Ten years ago, Borealis Philanthropy launched its very first fund for intersectional movements—the Emerging LGBTQ Leaders of Color (ELLC) Fund—to help fill a gap in philanthropic funding and resource grassroots movements at the intersection of queer, trans, and BIPOC justice and liberation.

At that time, very few funders were willing to invest in this work. Support for queer and trans communities—especially those living at the intersections of Blackness, Indigeneity, and disability—was short term, siloed, and mostly in response to crisis events. There was almost no investment in the long-term power building, healing, and infrastructure movements needed to thrive.

Over the last decade, the ELLC Fund has worked to change that by resourcing queer and trans-serving grassroots organizations through multi‑year, unrestricted funding; rapid response grants; organizational coaching; and leadership development, collectively allowing organizers to lead in ways that are responsive and grounded in their communities’ needs.

Now, as the work of the Fund continues through Borealis’ expanded Racial, Gender, and Disability Justice giving area, we’re reflecting on what the last ten years has taught us—and what this moment is asking of funders. The ELLC Fund was proud to join movement and donor partners on panels at four national gatherings—Funders Committee for Civic Participation, Neighborhood Funders Group, Feminist Funded, and Grantmakers in the Arts—to share many of these reflections, uplift the ways grassroots organizers are defending and reimagining democracy, and name what it takes to sustain movements for the long haul.

Funding Intersectional Movements Is Not an Option — It’s How We Save Democracy

 Across every gathering, our partners made clear: you can’t say you want to save democracy without funding the people who are already doing the work to save it. Democracy can only thrive when those most impacted by its erosion are holistically resourced.

Oftentimes, philanthropy funds in silos, isolating movements for justice from one another— separating voting rights from trans justice, or reproductive justice from migrant rights, even though our communities “do not live single–issue lives.” Funding organizations working across issue areas is essential to building movements that reflect the complexity of people’s lives and the realities of our collective struggles. And when BIPOC queer and trans leadership is centered, movements become stronger, more inclusive, and more visionary.

Read the full article about funding intersectional movements at Borealis Philanthropy.