By Matthew Hart, Executive Director, Global Philanthropy Project

Hard-won protections for LGBTI people are being rolled back in Europe and across the globe.

For the first time in its 13-year history, Transgender Europe’s (TGEU) Trans Rights Index and Map 2025 found that setbacks in the human rights of trans people across Europe and Central Asia definitively outweigh progress. ILGA-Europe’s latest Rainbow Map paints a similar picture, documenting the worst combined drops in rankings for LGBTI rights since the map was first published.

This backsliding is more than a crisis for trans, queer, and intersex people. It is an indication of the erosion of democracy and fundamental rights for all.

Funding for LGBTI movements does not come close to meeting the scale of our opposition. Three of the largest anti-LGBTI organizations reported a combined income of over $1 billion during 2021-2022 — more than the entire global LGBTI movement received during the same two years.

And just when we need increased resources to fight back, our movements are facing draconian funding cuts. Global Philanthropy Project (GPP) estimates that government aid cuts and shifting priorities in private philanthropy have resulted in the loss of at least 25% of all LGBTI funding across the Global South and East.

This isn’t an abstract figure. It means shuttered programs, lost livelihoods, the erosion of safe spaces, and urgent threats to the sustainability of our movements.

But philanthropy is not powerless. We can act.

The Fund Our Futures Campaign asks each of us in philanthropy to meet this moment by finding new and urgently needed resources for LGBTI communities. The stakes have never been higher.

GPP launched the Fund Our Futures Campaign to mobilize $150M in new funding for LGBTI movements by June 2025. To date, 42 private and public foundations, donor governments, high-net-wealth individuals, and corporate funders have pledged $135M in new funding. And we’re not done yet.

Global Philanthropy Project invites you to meet this moment by making a pledge to Fund Our Futures by June 25.

Are you surging new resources to LGBTI groups at this critical time? Are you considering new funding for LGBTI communities over the next three years?

Fund Our Futures is a pledging campaign that mobilizes new resources for LGBTI movements – there is no mechanism or pooled fund. Pledges must be a minimum of $100K and can be disbursed to partners in any geography over the period of 2025-2027. They can be public or anonymous.

To be counted as a grantmaker standing with LGBTI people, submit your pledge by June 25.

Questions about the pledge? Reach out to the GPP team.

Then join us on July 1 for The Future We Build: Fueling LGBTI Movements to mark the close of this historic effort to mobilize resources for LGBTI people and recommit to the work ahead.

The time is now. Meet the moment. Fund our futures.