7 Top-Rated Nonprofits Supporting the LGBTQAI+ Community

by Sam Reeve

Every June, millions of people around the world join together to celebrate LGBTQIA+ pride, activism, history, and community. Particularly so this year, which marks 50 years since the police raid and ensuing riots at the Stonewall Inn, events that helped catalyze the modern fight for LGBTQIA+ rights in the United States.

If you are looking for ways to show support to the LGBTQIA+ community, or simply celebrate pride month, here are seven top-rated nonprofits to consider:

Free2luv

Seattle, Wash.

Free2Luv is an award-winning nonprofit dedicated to rockin’ individuality, celebrating equality, spreading kindness, and standing up to bullying through arts and entertainment. They empower, engage, and enlighten youth globally to know that they are perfect just the way they are, and that they can use their voice for good.

“What I love about this organization is that it gives everyone confidence to be unique and who they truly are without judgement. I love their daily inspirational messages and feel proud to be a part of an organization that spreads love and ends hate.”

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CenterLink: The Community of LGBT Centers

Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

CenterLink develops strong, sustainable LGBT community centers and builds a thriving center network that creates healthy, vibrant communities. This nonprofit offers one-on-one and group training (virtual and in-person), webinars, Executive Director Boot Camp, annual Leadership Summit, online resource portal, phone and online support, and more. 

“While working at the Movement Advancement Project (MAP), I’ve had the opportunity to work with the CenterLink team on a number of research reports and they always prove to be thoughtful, hardworking, and gracious research partners. I especially love presenting at the annual CenterLink Leadership Summit; by bringing together the leaders of LGBT centers from across the country, they create a powerful, dynamic energy in the room and it is inspiring to be around so many passionate people in the LGBT movement.”

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Equality Florida

St. Petersburg, Fla.

Equality Florida is the largest civil rights organization dedicated to securing full equality for Florida’s LGBT community through lobbying, grassroots organizing, education, and coalition building. Under their watch, marriage equality was won in Florida, the ban on gay and lesbian adoption has been repealed, and more than 170 local policies have been passed.

“As the proud mother of a son who is a member of the LGBTQ community, I sincerely appreciate and support the efforts of Equality Florida to help ensure that housing and employment opportunities are not limited. Despite strides made for marriage equality, more must be done to eliminate inappropriate and hurtful discrimination, especially at the state level. Please consider supporting this worthy endeavor!”

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Family Equality Council

New York, N.Y.

Family Equality Council’s mission is to advance legal and lived equality for LGBTQ families, and for those who wish to form them, through building community, changing hearts and minds, and driving policy change.

“Family Equality Council has been a beacon in the night for my family. Being able to look out at a packed beach in Provincetown during Family Week and tell my children that all of the families they saw were like ours was life changing. FEC provided representation and visibility to my family during a political time that is attempting to roll back our rights at every turn.”

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Our Family Coalition

San Francisco, Calif.

Our Family Coalition promotes the equality and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer families with children. OFC offers family support programs serving LGBTQ parents/caregivers and their children, and engages in policy & advocacy work to advance the equality of LGBTQ families.

“I have volunteered leading community workshops for OFC for more than a decade. The workshops are well attended and safe places to talk about issues related to donor conception and raising donor-conceived kids. I am especially excited about OFC’s work to bring education about LGBTQ people and issues into all California classrooms. In 1980 I was an 11-year-old kid with a lesbian mom in a California public school—nothing about my family or people like my parent was discussed in school. I am grateful that now my 11-year-old son is having a different experience that will only continue to improve thanks to the work of Our Family Coalition.”

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Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center

Allentown, Pa.

The Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center creates a vibrant community for the LGBT community in the Lehigh Valley. Some of their services include life-enriching LGBT arts and culture programs, leading-edge LGBT health programs, daily LGBT youth programs, critical supportive services, an annual regional pride festival, and an informative Training Institute.

“I cannot say enough how important the work that the Bradbury-Sullivan Center does is for the community. As a transgender woman, support is vital to someone who is transitioning, and I was fortunate enough to receive a scholarship that allowed me to attend the Keystone Conference last spring. It allowed me to attend sessions that helped me to learn more about who I was and to help me meet others just like me, and to realize that I could actually start to transition, something that I desperately needed to do. Not being able to transition can be something very deadly to someone who is transgender, and by awarding me one of their scholarships, they quite literally saved my life and kept me from becoming a suicide statistic. Without the center, I would not be here today. I owe them my life.”

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OutCasting by Media for the Public Good

Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.

OutCasting is a public radio’s LGBTQ youth program, produced by Media for the Public Good. Heard on more than 50 public radio stations in the U.S., OutCasting gives a national voice to LGBTQ youth and allies. This organization is training a new generation of media activists who contribute fact-based information and perspective to our national conversation on LGBTQ issues. 

 

“I volunteered with OutCasting for four years, and I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to do so. As a queer high schooler, it was an amazing place to find a community. I made long-lasting friendships, and have gained a permanent home away from home. OutCasting helps educate people across the U.S. about youth LGBTQ+ issues, and I am proud to have been a part of that mission.”

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To see more nonprofits celebrating equality, standing up against bullying, supporting community centers, and offering youth programming, visit //greatnonprofits.org/categories/view/lgbtq.