Pride Foundation

Founding and History

The Pride Foundation was founded in 1985 during the HIV/AIDS epidemic in America. According to the foundation, individuals largely in Seattle who were dying of HIV/AIDS decided to pool their money to create a nonprofit foundation to advance LGBT causes. ¹

Activism

The  Pride Foundation provides grant funding to other LGBT organizations. This includes grants to small, grassroots organizations ² in an effort to push for greater acceptance of LGBT lifestyles. ³ Additionally, the foundation operates its Community Care Fund primarily devoted to support networks for nonwhite queer and transgender organizations. ⁴ The foundation also joined forces with the Collins Foundation, MRG Foundation, Meyer Memorial Trust, and the Oregon Community Foundation to create the Oregon Immigrant and Refugee Funders Collaborative (OIRFC) to provide financial support for LGBT immigrants and refugees. ⁵

The Pride Foundation offers scholarships for LGBT students in the Pacific Northwest. Only students who are “LGBTQ+ or questioning” can apply. The foundation claims to have provided $7 million in scholarships to 2,200 students since 1993. ⁶

Third, The Pride Foundation’s partners with local pro-LGBT community activists, philanthropists, and leaders in politics, business, and religion, ³ especially to combat what it sees as “homophobia, transphobia, racism, misogyny and all other forms of harm directed at LGBTQ+ communities.” ⁷ To that end, the Pride Foundation helped found the C.A.R.E. (Community, Advocacy, Research, and Education) initiative devoted to making communities within the Pacific Northwest more open to queer lifestyles. ⁷

The Pride Foundation engages in public policy advocacy. ³ The foundation claims credit for helping to defeat a bill in Montana that would have prevented intact natal males who self-identify as female from using women’s locker rooms. ⁸ It has also fought to defend anti-discrimination protections for gender identity in the state of Washington and in the city of Anchorage. ⁸ Outside of government advocacy, the Pride Foundation claims that it has influenced 30 private companies to enact more favorable workplace policies those who identify as LGBT. ⁸

Grantmaking

The Pride Foundation donates to a variety of other LGBT activist organizations. In 2021, The Pride Foundation donated $101,000 to Lavender Rights Project, a racially exclusive LGBT organization; $60,000 to Movement Advancement Project, an LGBT-interest organization in Boulder, Colorado; $59,000 to Allied Media Project, a left-leaning media strategy nonprofit; and $35,000 to Montana Two-Spirit Society, a Native American left-wing gender organization; as well as many smaller donations to other LGBT groups. ⁹ That same year, The Pride Foundation also provided $511,727 in post-secondary education scholarships. ⁹

Over the course of its existence, the Pride Foundation claims to have given over $70 million in grants. ¹

People

Katie Carter is the CEO of the Pride Foundation. Carter previously worked as a development manager for Oregon Tradeswomen, a feminist economic group, as well as the co-director of In Other Words Feminist Community Center, a now-closed left-wing bookstore in Portland, Oregon. ^{10 11}