OVERVIEW: Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice is a grantmaking, advocacy, and philanthropy-serving organization that supports the LGBTQI+ community, particularly with movement building, narrative change, safety and justice programs, arts and culture, and social and economic equity.
IP TAKE: The Astraea Lesbian Foundation bills itself as “the only philanthropic organization working exclusively to advance LGBTQI human rights around the globe.” While its annual grantmaking budget is modest, it’s an influential voice for the LGBTQI+ community, and takes its role as an advocate seriously. Astraea supports dozens of organizations across the globe every year, and tends to invest in grassroots and small to mid-sized organizations that may have a difficult time securing grants elsewhere. It gives hundreds of grants each year. In an exclusive interview with IP, Astraea executive director Joy Chia spoke about the challenges of an intersectional mission when philanthropy too often functions in silos. “For Astraea, working at the intersection of both women and LGBTQ rights and explaining that we are both and not one or the other can be an interesting challenge,” Chia said. “In philanthropy, I’m really concerned about the population identity-focused categorization because when you categorize something, you budget it accordingly. Do we get funded out of the women’s rights, human rights, racial justice or LGBTQI budget?”
Astraea is not particularly transparent about its partner organizations, in large part due to safety concerns. That said, information about some of its grantees can be found in its tax filings or in blog posts at the Astraea website. Astraea’s grantmaking is approximately “half domestic and half international.” Grant seekers should note that Astraea conducts all grantmaking through an equity lens, so your work must align closely to get on its radar. Under the current climate, the foundation has taken a quieter approach to its public-facing website, but make no mistake, this funder is an active ally of LGBTQI human rights and justice. Interested grantseekers can reach out through the organization’s contact page.
PROFILE: The New York-based Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice 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 expanded its mission and become a global foundation that provides critical support for LGBTQI groups around the world.
Astraea works in “strategic partnership with foundations, individuals, and governments to ensure that their resources reach the activists who need them most and who are best positioned to make transformational impact over time.” In its grantmaking and programatic support, Astraea prioritizes “groups led by lesbians and queer women, trans and gender non-conforming people, intersex people, and people of color.” A public foundation, Astraea supports LGBTQI people by funding organizations, philanthropic advocacy, communications, narrative change, movement building, policy change advocacy, and capacity-building.
Grants for LGBTQ and Racial Equity
Astraea 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.”
Grants for Criminal Justice, Women, Immigrants and Refugees, Housing and Climate Change
Astraea’s U.S. Fund 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 priorities have addressed migrant justice, housing, bodily autonomy, and climate justice in LGBTQI communities. Climate change funding centers on making flexible 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 Gender-based Violence Prevention
Astraea’s International Fund supports groups led by LGBTQI communities working for progressive social change, addressing the safety of the queer community, 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. Grants are available for general operating or project support.
- Interested grant seekers may direct questions to loi@astraeafoundation.org. Unsolicited letters of interest sent to this email address cannot be considered.
- Past grantees include Trans Mreza Balkan, Trans Aid and the Institute Transfeminist Initiative TransAkjija.
Established in 2015, the Intersex Human Rights Fund 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 intersex activists covering all regions of the world who inform the foundation’s grantmaking strategies and decisions.
- The Intersex Human Rights Fund no longer accept applications through an online portal, but previously, it accepted applications in English, Spanish, and French online, while it accepted 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, 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. In a recent year, this funder gave about $17 million in grants.
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.)
- 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.”
- Submit general inquiries to the foundation via its contact page. The foundation may also be reached at 1- (212) 529-8021 or info@astraeafoundation.org.
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