AFP LGBTQIA+ Articles and Resources

This page provides fundraisers of all identities with resources for better understanding the LGBTQIA+ nonprofit experience.

• LGBTQIA+ identifying members share their personal experiences working in the fundraising field, both the opportunities and the challenges. 
• Members who are a part of, or serve the LGBTQIA+ community, share how to approach LGBTQIA+ donors in a way that is genuine and wholistic, as opposed to tokenizing.  
• Researchers provide valuable data on topics such as sexual harassment in the LGBTQIA+ community, and the growing number of LGBTQIA+ identifying donors. 
   

Member Stories

AFP Member Spotlight: Giovanni “Gio” Rosselli, MPA: In this spotlight, we interviewed Giovanni Rosselli, development director at Houston Methodist Hospital Foundation. He shared with us how important it is to lean into challenges and how fundraisers must find their “why” in order to communicate authentically about their organization’s mission.  

Mike's Monday Message Takeover: LGBTQ Fundraising as Future-Building: The LGBTQ+ movement is a living, beautiful thing. As fundraisers, we have much to learn from it. From GoFundMes that help trans people access necessary health care to queer fundraisers that include not only a dance floor but also job fairs, name change clinics, and clothing swaps, our community reminds me that fundraising can and should be joyful, heart-first, and relationship-centered.

Education

AFP LEAD Session Spotlight: Queer for Hire: In this micro-learning video, Matthew Easterwood, CFRE, CAP shares a preview of his AFP LEAD session, Queer for Hire: Engage the LGBTQIA+ Community to Grow Your Organization & Advance Your Mission. We discuss how to first do the work internally within your own organization, as well as how to engage LGBTQIA+ donors and partners.

LGBTQIA+ Fundraising Panel: This recorded panel discussion features four LGBTQIA+ fundraisers, Joshua Tobing, Kelsey DeForest, Penelope Poppers, and Sunil Oommen. They share their experiences as members of the LGBTQIA+ community in the fundraising and nonprofit sectors. 

Engaging LGBTQ+ Donors

Don't Just Slap a Flag On It and Call It Inclusive: In this micro-learning video from the AFP ICON 2023 session, Belonging and Exclusion: Creating Space for Growing LGBTQ+ Donors, the presenters share how being mindful of pronouns and not making assumptions can go a long way towards not alienating prospective donors.

AFP Micro-Learning: Words Matter: In this micro-learning video from the AFP ICON 2023 session, Belonging and Exclusion: Creating Space for Growing LGBTQ+ Donors, the presenters share how being mindful of pronouns and not making assumptions can go a long way towards not alienating prospective donors.

Get Q’d In (Matthew Easterwood, CAP, CFRE): One in every four Gen Z-ers and 1 in every 10 Millennials identify as LGBTQIA+. How can you reach, engage, and elevate this community, without generalizing these donors and volunteers into one category? 

Fabulous and Philanthropic: Prospecting For Donors This Pride Month (Casey J. Saunders, CFRE): There are many reasons to celebrate LGBTQ+ people this Pride Month—and every month. We’re fabulous! As AFP members I think we can all especially celebrate – and potentially even harness – the LGBTQ+ community’s likelihood to be more philanthropic. 

A Glimpse at the Gay and Lesbian Donor (Donna Red Wing): For many years, gay and lesbian giving was conventional. We gave to our universities and to hospitals, to places and issues as predictable as anyone else. We have not abandoned that giving. We have, however, begun to fund issues that directly impact gay and lesbian people. 

Research

Speaking Truth to Power: Drs. Megan LePere-Schloop and Erynn Beaton, professors at the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at The Ohio State University, conducted research on sexual harassment in the fundraising profession and the results are troubling, especially for members of the LGBTQIA+ community, who were targeted more frequently than their non-LGBTQIA+ peers.

51.23% of LGBTQIA+ fundraisers have experienced sexual harassment of some kind in the last two years, compared to 40.98% of heterosexual peers. 

Belong and Exclusion: Creating a Space for Growing LGBTQ+ Donors (Renee Colombo, Leah Munnelly, Dominic Pepper): This handout from AFP ICON 2023 provides useful stats for understanding the growing LGBTQIA+ donor base and the causes they support.