SAN FRANCISCO — Thursday, April 20, was a historic day for the LGBTQ community. And it all happened in the scope of 24 hours. During the nation’s largest and only 24-hour fundraising event for LGBTQ-related nonprofits, Give OUT Day 2017 raised a total $550,000.
With the addition of leaderboard prize awards and matching gifts secured before the day, Give OUT Day raised more than $700,000 for LGBTQ nonprofits. Horizons Foundation, the world’s first foundation dedicated to the LGBTQ community, hosted this year’s record-breaking event.
This year’s top organizations — Southerners on New Ground (SONG), Equality North Carolina (EQNC), and Genders & Sexualities Alliance Network (GSA Network) — received donations from the greatest number of unique donors and collectively raised over $63,000. SONG raised $30,130 from a record-setting 711 donors. EQNC raised $16,210 from 633 donors, while GSA Network received $16,901 from 428 unique donors.
National Visibility, Local Levels
Smaller, local organizations — like Freedom Oklahoma in Oklahoma City, and The Source LGBT+ Center in Visalia, Calif. — saw astonishing boosts in their fundraising capabilities. Freedom Oklahoma and The Source LGBT+ Center raised $7,617 and $11,710, respectively.
“It’s exciting to see so many organizations successfully engage not only current, but new donors to give,” said Nikole Pagan, Give OUT Day Program Manager at Horizons Foundation. “For some of these groups, Give OUT Day provides the opportunity to engage more supporters in a single day than they reach the entire rest of the year.
The foundation upped its ante from last year’s Give OUT Day, which earned over $445,000 nationwide.
“It’s encouraging to see donors step up in such a generous way at higher levels of giving than previous years while making donations to support LGBTQ people across all 50 states, Washington DC, and Puerto Rico,” said Dr. Francisco O. Buchting, Horizons Foundation’s Vice President of Grants, Programs, and Strategic Initiatives. “Especially in the current political climate, when the need is greater than ever.”
