IMP Matrix Rating: C6

What: GiveOut is a UK-based charity supporting the global struggle for LGBTQI human rights by making grants to activists and advocacy groups across the world (with a focus on the global South) working on defending their communities and demanding respect for equality.

Who: Critically underfunded activist collectives and research groups predominantly in the global South.

How Much Impact: Similar to the Guerrilla Foundation, GiveOut does not sponsor highly measurable activities such as provision of HIV prevention kits and other health-related assistance, which form the bulk of regular LGBTQI giving. Instead, it looks out for organizations that can organize to create meaningful change in their communities at the root cause level, e.g. by demanding new laws or policies. When policies don’t change tangibly though, the proof that grassroots action works is to be found in storytelling. For example, the Chair of the Tonga Leiti association, a grantee, says: “The mentality of the people is the biggest change. There’s a lot more openness and we see a lot of goodness. Thirty or forty years ago you would never see a trans person in a dress in public. Now you see trans men in men’s clothes, and trans women in women’s clothes. They dress the way they want.”

Our Contribution: We provide a small yearly unrestricted funding contribution to the charity’s finances, to channel resources to its many grantees across the globe.

Impact Risk: The key risk to impact for such a small foundation is that it cannot scale fast enough and therefore leverage its fixed costs to the max in order to provide grants to underfunded organizations.

Sample Investment: IraQueer, a grassroots activist organization in Iraq.