We are thrilled to share a moment of pride and accomplishment with you as we present our Annual Report for 2021-2022. This document encapsulates the collective efforts, successes, and milestones that have defined our journey throughout the year. 2022 marked the sixth year of the ITF’s existence. Over six grant cycles, we allocated $5,031,500 to 159 trans-led organizations in 88 countries.
Our commitment to participatory grantmaking places accountability, transparency and participation at the center of everything we do. We strive to embody the ethos of “nothing about us without us” in all aspects of our work, which means that trans people are in leadership and decision-making roles across the ITF. The ITF is the only global participatory grantmaker that is exclusively dedicated to supporting trans-led groups to secure the rights and improve the lived realities of trans people.
This third Annual Report covers the period between July 1, 2021 to December 31, 2022. We chose to make this Annual Report cover 1.5 years in order to align it with our fiscal year as a newly incorporated entity.
Message from the Director:
Dear friends,
In the ITF’s 6th grant cycle, we awarded $1,140,000 in core support grants to 54 trans-led organizations and an additional $24,500 in COVID-19 response grants. This makes the ITF’s cumulative grantmaking total $5,031,500 to 159 trans-led organizations in 88 countries. Passing the $5 million dollar threshold was a significant milestone for the ITF.
Another significant milestone was our incorporation as an independent non-profit entity in Canada. Since 2017, the ITF had been fiscally hosted at the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, an organization firmly rooted in LGBTQI communities and movements which shared our deep commitment to resourcing trans and gender-diverse communities. Astraea’s support was immensely critical to our growth and development over these years, and we would not have been able to achieve what we did without them. However, like the trans-led groups that we support, the ITF always envisioned being an autonomous, self-sufficient organization led by trans people.
This move to independence represented a big shift in how we work, including needing to build out our staff, formalize our Board and develop our own policies and procedures related to governance, finance, human resources, and grantmaking. This is an ongoing project and won’t be complete anytime soon, but we have seen exciting progress: We successfully managed the 6th grant cycle and received an unqualified pass for our first audit. At our first in-person Board meeting since the beginning of the pandemic, our Board members met in Salvador, Brazil, and reaffirmed our commitment to ensuring that the ITF is a robust, sustainable, responsive and thriving organization.
One of the central tenets of our work is that we fund trans-led groups that are engaged in movement building across the globe. We do this because we know that centering trans experiences, amplifying trans voices, promoting trans leadership and decision-making, and recognizing the value and importance of our knowledge, experience and expertise as trans individuals and trans movements is the key to our collective liberation.
There is no doubt that trans organizations are best placed to respond to the crises and challenges they face and to come up with effective and innovative strategies and solutions. We saw this during the COVID-19 pandemic, as many of our grantee partners stepped up to provide critical support directly to their communities. In many contexts we have seen that when trans people are not involved in leadership positions in the organizations that are purported to be ‘helping’ us that trans issues are sidelined, ignored, erased, tokenized and even vilified.
This is particularly dangerous in the current climate where we are seeing a severe backlash and the rollback of rights and protections in many contexts. This goes hand-in-hand with the insidious growth of the anti-gender movement which is immensely harmful to our communities. The message to our allies and to our funders should be clear now, if you want to support trans movements, support trans-led organizations. It really is that simple.
As you read through our Annual Report you will find powerful narratives of change from our 5th grant cycle and get a glimpse of the work from our 6th grant cycle. What drives our work is imagining a world where all trans people are safe and free, and can live with dignity and respect. A world where we uplift and celebrate our diverse communities, unstoppable creativity, joy, defiance and innovation to make change. A world where trans movements are resourced, resilient and robust, working intersectionally to promote liberation and transform inequities. We are building a future where gender diversity is celebrated and where trans people have the power to live as our true, authentic selves in communities across the globe. We hope you will join us.
Broden Giambrone
Director
The ITF would like to thank our staff, Board, Grant Making Panel, grantee partners, and our allies and collaborators who are moving money to trans movements across the globe and supporting trans liberation.
This work would not be possible without the generous support of our funders: American Jewish World Service, Arcus Foundation, Dreilinden, The European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR), Foundation for a Just Society, GiveOut, MacKenzie Scott, Open Society Foundations, and Wellspring Philanthropic Fund.
Read the Annual Report
