A colorful mural on the side of a brick building depicts a trans woman. Text reads "look to me my family, xoxo Rita."

The Equality Fund

For the community; for the future

Equality Fund LOGO

The Equality Fund at the Boston Foundation awards grants to Greater Boston nonprofit organizations that serve and strengthen the LGBTQ+ community.

About the Fund

The Equality Fund at the Boston Foundation was created in 2012 as an endowed fund to support Greater Boston nonprofit organizations that serve and strengthen the LGBTQ+ community. 

Stewarded by the Boston Foundation, the Equality Fund's grant-making priorities are guided by an Advisory Committee of community members and allies who possess a depth and breadth of understanding about the most pressing issues affecting LGBTQ+ people today. The Equality Fund is a Field of Interest Fund within the Boston Foundation’s endowment, the Permanent Fund for Boston, which fuels all of the Foundation’s local grant making. Gifts made from the Equality Fund will always go to benefit Greater Boston’s LGBTQ+ community.

This unique fund is already having an impact on the LGBTQ+ community of Greater Boston, with a focus on innovative programming aimed at pressing and emerging issues. To date, the Fund has provided 282 grants totaling $1,828,947, ranging in size from $3,500 to nearly $30,000 to LGBTQ+ organizations and projects.

  2024 Grantmaking

The Equality Fund at the Boston Foundation FY24 grantmaking cycle closed Thursday, February 29, 2024 at 11:59 p.m.

FY24 Application Criteria, Eligibility, and How to Apply

If you have any further questions, please email Equality Fund Director Scott Knox at scott.knox@tbf.org.

Black and white headshot photo of Scott Knox, a man with dark gray hair and a beard and glasses. Layered in the photo, behind him is the TBF green arrow icon
Photo of Scott Knox/Credit: Craig Bailey

To learn more, please contact Scott Knox, Director of the Equality Fund, at scott.knox@tbf.org or (617) 338-2340.


Information for Donors

Any individual, family or organization can contribute to the Equality Fund in a variety of ways:

  • Planned Gifts – The Boston Foundation offers a full range of planned and legacy giving options. Planned gifts may be made to the Equality Fund through bequests, retirement plan and life insurance gifts. In addition, the Boston Foundation offers charitable remainder trusts, and charitable lead trusts, all of which may benefit the Equality Fund.
  • Outright Contributions – The Boston Foundation can accept all types of gifts into the fund including cash, publicly traded securities, restricted stock, real estate, and more.

VIDEO: understanding the equality fund

2023 Grantees

The Equality Fund at the Boston Foundation announced $336,000 in grants to 36 organizations as part of its 2023 grantmaking docket supporting LGBTQ+-led and -serving organizations in Greater Boston. The grants, made as the Fund kicked off its celebration of Pride 2023, bring the total grantmaking from the Fund to over $1.8 million since 2012.

The 2023 grants include:

Boston Alliance of LGBTQ Youth – BAGLY, Inc.: $12,000
BAGLY is a youth-led social support organization committed to social justice and creating, sustaining, and advocating for programs, policies, and services for the LGBTQ+ youth community. In a time where anti-LGBTQ+ tensions are rising, BAGLY provides a brave space where people can be themselves.

Bisexual Resource Center, Inc.: $7,500
The Bisexual Resource Center works to connect the bi+ community and help its members thrive through resources, support, and celebration. We envision an empowered, visible, and inclusive global community for bi+ people.

(B)MEN Foundation, Inc.: $12,000
(B)MEN is an inclusive group of Black men working to mobilize Black men towards creating and participating in support systems for Black men while addressing stigma and regardless of class, national origin, immigration status, age, sexual orientation, sexual identity, and/or gender expression. 

Boston Pride for the People: $12,000
To improve the lives of LGBTQ+ people by emphasizing activities and experiences that empower, celebrate, educate, and commemorate. Empower through creating LGBTQ+ community and respectfully reaching across differences to support and love one another; Celebrate and honor the rich, diverse, creative, and fabulous culture of LGBTQ+ communities, while imparting knowledge of LGBTQ+ history and a sense of pride among LGBTQ+ youth; Educate and advocate broadly about the oppression that LGBTQ+ people still experience, especially LGBTQ+ people who face multiple forms of oppression; Commemorate the Stonewall riots and memorialize the queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, and People of color (QTBIPOC) activists at the forefront of the 20th century (LGBTQ+) movement.

Boston Theater Company Inc.: $7,500
The mission of Boston Theater Company is to create new work while pushing the boundaries of theatre by exploring new ways to tell stories. We are rooted in the power theater has to unite, uncover and illuminate. We tell innovative stories that showcase the complexity of the human condition, using modes from verbatim documentary theater to movement-based non-verbal projects to music.

Citizens for Juvenile Justice: $7,000
Citizens for Juvenile Justice's mission is advocating for statewide systemic reform that achieves equitable youth justice.  Founded in 1994, Citizens for Juvenile Justice is the only independent, non-profit, statewide organization working to reform and reimagine juvenile justice and other youth-serving systems in Massachusetts.

City Ballet of Boston, Inc .: $7,000
City Ballet of Boston’s mission is to Promote Diversity through Dance. Our professional ballet company, youth apprenticeship program, and local performances like the Urban Nutcracker break down racial barriers by uniting Bostonians of all ages, races, incomes, gender identities, and sexual orientations behind the power of artistic expression.

Coro Allegro : $7,000
Coro Allegro is proud to be Boston's award-winning LGBTQ+ and allied classical chorus, dedicated to building bridges between disparate communities through extraordinary music. Coro Allegro seeks to counteract homophobia and transphobia through artistic excellence and visibility, to offer wide audiences access to compelling choral music by diverse classical and contemporary composers, to expand the choral tradition by amplifying marginalized and silenced voices, and to offer a welcoming and affirming environment for performers and audiences of all sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, races, religions, and abilities.

Dancing Queerly: $7,000
Dancing Queerly’s mission is to bring queer folks with varying dance experience together in the joy of dance as audience members and participants.

Ethos:  $12,000
Ethos' mission is to promote the independence, dignity, and well-being of elderly and disabled people. Ethos achieves its mission by coordinating and delivering high-quality, affordable home and community-based care.

Fenway Health: $12,000
Fenway Health advocates for and delivers innovative, equitable, accessible health care, supportive services, and transformative research and education. We center LGBTQIA+ people, BIPOC individuals, and other underserved communities to enable our local, national, and global neighbors to flourish.

FLAG Flag Football Inc. : $7,000
Tackling stereotypes, building community, and transforming lives through sport for the LGBTQ+ and ally community.

GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, Inc. (GLAD): $12,000
Through strategic litigation, public policy advocacy, and education, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders works in New England and nationally to create a just society free of discrimination based on gender identity and expression, HIV status, and sexual orientation.

Greater Boston Legal Services, Inc.: $12,000
Our mission is to provide free legal assistance to as many low-income families as possible to help them secure the most basic necessities of life.  GBLS plays a unique role in the social service delivery system. It is the agency to which other providers refer clients when no one else can help and legal assistance is needed.

Greater Boston PFLAG: $7,500
Greater Boston PFLAG’s mission is to advocate for and advance equity and societal affirmation of LGBTQ people by building and strengthening loving families, safe communities, and a diverse and inclusive society.

Health Law Advocates, Inc.: $7,500 
Health Law Advocates (HLA) is a 501(c)(3) public interest law firm whose mission is to provide pro bono legal representation to residents in low-income situations experiencing difficulty accessing or paying for needed medical services. HLA is committed to ensuring universal access to quality health care in Massachusetts, particularly for those who are most at risk due to such factors as race, gender, disability, age, or geographic location.

History Project, Inc.: $12,000
The History Project (THP) documents and preserves the history of Massachusetts' LGBTQ+ communities and shares that history with LGBTQ+ individuals, organizations, allies, and the public. A volunteer-driven organization established in 1980, THP maintains one of the largest independent LGBTQ+ archives in North America, with over 250 archival collections.

Home for Little Wanderers, Inc.: $12,000
The Home for Little Wanderers helps build stable lives and hopeful futures for children who are abused, neglected, or at risk.

Jewish Big Brother Big Sisters of Greater Boston: $7,000
JBBBS seeks to transform the lives of at-risk children and teens, as well as adults with disabilities, and their families, through the power of one-to-one relationships. We actively engage and serve children and adults across religion, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, and ability.

Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition: $12.000
MTPC works to ensure the wellbeing, safety, and lived equity of all trans, nonbinary, and gender-expansive community members in Massachusetts.

North Shore Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth (nAGLY): $12,000
The mission of the North Shore Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth (nAGLY) is to honor, respect, educate, and empower LGBTQ+ youth. 

OUT MetroWest, Inc.: $7,000
OUT MetroWest builds communities where LGBTQ+ youth thrive.

OUTstanding Life: $7,000
OUTstanding Life's mission is to create a diverse, thriving virtual community of LGBTQ+ older adults in Massachusetts where participants can connect, learn, and grow.

Peter DiMuro Public Displays of Motion: $7,500
Public Displays of Motion's mission is to create works of art that entertain, engage, and advocate for the inclusion of all, via the translation of personal story and socially aware histories into layered multi-media performances for site, stage, and screens.

Political Asylum Immigration Representation Project (PAIR) Inc.: $7,500 
Founded in 1989, PAIR ensures the due process rights of asylum seekers and detained immigrants through high-quality and reliable pro bono programs so that they have equal protection of the law and access to legal counsel without charge.

Pride in Our Workplace, Inc.: $7,500
Pride in Our Workplace helps all LGBTQ+ professionals and allied businesses drive positive change in the workplace.

Portraits of Pride: $7,500
Our mission is to bring visibility to LGBTQ people and issues through portraiture photography.

Quincy Pride, Inc.: $7,000
The mission of Quincy Pride is to promote and foster Acceptance, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion through its annual Q Pride Day Festival and provide advocacy for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (or questioning), intersex, and asexual (or allies) LGBTQIA+ families and residents.

Roxbury Youthworks, Inc.: $12,000
Our mission is to help youth caught in cycles of poverty, victimization, and violence transition successfully into adulthood.

Silver Lining Mentoring: $7,000
Silver Lining Mentoring empowers youth in foster care to thrive through committed mentoring relationships and the development of essential life skills.

South Coast LGBTQ Network Inc.: $7,000
The South Coast LGBTQ+ Network is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to create and support a thriving LGBTQ+ community on Massachusetts’ South Coast where individuals can freely, safely, and joyously celebrate their true selves and realize their full potential.

Teach Plus Inc.: $7,000
The mission of Teach Plus is to empower excellent, experienced, and diverse teachers to take leadership over key policy and practice issues that advance equity, opportunity, and student success.

Theater Offensive, Inc.: $12,000
To present liberating art by, for, and about queer and trans people of color that transcends artistic boundaries, celebrates cultural abundance, and dismantles oppression.

Trans Community of New England (TCNE): $12,000
Connecting transgender, non-binary, gender non-conforming people and those who love us with community and resources to help us all live full and authentic lives.

Victory Programs, Inc.: $12,000
Victory Programs’ mission is to open doors to recovery, hope, and community to individuals and families facing homelessness, addiction, HIV/AIDS, and/or other chronic illnesses.

Wily Network, Inc.  $12,000
The Wily Network works to ensure Scholars have the tools and networks necessary to thrive in four-year residential colleges and transition successfully into post-college life.  Wily provides a critical safety net for Scholars as they navigate college independently.

  Key Information

Founded: 2012, as the first endowed LGBTQ+ fund in Boston

Grantmaking: Most grants made annually, with decisions announced in June

Read the 2023 Equality Fund grants announcement

Information for donors

LGBT Report Cover Click to read "Equality and Equity"

  Fund Advisory Committee

Eric Brown, Senior Vice President, Philanthropy, KeyBank

Elyse CherryCEOBlueHub Capital

Catherine D'Amato, President and CEO, Greater Boston Food Bank

Mike Dillon, Former PWC Partner and Chief Diversity Officer

Peter Epstein, Partner, Epstein & August, LLP.

Jude Erondu, Director, Responsible Investing, Nuveen

Dean HaraConsultant and Community Leader

Cheryl Katon, Vice President of Resource Development and Donor Engagement, Fenway Health

Andrea LightSenior Director, U.S. Knee Commercial Marketing, Smith & Nephew

Cameran Mason, Chief External Relations Officer, Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Ricardo RodriguezFounder, Ricardo Rodriguez and Associates

Alexandra SchumanExecutive Director, Corporate Social Responsibility, Schrödinger

Ying Wang, Esq., Associate General Counsel, Massachusetts Gaming Commission & Captain, Judge Advocate General (JAG) Officer, United States Army Reserve

Derrick Young Jr., Co-founder & Executive Director, Leadership Brainery