Deadline: 15-Aug-2024
The Astraea Foundation’s International Fund is providing support to 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.
This call aims to support the development and strengthening of activism in Latin America by extending or creating narratives of change, theories of Buen Vivir (the Quechua vision of coexistence in harmony in a diverse world), anti-racist, anti-ableist approaches, and intersectional collective care to co-construct creative ways of resistance and advances in LGBTQI+ rights.
Priorities
- With the Astraea Foundation’s integrated commitment to racial, gender and economic justice, their concept evaluation will be realized through:
- Analysis by the Astraea Foundation’s IF advisory committee based on eligible priorities and criteria.
- Open consultation of and accountability to local queer, trans/gender diverse, and intersex communities, particularly Black communities, Indigenous communities, LBQ women, refugees/migrants, people with disabilities, people with the capacity to gestate, healing-related people, and social entrepreneurship groups.
Scope
- Grant awards for applications will focus on core support for work on healing, racial, reproductive, economic, disability, and climate justice led by queer, trans/gender-diverse, and intersex communities in Latin America.
- The Astraea Foundation’s deep experience in complex grantmaking, working in and across multiple regions going through complex challenges, with registered and informal groups is critically important to the ecosystem. Astraea Foundation is aware that the movements’ needs for funding through complex grantmaking are growing given the politically volatile and hostile environments that most of the grantees operate in. Astraea Foundation commits maintaining flexibility and agility in the face of harsh political trends.
- This call aims to support the development and strengthening of activism in Latin America by extending or creating narratives of change, theories of Buen Vivir, anti-racist, anti-ableist approaches, and intersectional collective care to co-construct creative ways of resistance and advances in LGBTQI+ rights.
- Therefore, they are prioritizing funding and convening of multi-movement, multi-geography organizing against transnational anti-gender movements.
- While all concept notes should address the specific requirements of this open call, their intent is to provide grants in the form of general operating support to organizations or initiatives whose work speaks specifically to healing, racial, reproductive, economic, disability, and climate justice for queer, trans/gender-diverse, and intersex communities in Latin America. If your group works and is based in Latin America and your proposal includes collaborating with groups working in other countries or the Americas or beyond, it will also be considered.
Funding Information
- Through this call for concept notes, the Astraea Foundation’s International Fund seeks to award up to 25 one- or two-year grants in February 2025, average grant size is likely to be US$10,000 per year per organization, but it could be up to US$20,000. The Astraea Foundation’s International Fund will support approximately US$350,000 in total for all supported groups.
Location
- Organizations must be based in and work on behalf of communities in one or more of the following countries of Latin America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Eligibility Criteria
- Every concept note will be evaluated by Astraea Foundation staff and further grantmaking decisions will be informed by their international activist advisory board.
- Applicants must consider the following criteria:
- Active participation and leadership: Organizations, collectives or groups must be led by lesbian, bisexual or queer women; and/or trans/gender-diverse and/or intersex people, from the communities most affected by issues that the group works on. Strong priority will be given to the intersectionality of the identities of the members of the organizations and that these are led by Black or Indigenous people, people with disabilities, migrants and/or young people.
- Intersectionality: Organizations must show an understanding of the connections among different and interlocking oppressions facing LGBTQI people and have a commitment to address other forms of oppression based on class, race, ethnicity, age, disability, neurodiversity, gender, national identity, and religious affiliation; or addressing climate justice with creative solutions.
- Focus on Social Change: the organization must develop leadership and build communities’ capacity to achieve social change, particularly through proposals that strengthen the organization’s ability to organize. Organizing may be defined as activities that actively engage people affected by societal problems in the process of identifying and pursuing solutions. Some examples of activities that you may focus on, but need not be limited to, the following themes:
- Healing centers/houses that provide healing activities, circles of reflection, organizing assemblies, psychosocial and legal accompaniment tok LGBTQI+ communities and their families, collective care and mental health, sports‘ teams, collective singing and dancing to celebrate their wins and honor their ancestors.
- Social entrepreneurship hubs/labs to encourage economic autonomy and independence while supporting new ways of understanding economic justice through solutions that could be but are not limited to solidarity economy, food sovereignty, circular economy and/or sustainable economies (e.g. blue economy).
- Formation and strengthening of local, regional, national or international networks such as regional or national activist-led networks of organizations or groups that are working to reflect and develop solutions, research or solidarity to the interlocking oppressions, it could be “Network of LBTQI Black Scholars of Latin America” or “Network of Trans and Nonbinary Artists and Filmmakers of Latin America” or “LBTQI lawyers of Latin America” or such.
- Advocacy/political incidence, such as organizations of LBTQI lawyers and advocates that look to improve the legal systems for everyone, this is not limited to commonly assumed LGBTQI rights such as gender identity and equal marriage, it can be as expansive as possible.
- Arts and culture of organized artists, filmmakers, musicians and writers working on a project to make visible or celebrate the power of LBTQI+ victories, historic memories or any other victories not necessarily linked to LGBTQI identities such as to celebrate people with disabilities, Black liberation, bodily autonomy, religious freedom, environmentally sustainable communities, and so on.
- Narrative change of organized journalists, writers, and scholars working to uplift inclusive LBTQI+ narratives, historic memories or to make a testament of the LGBTQI victories or any other victories not necessarily linked to LGBTQI identities.
- General work led by LBTQI leaders and community organizers that address issues not mentioned above but that are a priority to the local LBTQI communities of any country in Latin America.
- Priority: Priority will be given to organizations that have integrated or are focused on, healing justice, that are led by Black or Indigenous people, and/or people with disabilities, with trans/gender-diverse, intersex members, that are based in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Panama, Bolivia, and where the Astraea Foundation doesn’t have a strong presence.
- Budget: Budget size below US$500,000 annually. Priority will be given to organizations with limited access to traditional sources of funding or that are pursuing funding for the first time.
- Legal status: organizations do not need to have legal status to apply.
- Grants will be provided as general operating support. If granted, funds can be used to support anything that furthers your mission and is aligned with this call, including operating expenses like rent or salaries.
Ineligible
- The Astraea Foundation does not fund:
- Organizations with no leadership of LGBTQI+ people
- Organizations with no involvement of lesbians or transgender people
- Organizations based in the Global North proposing projects with partners based in Astraea’s funding regions
- Organizations with strong leadership from only 1 individual
- Individual projects (e.g. graduate research, fellowships, etc.)
- Groups whose sole purpose is to provide charity to individuals, direct social service projects, research projects, or one-time events that are not linked to ongoing social change organizing strategies
- Efforts that endorse candidates for public office (incl. political parties and election campaigns)
- Capital campaigns, endowments, or deficit financing
- Organizations with budgets of over $500,000 US
For more information, visit Astraea Foundation.