In case you missed the news: The Leonard Litz LGBTQ+ Foundation is proud to name the first recipient from our new LGBTQ+ Advocacy Fund, and it’s a familiar name: CenterLink.
Their application was a perfect fit. Our Foundation was created to help LGBTQ+ people achieve their full potential by supporting nonprofit organizations of all sizes that advance the interests and well-being of our community, particularly the most vulnerable in our community, including people of color and the transgender community. CenterLink’s ActionLink program helps LGBTQ+ community centers and other LGBTQ-friendly organizations navigate 501(c)(3) policy and advocacy issues at local, state, and national levels. Most nonprofit organizations want to do policy work but don’t have the funding or staff to do it. ActionLink gives them the tools to focus on advocacy, education, and organization in a meaningful and effective way.
We are incredibly proud to partner with CenterLink in this important work. Our strength is in our numbers, and this level of coordinated advocacy is more necessary now than ever.
Please see the text of the press release below:
Leonard-Litz LGBTQ+ Foundation Approves Multi-Year Grant to Support CenterLink’s Advocacy Program
Fort Lauderdale, FL – CenterLink, the world’s largest LGBTQ community-based association, today announced a multi-year leadership gift from the Leonard-Litz Foundation’s LGBTQ+ Advocacy Fund.
The $150,000 grant was awarded to support ActionLink, CenterLink’s advocacy program, over three years beginning in 2022. ActionLink focuses on grassroots advocacy, education, and organization by providing resources, timely information, and connections at the federal, state, and local levels to CenterLink’s over 300 member centers.
“CenterLink is excited to continue our work with the Leonard-Litz Foundation, and so appreciative of their continued support,” said CEO Denise Spivak. “At this time of significant legislative challenge in the United State, with an onslaught of hateful anti-LGBTQ bills, our ActionLink program is so important in supporting and developing center advocacy initiatives. The program has already made a tremendous impact for LGBTQ centers and communities across the US, and we look forward to working with our network of centers as they increase their advocacy efforts to further support and defend their communities.”
The Leonard-Litz Foundation, a private foundation based in Connecticut, was established to fund partner organizations in the U.S. that are working to improve the lives of the LGBTQ+ population, with an emphasis on intersectional LGBTQ+ advocacy. Their LGBTQ+ Advocacy Fund is intended to support specific projects rooted in pivotal progress for LGBTQ+ people on a broad scale.
“The Leonard-Litz Foundation is proud to support CenterLink and LGBTQ+ community centers across the country in working to ensure that LGBTQ+ people of all ages, and in all locations, have the opportunity to live their fully realized selves,” said Elliot Leonard, one of the founding trustees of the Leonard-Litz Foundation.
“These past two years have been especially challenging for our community,” added Colin Hosten, Executive Director of the Foundation. “The work of CenterLink, and the ActionLink program, in particular, is more important now than ever.”
CenterLink applauds the commitment and leadership of the Leonard-Litz Foundation to support CenterLink’s mission of strengthening, supporting, and connecting LGBTQ community centers
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CenterLink strengthens, supports, and connects LGBTQ community centers. With over 300 members, CenterLink plays an important role in addressing the challenges centers face by helping them to improve their organizational and service delivery capacity, access public resources and engage their regional communities in the grassroots social justice movement. www.lgbtcenters.org
ActionLink is a program of CenterLink and a partnership between CenterLink, LGBTQ community centers, and other LGBTQ-friendly organizations. Together we navigate 501(c)(3) policy and advocacy issues at local, state, and national levels. www.lgbtactionlink.org
Leonard-Litz Foundation funds organizations which advance the interests and well-being of the LGBTQ+ community through advocacy, programs, and services that meet the needs of LGBTQ+ people. www.leonardlitz.org