The Samara Fund for LGBT Issues, a component fund of the Vermont Community Foundation, announces the 2012 call for applications to support Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community organizations and projects. TheSamara Fund's mission is to help create a vibrant Vermont LGBT community and ensure that these Vermonters are connected, healthy, appreciated, safe, and empowered.
The Samara Fund recently joined in partnership with the Community Foundation, a move that it hopes will build on Samara’s 20-year history of making grants in support of Vermont’s LGBT community.
‘Our new partnership with the Community Foundation increases our capacity to make more and larger grants,’ said Samara Fund Grants Committee Chair Carol Maloney. ‘We are excited to announce that the Samara Fund will award significantly more dollars in 2012 than we have been able to do over the last several years.’
Applications are available to Vermont nonprofit organizations, municipalities, and schools serving the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community. Groups without nonprofit status are welcome to apply with a fiscal sponsor for a grant from the fund. The application deadline is April 16, 2012.
Although the Samara Fund’s primary interest is in supporting LGBT organizations, non-LGBT-identified organizations are welcome to apply with a project that directly supports a critical need in the LGBT community. Grant awards are typically between $1,000 and $4,000 and a limited number of larger grants may be awarded.
Recently funded projects include Camp Outright, a joint project of Outright Vermont and the YWCA of Vermont to provide a week-long summer camp experience for LGBT youth; the Vermont Diversity Health Project, a project of RU12? Community Center to support access to culturally competent health care for LGBT Vermonters; and the ‘Gen Silent’Tour, a project of the Northeastern Vermont Area Agency on Aging that uses a documentary film to educate elder care providers and the public on issues facing LGBT seniors.
Further application and eligibility information for Samara Fund grants is available on the Vermont Community Foundation’s website atwww.vermontcf.org/samara.
Vermont Community Foundation. 3.20.2012.