Horizons Foundation has announced that four Transgender People of Color (Trans POC) organizations based in the Bay Area will receive funding totaling $1 million over three years via Horizons’ new Trans POC Initiative. It provides funding towards transformative, multi-year infrastructure improvement and capacity-building grants.
“Trans-led organizations are a vital part of the vibrant and diverse LGBTQ community in the San Francisco Bay Area,” said Roger Doughty, President of Horizons Foundation. “Given today’s political climate, this initiative reflects our deep commitment to ensuring not just the survival, but the strength of these organizations. Horizons is proud to partner with them as they secure the future for Trans POC communities with vision, resilience, and power.”
The four Trans POC grantee organizations are:
• El/La Para TransLatinas, which advocates for the rights of TransLatinx individuals and operates one of the few safe spaces for the trans/intersex/gender diverse Latinx community in Northern California. “Our community right now is barely surviving,” said Nicole Santamaria, El/La’s Executive Director. “The lack of funding is pushing us more into the margins. El/La is a ray of hope, a mother to our community. This funding will help us not only weather this storm, but become stronger.”
• Lavender Phoenix, which works to build transgender, nonbinary, and queer Asian Pacific Islander (API) power through organizing and training grassroots leaders in the Bay Area. “Facing hundreds of anti-trans bills across the country, a lot of people in our community are terrified,” said Yuan Wang, Lavender Phoenix’s Executive Director. “Organizations like Lavender Phoenix need to be around longer than the four years of this administration, and this funding is a big step in helping us get there.”
• The Transgender Gender-Variant & Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP), which works to build voice, power, and leadership among Black trans people affected by the criminal justice system. “This grant from Horizons helps us cover many of the things that other funders don’t want to fund,” said Janetta Johnson, TGIJP’s CEO. “Trans-led organizations are under attack. The time is now to build, expand, and create a space that is for us, by us, and with us.”
• The Transgender District, which works to create an urban environment that fosters the rich history, culture, legacy, and empowerment of transgender people in the Tenderloin. “This grant is an investment in our capacity to uplift trans futures,” said Belen Meza, The Transgender District’s Development & Partnerships Associate. “This funding will allow us to finally build the stable, sustainable infrastructure to continue delivering impactful services.”
For 45 years, Horizons Foundation has been at the forefront of providing funding to help the San Francisco Bay Area’s LGBTQ organizations strategically grow and solidify their infrastructure.
“The Trans POC Initiative is part of Horizons’ comprehensive funding strategy and our commitment to supporting the full breadth of the LGBTQ nonprofit ecosystem and the communities it serves,” said Francisco Buchting, Horizons Foundation’s Vice President of Grants, Programs, and Communications. “It reflects what we’ve always stood for as a community foundation—not just supporting services, but investing in sustainability, leadership, and long-term impact.”
https://www.horizonsfoundation.org/
Published on May 22, 2025
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