NGLTF to Grant $500,000 to State and Local Groups Working to Advance Equality

Community Impact Fund to Support 10 Groups Over Two Years

[WASHINGTON, DC] - The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) today announced that applications are being accepted for grants from the Task Force Community Impact Fund. The Fund will distribute $500,000 to support organizations and organizing projects that advance full equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) people. Grants will be awarded to 10 state or local groups, with awardees receiving grants of up to $50,000 each, disbursed over a two-year period.

"This grant program concretely demonstrates our commitment to the essential work of our sister organizations at the state and local level," said Task Force Executive Director Matt Foreman. "These grants will strengthen our movement at the grassroots - where it counts and can deliver the most for our community."

The Fund prioritizes support for large-scale, person-to-person, collective action that builds a mass base of public support to support full equality for GLBT people. Through the Fund, the Task Force seeks to significantly increase the short and long-term capacity of state and local groups to advance a broad public policy agenda impacting the lives of GLBT people.

"We know that the only way to beat the radical right is, frankly, by doing what they've been doing for years -- going door-to-door, educating people about our needs, and identifying neighbors we know will stand with us," Foreman said. "This isn't glamorous -- it's incredibly hard -- but it works." Foreman noted that last year, 5 out of 6 of the last anti-gay referenda had been defeated because local GLBT communities, working with the Task Force, had built a strong base of non-gay support through painstaking mass action involving face to face conversations with the broader public. Prior to 2001, the radical right typically won 3 out of 4 anti-gay referenda every year that such measures have been on the ballot.

The Community Impact Fund grants are part of a larger effort by the Task Force to build grassroots strength and skills. In the past year alone, for example, NGLTF has devoted thousands of staff and volunteer hours to assist communities across the country (recent examples include Miami, FL; Tacoma, WA; Ypsilanti, MI; Westbrook, ME; Covington, KY; Cincinnati and Cleveland Heights, OH) to defeat anti-GLBT ballot measures or to introduce pro-GLBT legislation and has conducted trainings for thousands of people in California, Oregon, and the Ohio Valley.

For full application guidelines and further information, see the Community Impact Fund section of our Web site, under the state and local organizing link. [http://www.ngltf.org/statelocal/community.htm]

*************************************************************** Founded in 1973, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is the oldest national organization working to eliminate prejudice, violence and injustice against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people at the local, state and national level. The Task Force trains activists and leaders and organizes broad-based campaigns to defeat anti-gay referenda and advance pro-GLBT legislation. The Task Force Policy Institute, the community's premiere think tank, researches and reports on critical policy issues. As part of a broader social justice movement for freedom, justice and equality, NGLTF is creating a world that respects and celebrates the diversity of human expression and identity where all people may fully participate in society.