Filling funding gaps for LGBTQIA+ communities
Two national LGBTQIA+ charities have merged to fill funding gaps affecting queer community groups in South Australia.
Registered LGBTQIA+ organisations receive 5 cents out of every $100 received by Australian charities, according to research from the Aurora Group and GiveOUT’s Rainbow Resources Report.
The two groups behind this research have merged to form Rainbow Giving Australia and are distributing $1 million in funding to LGBTQIA+ communities across Australia this year.
SA Rainbow Advocacy Alliance (SARAA) community engagement manager Brett McAloney says many LGBTQIA+ groups in South Australia are volunteer-run and run on less than $10,000 each year.
“South Australia being a smaller population, and also a little bit further away from a lot of those Eastern States, our portion of funding in our organisations are even smaller again,” Brett says.
Brett is the SA representative on the GiveOUT Day Leadership Council, an initiative now under the Rainbow Giving banner, which price matches funds raised by LGBTQIA+ groups nationally, doubling their impact. Brett’s role involves helping groups fundraise for their projects, complete grant applications and create social media assets to support their causes.
As well as his work with SARAA, Brett is the founder of the LGBT+ supporter group Rainbow Crows. This picture: via SARAA
The 2024 GiveOUT Day, held in October, raised more than $500,000 for LGBTQIA+ communities.
Almost $40,000 of this went to South Austrlian projects, more than three times what was raised for SA last year.
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Brett says in 2023 they had only four SA projects get involved in GiveOUT Day, raising about $18,000.
“This year, we more than doubled the organisations to nine, and we more than doubled the fundraising efforts,” he says.
Feast event Nungay Night, which celebrates local LGBTQIA+ First Nations creatives raised funds through GiveOUT day, helping them celebrate 25 years with a bumper lineup at the Lab.
“We know that many artists quite often do a lot of things either very cheaply or quite often for free, so they’re able to pay those artists, so that was really a great one,” Brett says.
Women’s and Children’s Health Network gender diversity service nurse consultant Ellen Murray showing a chest binder. The WCH allow young people to try binders to find an appropriate size. Picture: WCH Foundation/via website.
TransMasc SA’s binder program was another group that benefitted from GiveOUT Day, furthering their work to provide new and used chest binders free to trans and gender-diverse people who can’t afford them.
“These binders help them to feel more the way that they should feel, and they’re not cheap items, they’re generally over $100 to get reasonable quality ones,” Brett says.
The Rainbow Resources Report found transgender and intersex organisations are the least funded groups under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella.
Other recipients of this funding include SARAA, which will use it to continue their systemic advocacy work, and Uniting Communities BFriend service which offers training and counselling and is celebrating 30 years in 2025.
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The Rainbow Giving Australia team (L–R) Lexi Murrant, Jones Jones, Niki Bhattacharya, Em Scott, Leonard Curmi.
Rainbow Giving Australia will distribute Amplify Pride grants between $30,000 and $50,000 and Ignite Pride grants between $5000 and $20,000 in the next six months to LGBTQIA+ groups running specific programs.
Brett says the shared resources, staffing and equipment from the GiveOUT and Aurora Group merger into Rainbow Giving Australia will see funding quadrupled since the two organisations started informally working together to raise funds in 2020.
“It’s going to be able to continue to help our grassroots South Australian organisations to apply for that much-needed funding,” Brett says.
According to the Rainbow Resources Report, almost three-quarters of LGBTQIA+ organisations experienced increased demand from clients in 2022, yet 33 per cent ceased delivering a service or program due to lack of funding.
Rainbow Giving Australia CEO Em Scott says the merger is about increasing their impact and strengthening the foundation of support for the future of their community.
“This is about mobilising much-needed funding, but it’s also about unity, and empowering our communities to lead and thrive,” Em says.
“We are stronger together, and together we can work towards a safer and more inclusive Australia for all.”
The merger announcement comes at a time when groups are reporting increased anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiment and protests at their events.
A Pride Adelaide spokesperson told InDaily in November that organisers of two separate LGBT events came close to cancelling in response to a torrent of hateful comments following Adelaide’s pride march.
On November 10, police were called to Rundle Mall after a couple in their 20s was allegedly assaulted, with one victim hospitalised with a broken jaw.
The two men were reportedly walking through the mall holding hands before the attack.
SAPOL has arrested two suspects who will appear in the Adelaide Youth Court in January.
Brett says events like this are a result of growing anti-LGTBQIA+ sentiment overseas infiltrating SA, leading to “people feeling that they have a right to intimidate, discriminate and be aggressive towards our community members”.
“It is certainly very much an increasing thing that we’ve seen, particularly in the last 18 months, which is quite concerning,” Brett says.
“It’s certainly something that we need to discuss and address and work towards making sure our community is safe because it’s becoming more and more unsafe unfortunately.”
