Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice
/OVERVIEW: Astraea funds “lesbian-and trans-led organizations and cultural media projects that directly address the depth and complexities of lesbian and trans issues.”
IP TAKE: Billing itself as “the only philanthropic organization working exclusively to advance LGBTQI human rights around the globe,” Astraea is also a GUTC signatory. Astraea is accessible to initial grant seekers, even those of modest name recognition. This funder appreciates investing in grassroots and small to mid-sized organizations with operating budgets of less than $500,000 that may have a more difficult time securing grants. Astraea’s grantmaking is approximately “half domestic and half international.”
Newer organizations in the LGBTQ+ space should note that while Astraea is open to providing support, it requires that new organizations demonstrate “longer-term sustainability and impact.” Astraea is a major ally of the global LGBTQI movement, often providing extended multi-year support.
PROFILE: The New York-based Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, a public foundation, was established in 1977 to address the lack of “a women’s movement that prioritizes the needs of lesbians and women of color.” It has since become a global foundation that provides critical support for LGBTQI groups around the world. Astraea ultimately seeks to “fuel local and global movements that shift power to LGBTQI people and organizations pursuing social justice and human rights.” Publicly funded, Astraea, a GUTC signatory, supports LGBTQI people by funding organizations, philanthropic advocacy, communications, and capacity-building. It funds four separate LGBTQI-related programs outlined below, which intersect with a variety of sub-focus areas.
Grants for LGBTQ and Racial Equity
Astraea exclusively funds LGBTQI issues across all of its four grantmaking categories — U.S. Fund, International Fund, Intersex Human Rights Fund, and the Global Arts Fund. All grantmaking occurs through a racial justice lens that works to “shift power to LGBTQI people and organizations pursuing social justice and human rights” by leveraging “support in the form of grantmaking, philanthropic advocacy, communications, and capacity-building.” Astraea clearly defines its programmatic pillars.
Grants for Criminal Justice, Women, Immigrants and Refugees, and Climate Change
Astraea’s U.S. Fund currently centers work on the “liberation of queer, trans, two-spirit and intersex people of color and challenges the criminalization of 2SLBTQI BIPOC, migrants, women of color, mothers, sex workers and youth, among other constituencies who experience high levels of violence and oppression.”
The program’s current funding priorities address: “Bodily Autonomy, LBQ Women Leaders, Housing and Land Acquisition, Migrant Justice, and explore climate and natural disaster relief and resistance for QTPOC communities.” Climate change funding centers on making grants for projects that address the specific needs of LGBTQI communities rather than mitigation itself.
While the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice does not have a dedicated program centered on immigrants and refugees, it makes related grants across all of its programs, as well as those with international reach, in an effort to address vulnerable LGBTQI populations that are marginalized.
Grants for Human Rights and Violence Prevention
The International Fund supports “groups led by LGBTQI communities working for progressive social change, addressing oppression based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity and expression, and advancing work for racial, economic and gender justice.”
At the international level, Astraea currently accepts applications from organizations based or operating in the nations of Jamaica, Belize, Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Suriname.
If an organization is based and working in one of the above countries, please read Astraea’s Call for Proposals. Interested grant seekers may direct questions to loi@astraeafoundation.org. Unsolicited letters of interest sent to this email address cannot be considered.
International Fund grants range from about $7,000–$20,000; average grant size is $10,000.
Organizations can apply for general support or project support.
Past grantees include Trans Mreža Balkan, Trans Aid, and Institute Transfeminist Initiative TransAkcija.
Intersex Human Rights Fund, established in 2015, supports organizations, projects and campaigns “led by intersex activists working to ensure the human rights, bodily autonomy, physical integrity and self-determination of intersex people." The fund seeks to address the “invisibility, stigma, discrimination and violence” faced by intersex individuals and reduce the impact of “normalizing, non-consensual, harmful surgeries and other medical interventions.”
This fund provides grants only once a year, but due to major global interest in this area of funding, it has suspended open calls for applications until further notice.
Grantmaking making decisions in this area are made in tandem with the “Intersex Fund Advisory Board, a body of seven intersex activists covering all regions of the world who inform our grantmaking strategies and decisions.”
The Intersex Human Rights Fund accepts applications in English, Spanish and French through its online portal; it accepts applications in Mandarin, Arabic, and Russian by email.
If you are an intersex activist or an intersex-led organization looking for funding, Astraea recommends sending them an email at intersexfund@astraeafoundation.org with your organization’s name and contact details so that the foundation may keep interested grant seekers in their records to inform them when they are next inviting new groups or have an open call for applications.
Previous grantees in this area include Black and Pink, the Gender Expansion Project, BreakOUT and EMERGE.
Grants for Arts and Culture
Astraea conducts grants for arts and culture through its Global Arts Fund, which was established in 2013. This fund supports art by LGBTQI people and organizations that use “art as a tool for social transformation and have limited access to resources for this critical work.” Grants typically adhere to a theme which changes with each funding cycle.
Funded projects must align with Astraea’s focus on social and racial justice as it relates to LGBTQI communities, which can include issues of migration, criminalization, gender justice, gender construction and BIPOC issues, among other interrelated topics.
Through a “nomination process that engages Astraea grantee partners and community members,” the foundation considers submissions across mediums and disciplines, including “video, film, poetry, fictional prose, photography, painting, performance, dance, theater, music and other interdisciplinary expressions.”
While grants through this fund occur by nomination, interested grant seekers may learn more about this fund by emailing LOI@astraeafoundation.org, though the fund is not accepting LOIs for this area at this time.
Important Grant Details:
Grants generally range from $10,000 to $150,000, but average grant ranges and guidelines vary by funding program. The Astraea Foundation is welcoming to new grant seekers and has a stated preference for nonprofits that have never applied for or successfully secured grant funding before.
Apart from its U.S. fund, all of Astraea’s giving programs operate internationally, though only in select regions.
Astraea supports organizations led by and for lesbian/bisexual/queer women or those led by and for trans and/or intersex people, as well as those led by and for LGBTQI communities that are historically marginalized and under-resourced within LGBTQI communities (e.g., youth, elders, ethnic minorities, migrants/refugees, low-income people, people with disabilities, sex workers, etc.)
Astraea invests in “active participation and leadership from the communities most affected by issues that the group works on” that are “inclusive and reflect the diversity of the geographic region in which they do their work.”
Invests in organizations that facilitate movement-building and community organizing, which Astraea defines as “activities that actively engage people affected by societal problems in the process of identifying and pursuing solutions.”
Of particular interest to Astraea are projects and programs that align with or build coalitions with “other social justice organizations (e.g., sex worker rights, human rights, etc.).”
Astraea welcomes organizations based in countries/locations that do not yet have significant LGBTQI resources and may have “limited access to traditional sources of funding.”
Astraea provides detailed application guidelines on its website.
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