The LGBTIQ+ community makes up a significant proportion of the Australian population...
of Australians are of diverse sexual orientation, sex or gender identity (2.7 million people)
Source: Australian Human Rights CommissionA report by Our Community and GiveOUT
The LGBTIQ+ community makes up a significant proportion of the Australian population...
of Australians are of diverse sexual orientation, sex or gender identity (2.7 million people)
Source: Australian Human Rights Commission… and while LGBTIQ+ Australians often live happy, successful lives, a long history of injustice has resulted in an LGBTIQ+ community with complex needs that must be addressed.
of LGBTIQ+ people have experienced homelessness (vs 13.4% of heterosexual people). Family conflict and rejection because of sexual orientation or gender identity has been identified as a major cause of homelessness for LGBTIQ+ communities.
Source: GALFA LGBTQ Homelessness Research Project
of LGBTIQ+ people hide their sexuality or gender identity in public (and 33.6% when accessing services) for fear of heterosexist violence or discrimination.
Source: Private Lives 2 Report
of homophobic bullying involving LGBTIQ+ young people occurs at school. This has a profound impact on well-being and education.
Source: Australian Human Rights CommissionWe know the problems are eminently fixable…
of LGBTIQ+ young people at schools with protective policies in place feel safe
VS
of those at schools who don’t have these policies.
Source: Australian Human Rights Commission
LGBTIQ+ employees who are ‘out’ to everyone at work are:
more likely to
innovate than workers who are not out to everyone
more likely to
work highly effectively in their team
more likely to
provide excellent customer/client service
… and most Australians are already on the side of equality.
of Aussies voted yes in the marriage equality postal vote.
The resources are available to create change…
An estimated
in grants is given away to Australian community groups each year.
… but only a small proportion of that big pile of cash is given to LGBTIQ+ projects.
grant applications for LGBTIQ+ causes out of 45,155 approved applications
(0.37%)
grant applications for LGBTIQ+ causes out of 23,188 approved applications
(0.10%)
grant applications for LGBTIQ+ causes out of 8,338 total approved applications
(0.22%)
grant applications for LGBTIQ+ causes out of 2,882 total approved applications
(0.07%)
The Australian philanthropic community could do much better in funding LGBTIQ+ projects.
or only $1.5m of the $374.5m in philanthropic funding shown on Philanthropy Australia’s Foundation Maps went to LGBTIQ+-specific projects, of which $1.4 million (93%) was dedicated to the marriage equality campaign.
LGBTIQ+ groups* are surviving on the smell of an oily rag.
of LGBTIQ+ groups have an annual budget of less than $10,000
Most of them are primarily ‘self-funded’
Source: National LGBTIQ+ Community Impact ReportSo the question is, why is so little funding going to LGBTIQ+ groups? Well, here’s what we know:
The Australian LGBTIQ+ community is not highly formalised.
In 2016, there were only
registered charities dedicated to serving the LGBTIQ+ community in Australia.
Source: Australian Charities and Not for Profits CommissionMost philanthropic organisations can only fund registered charities...
Which means the funding is only going to a few LGBTIQ+ charities, or to charities that run LGBTIQ+ projects but are not community-led.
LGBTIQ+ projects are not well targeted by any funder, which may discourage LGBTIQ+ groups and those running LGBTIQ+ projects from applying.
Only
or 17 grant programs specifically focused on LGBTIQ+
and
or 30 grant programs specifically mentioned LGBTIQ+
Source: SmartyGrants (2013-2018)Perhaps as a result, LGBTIQ+ projects are underrepresented in the number of grant submissions that are lodged each year…
or 431 grant applications specifically focused on LGBTIQ+
and
or 973 grant applications mentioned LGBTIQ+
at least one application Source: SmartyGrants (2013-2018)And most grants programs receive only 1 application for an LGBTIQ+-focused project.
GiveOUT is growing the pot of gold under the rainbow and changing the way Australians experience gender and sexuality – for the better! Find out more.
This report has been prepared by Our Community's Innovation Lab, which is home to a social sector-specific data science lab; helping the not-for-profit sector to collect, distil, understand and act on data like never before.