Representatives from Contigo Fund and last year’s grant recipients. (Photo by Jeremy Williams)
ORLANDO | Contigo Fund will award another round of grants through its All Black Lives Fund in Orlando Feb. 17. The nonprofit organization launched the fund in June 2020 “inspired by the historic racial justice uprising and motivated by the escalating and often invisibilized cases of murder and violence against our Black Transgender family at the hands of police brutality, white supremacy, and transphobia.”
The first round of grants were awarded Feb. 1, 2021 with an event held at Orlando City Hall. The grant recipients were Gender Advancement Project, Divas in Dialogue and Bros in Convo.
“It was definitely great to be one of the first grantees,” Bros in Convo founder Daniel Downer says. “I think it was powerful having us — Bros in Convo, Gender Advancement Project and Divas in Dialogue — because we are grassroots organizations that are established. So that was great to be able to have support for existing programs and services that we provide and allowing us the freedom to expand that.”
Each of the organizations received $30,000 which helped to not only support existing programs but launch some much-needed new ones as well, Downer says.
“Part of the funds were used to launch Flower Boi Blooms, a trans-led initiative to distribute gender-affirming chest binders,” he says. “Before the grant we didn’t have the resources to be able to do that. We also utilized part of the grant for development as an organization.”
A large portion of Bros in Convo’s grant is going to set up a transgender needs assessment that will launch later this year.
“The assessment that will be conducted in Central and South Florida,” Downer says, adding that more information on the assessment will be revealed over the next few months. “There was a group of trans leaders that have been wanting to do this and have been asking different entities to resource it and no one took it seriously, but we looked at it and think it is a good way of investing in our community, in particularly the trans community.”
Downer, along with entertainer Angelica Sanchez, are co-chairing this year’s All Black Lives Fund steering committee, which consists of Flower Boi Blooms’ Angel Nelson, Divas in Dialogue’s Mulan Montrese Williams, LGBT+ Center Orlando’s Keyna Harris, Come Out With Pride’s Reggie Warren, AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s Ronnie McCrea Jr., RISE Initiative’s Shea Cutliff and One Orlando Alliance’s Yasmine Prosper.
Contigo Fund will be giving out $100,000 worth of grants through the All Black Lives Fund this year; three grants of $30,000 and two microgrants of $5,000. Grants will be awarded to organization that are in Central Florida and that are BIPOC led in some capacity.
“When we think about oppression and structural racism, we don’t necessarily connect that to philanthropy and grant making but it is very much there and very much present,” Downer says. “BIPOC led initiatives and organizations are very much under-resourced. They don’t have the same access to donors, to grants, to funders that non-BIPOC entities have so I think it is really important that we elevate that and look at ways we can support that. Look at the amazing work that last year’s grant recipients have done with the finite resources that we have. Just imagine if we had 10 times that, the amazing work that could be done.”
Organizations that would like to be considered for one of this year’s All Black Lives Funds still have until Feb. 4 at 5 p.m. to submit an application. Grant recipients will be decided on Feb. 12 and announced Feb. 17.
For more information on Contigo Fund, go to ContigoFund.org.
