put into a final report, which is planned to be ready no later than May 2018.
Funding for the costs of the survey is being provided from the matching grant obtained from the Funders For LGBTQ Issues, as well as donations from local organizations.
With the passage of the HRO in Jacksonville, this seems a perfect time to have detailed information about the LGBT community available. The LGBT Fund is very happy to be able to play a key role in this, all made possible with your support!
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2017 LGBT Community Fund
Member Forum
October 3, 2017
5:30 p.m.
Invitation to follow
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New Grants are on the Horizon
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The grant cycle for 2017-2018 is underway. We have formed liaison teams comprised of LGBT Community Fund members to review grant applications. This year we invited six organizations to complete applications and they are ElderSource, JASMYN, Nonprofit Center of Northeast Florida, PFLAG, UNF LGBT Resource Center, and the Women's Center. Liaison teams will begin the review process by conducting site visits. The Liaisons will then present recommendations to the Steering Committee at its meeting on September 8th for full review. The Steering Committee will then recommend the slate of grants to present to the full membership at the Member Forum on October 3rd.
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As many of you know, for the last three years ElderSource has received grants from the LGBT Community Fund for a total of $90,000. ElderSource is an agency that provides information and services on a range of assistance for older adults and those who care for them, and ElderSource Institute is the educational and training arm of ElderSource.
Based on learning from their 2014 grant, ElderSource in 2015 revised its LGBT Elder Cultural Competency Training Program by moving to a “train the trainer” model, and hired a dedicated marketing professional. In addition, they further revised the training manual with insights gained from actual presentations and the experiences of the new trainers. Several Fund members, including myself, as well as several members of the ElderSource LGBT Advisory Committee have attended trainings and offered valuable feedback. My training last year was at a home health agency and there were approximately 15 people. The attendees were very engaged and asked pointed, often heated, questions on the training material. At the end of the training it felt like the group had a much better understanding and awareness of the subject matter.
ElderSource currently has seven trainers, has facilitated over 117 trainings with more on the schedule, and over 1600 people have been trained! The training program has been authenticated and is being marketed nationally. Continuation of these trainings increases LGBT awareness and acceptance and is central to the mission of the LGBT Community Fund.
Carrie King
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In Funders for LGBTQ Issues latest tracking report (2015), The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida was the #1 Community Foundation for giving to LGBT issues, with more than $1 million contributed through individual donors and of course, the LGBT Community Fund. Also, JASMYN topped the list as the #1 nonprofit recipient from community foundations! Congratulations, all! Get the full report here.
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At our October Member Forum, we will unveil the LGBT Community Fund's newest edition of biographical profiles of leaders in the LGBT community. Cindy Watson, president of JASMYN--our area's oldest staffed service provider to LGBT individuals--has been profiled by Mary Kress Littlepage. Last year, Mary featured Frieda Saraga, founder of the local chapter of PFLAG. To read the feature on Frieda, click here.
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For additional information, please contact Christina Fleck, cfleck@jaxcf.org or (904) 356-4483.
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Not a member of the LGBT Community Fund
for Northeast Florida?
Join us today! And be sure to keep up with the LGBT Community Fund for Northeast Florida on our website: www.lgbtnefl.org!
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