Em Scott: 

GiveOUT was started in 2016 by a group of supporters and people working in the philanthropy sector who realised that the LGBTIQ+ sector was underfunded, both historically and currently. The organisation was founded to help change that picture and increase the flow of funding, particularly philanthropic funding, to LGBTIQ+ not-for-profit and community groups across Australia.

In 2021, together with Aurora, GiveOUT produced a research report called Where Are The Rainbow Resources?, which highlighted the demand for support in LGBTIQ+ communities and the lack of funding available. The report emphasised that LGBTIQ+-led organisations are the best placed to lead change, and we know the value of lived experience from other sectors as well. But to achieve that, we need the sector to be thriving in a sustainable way with enough funds and resources to deliver on the change that is needed.

In 2022, we decided to address that funding gap and launched the Amplify Pride Fund with Aurora. The purpose of the fund is to prioritise organisations that struggle to attract traditional funding or that are working with populations who are uniquely marginalised. That means providing untied funding for the things that people call ‘unsexy’ but are crucial to creating thriving organisations that can really drive outcomes and positive impact for communities.

Em Scott:

The Amplify Pride Fund allows a large range of contributions from hundreds of thousands of dollars to $5 or $10. It encompasses a wide range of donors from some of the largest institutional philanthropists to community-minded people and individual donors. We are particularly grateful for the significant support from Snow Foundation, which has made the Amplify Pride Fund possible.

We also have GiveOUT Day, which is a National Day of Giving in October which provides LGBTIQ+ organisations the chance to run their own fundraising campaign as part of this day of celebration. This has been a great opportunity for the general public to get involved by either signing up to fundraise on behalf of these organisations or simply donating. Donations range from $5 to $5,000 – so no matter where people are at the scale, they can be part of giving and feel empowered to encourage others to join as well. Thanks to the generosity of philanthropic partners, public donations are matched dollar-for-dollar - doubling the impact for every organisation involved.

This year, we also launched a new campaign ‘Sweat with Pride’, which encourages Aussies to get sweaty for 21 minutes a day during June (Pride Month) while raising funds for vital LGBTQIA+ health and wellbeing services, including by ACON and Minus18.

Em Scott:
Recognising the challenges faced by under-represented and marginalised genders is central to any work in the LGBTIQ+ space. We focus a lot on improving outcomes for marginalised genders across Australia whether that's women, non-binary people or transgender people.

There is a strong history of queer women 'giving back' to the community. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, lesbians played a critical role in the response to HIV/AIDS in Australia and globally, through advocacy movements and by supporting gay men living with HIV.

There is a lot of research about the 'invisibility' and lack of active role models for LGBTIQ+ women, due to intersections of gender and LGBTIQ+ identity. This means that we can feel invisible in women's spaces, and then invisible in some LGBTIQ+ spaces.

In terms of our team, we are lucky to have some incredible queer women and non-binary people on our team and Board including Georgia Mathews, Sam Turner, Cat Fay and Jones and Jones. Our whole team is committed to doing the work to improve outcomes for marginalised genders.

Em Scott:

Over the past three years, we've granted $1,073,000. Our most recent round included $622,000 that went into a grants pool that gave individual organisations grants up to $60,000. We’re really proud to say that the grantee cohort covered key gaps and needs across our population.

We've got grantees working with First Nations communities, refugees and asylum seekers, people of faith, people from regional and remote Australia, trans and gender diverse communities and people with innate variations of sex characteristics (sometimes known as intersex). It’s been exciting to provide funding for those core intersectional needs that broader LGBTIQ+ organisations may not be placed to support.

In terms of impact, one of the first things we noticed is that this is the largest amount of funding most of these organisations have ever received. It’s given them a leg up to really deliver on their ambition. For Inclusive Rainbow Voices, which advocates for LGBTIQ+ people with disability, the funding helped them turn an idea into an actual organisation and now they’ve been able to use the grant to secure other funding.

It's giving these organisations legitimacy. And because the funding is untied, we're encouraging people to use it on those foundational things that really matter. For the organisations, that’s meant employing their first staff or finally developing a community-informed strategy for the first time. It's hard to get impact in the first round of funding but the organisations we’ve supported have demonstrated the reach of what they've been able to do.

We were also excited that our model was recognised by the broader philanthropy sector. The Amplify Pride Fund won the 2024 Community Philanthropy Award at the Philanthropy Australia Awards.

Em Scott:
Once you have a solid commitment from one organisation or a person in philanthropy, it makes it a lot easier for other people to join in. I guess it's a sense of mitigating the risk or buying into something. We’ve experienced the power of leveraging off that initial funding to grow and create a collective element that brings a real sense of community.

The grantees talk about how it feels like they have a whole movement behind them. It's not just one funder, it's many. This also helps diversify their relationships and stakeholders and the people they can reach out to.

There are lots of learnings around the power of this fund, but most importantly, it’s about making sure it's informed by and embedded in the community. I think this is one of the reasons why it’s been successful. People can trust that the decision-making around where the funds go is evidence-based, and supported by an experienced team and a robust granting-criteria framework.

Em Scott:
GiveOUT and The Aurora Group had been working together for years, including co-delivering the Amplify Pride Fund. That success showed us that we were stronger together. So, becoming Rainbow Giving Australia was really a natural next step.

The big benefit? It’s about combining our strengths. Aurora brought 25 years of experience in community fundraising and corporate partnerships, especially through events like the Aurora Ball. GiveOUT brought digital savvy fundraising and strong ties to institutional philanthropy, like what we’ve done with GiveOUT Day. 

Now, we’re operating as one national LGBTQIA+ community foundation. That means more efficient operations, less duplication, and more money going straight to community impact. This year alone, we’re distributing $1.2 million to LGBTQIA+ initiatives compared to just over $200k combined a few years ago pre-merger.

We’ve kept all the programs our communities love, but with more power behind them. Ultimately, it’s about ensuring LGBTQIA+ communities have the funding and support they need to thrive, now and into the future.

Em Scott:

We're very proud of what we have achieved so far with the funding we've been able to distribute. However for last year’s grant round, we had over 100 applications, 25 of which we really wanted to fund. We only had enough funding to grant 17 organisations, and we couldn’t fund many to their full funding ask.

There's still a gap and we need to grow the fund. We want to get to a position where we can fund more organisations to their full funding ask and also provide some multi-year funding. We want to grow, diversify and deepen the donor community supporting rainbow organisations, and include the community in granting decision-making in new ways.

Later this year I will be travelling to the UK and USA to complete my Churchill fellowship on innovative philanthropy models that support LGBTQIA communities, and I look forward to bringing these learnings back home and into the work of Rainbow Giving Australia.

In terms of the future of Rainbow Giving Australia, we are really focused on shifting the dial on the fact that only 5 cents in every $100 dollars is distributed to rainbow communities. Our vision is for an empowered, sustainable, and united rainbow community sector, that is able to effectively achieve outcomes for LGBTQIA+ people.