As the largest funder of LGBTQ+ communities in Central Florida, Contigo Fund recognizes the still urgent need to financially assist LGBTQ+ and allied organizations both most in need and on the frontlines of response efforts meeting the unique needs of LGBTQ+ communities most marginalized and impacted by the overlapping health, economic, and humanitarian crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In response, Contigo Fund in 2020 launched the LGBTQ+ COVID Emergency Fund and made a commitment of $50,000 in initial seed funding from its total operating budget for these emergency response efforts and is committing another $50,000 for COVID emergency response grants in 2021.
WHO THE FUND SEEKS TO SUPPORT:
This opportunity prioritizes LGBTQ+ and allied grassroots groups and organizations most often cut off from mainstream philanthropy and access to government assistance. For example, those that have not received financial assistance related to COVID-19 through CARES Act Funding, PPP loan, or Small Business Association Loan supporting nonprofits.
The fund will prioritize LGBTQ+ and allied groups on the frontlines addressing the immediate needs of LGBTQ+ individuals most marginalized in the COVID health and economic crisis — in particular transgender, non-binary, gender fluid, and gender non-conforming individuals, undocumented immigrants, people of color, people with disabilities, people experiencing homelessness, sex workers, and working-class people who were self-employed or working in the service economy and that were already living paycheck-to-paycheck and housing unstable and now under-employed or unemployed and unable to access unemployment benefits and unable to sustain themselves or their biological and chosen families.
The focus is to help sustain these groups and their efforts to support LGBTQ+ communities most likely to be marginalized, invisibilized, and left behind in the COVID-19 recovery.