The Community Foundation for Ireland has strongly supported LGBT+ people in Ireland for almost 20 years, and it intends to continue doing so on into the future. Will you help?

What do Gay Community News (GCN), The Dublin Lesbian Line Collective, LINC. and Waterford Gay & Lesbian Resource Group have in common? They were amongst the first LGBT+ groups funded by The Community Foundation for Ireland.

The Community Foundation for Ireland was established in 2000 to support and facilitate philanthropy in Ireland and in so doing to support communities across the country. It has a track record of supporting harder to fund causes and more marginalised communities. It has been one of the most consistent and committed supporters of LGBT+ groups across Ireland. Public fundraising like other charities simply do simply wasn’t an option for most LGBT+ charities in times past and The Community Foundation for Ireland was – and remains – one of the very few non-governmental funders of the sector.

Since 2001 over €850,000 in support has been given to 135 separate LGBT groups and other charities supporting LGBT people in every corner of Ireland.

An early example from 2001 was GCN who got funding from The Community Foundation for Ireland to employ a freelance journalist to produce features on LGBT+ life in Ireland. The four articles were:

• Deaf and LGBT

• Differently abled and LGBT

• LGBT in rural Ireland

• Queerbashing

LGBT+ FUND FOR IRELAND

The Community Foundation for Ireland will soon be launching a dedicated LGBT+ Fund for Ireland for the general public to donate to and/or support through legacies.

“Ireland needs independent funding to guarantee future support for LGBT+ issues,” says Tina Roche of The Community Foundation for Ireland. “Who knows what the future needs will be, but we will be there to help address the needs of the day. However, we can only do so much as things stand. We strongly believe that many LGBT people will welcome the opportunity to support an LGBT fund in their will”

Dundalk Outcomers is one of Ireland’s LGBT organisations to benefit from community foundation funding. “We have been fortunate to receive a number of grants over the years,” says Bernadine Quinn of Outcomers. “They included support for Dundalk LGBT Pride, a trans project, the development of a Lesbian Health Information Booklet that was distributed nationally, and projects for younger LGBT people. We need a strong LGBT Fund for Ireland, now and forever. I’m hopeful many lesbian and gay people in Ireland will give serious consideration to including the LGBT Fund for Ireland in their wills.”

WHAT THE LGBT+ FUND WILL SUPPORT

Many earlier grants were for HIV education and local telephone help lines. The Community Foundation for Ireland was a key funder of the now very successful LGBT Ireland helpline. The number of transgender project grants has increased over the years. Reflecting changing times, more recently, a grant of €3k was made to BeLonG To to support the cost of translation into Polish, French, and Lithuanian of key online information for LGBT+ migrants on the services available to them around mental health, sexual health, drugs and alcohol. A €10k grant to NASC - the Irish Immigrant Support Centre – has helped to address the complex and multi-layered issues faced by migrant and asylum seeking LGBT+ communities in Cork.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

Most Irish LGBT+ groups do not seek and therefore do not get legacies. Some organisations do not plan to be around in 10, 20,

30 years’ time so are not suitable for legacies. The Community Foundation for Ireland wants to ensure that there is an opportunity for people, when making their will, to be able to support LGBT+ projects. This fund is a conduit to doing so. By including the LGBT+ Fund for Ireland in your will, you can help make it truly work.

The Community Foundation for Ireland has significant experience in identifying great projects and will do so in the future, based on the key needs of the day. You can rest assured that your support, combined with others will make certain that LGBT+ communities in Ireland continue to receive support at crucial times and to support innovation and great projects in the future.

To find out more, call Niall on (01) 874 7354 /086 048 8726, email nosullivan@foundation.ie or go to www.communityfoundation.ie/impacts/lgbt.

The Community Foundation for Ireland is happy to meet with you to discuss this idea in confidence and any ideas you may have around it. Other funds at The Community Foundation for Ireland supported by wills also include the Arts, Environment, Women’s and Older Persons’ Funds.

Since 2001 over €850,000 in support has been given to 135 separate LGBT+ groups and other charities supporting LGBT+ people in every corner of Ireland?