Click the image to watch the full photo/audio documentary.

Ra Ruiz was born in Puerto Rico and grew up in the Bronx, where for two years she and her mother and brothers endured periods of homelessness. She graduated from Evander Childs High School in 2005, and now is a junior at the New School, living in a dormitory in the Upper East Side that she says is too loud late at night.

Our 30th Anniversary year was busy and fruitful. We awarded $2.2 million in grants to 198 organizations and 21 individuals in 47 countries–—representing a 20% increase over the previous year. We’’ve enhanced our systems and better harnessed the power of the web. We held two anniversary gala events, and a number of smaller events that introduced our work to new supporters across the country. Most importantly, we’’ve seen real progress in the fight for LGBTI justice.

As we strategize for the future, we pay tribute to those on whose shoulders we stand—–our Astraea family–—Founding Mothers, current and former board, staff and grants panelists, volunteers and committed grantee and donor partners. Each has helped Astraea become a global force for LGBTI human rights.

For more than thirty years, Astraea has been at the forefront, providing meaningful support to organizations that champion LGBTI communities–—often representing their first or only viable funding. In the times ahead, we continue to stand with our grantee partners. We stand with those who generously give of their time and resources in order to sustain this vital work of social change. And we stand with each of you.

We hope you see yourself reflected in this report. We certainly do.

Download 2008 Annual Report

“After a rigorous search process, the Astraea staff and board is delighted to welcome Beverly as our Director of Development,”” Katherine Acey, Executive Director said, “”A seasoned fundraiser, Beverly’’s skill, vision and commitment will prove invaluable in continuing to build Astraea’’s capacity even during these difficult financial times.””

The Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice is the world’s only foundation solely dedicated to supporting LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) organizations globally. Last year, Astraea issued more than $2.2 million in grants to organizations in 120 cities and 47 countries around the world working for empowerment and human rights.

““I know what it is to be marginalized.  It is unacceptable,”” said Blake, “”I am committed to empowering myself and others to work for personal freedom and human dignity. Astraea provides a way to do that and have a broad impact in the struggle for social justice and equality.””

Blake has eight years experience creating and implementing development campaigns for organizations dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of marginalized groups including those living with HIV/AIDS, LGBTI and homeless people.  These organizations include Harlem United Community AIDS Center and the Doe Fund.  Blake is also a former corporate executive who applies her expertise to the increasingly intricate demands of non-profit management.  She holds a BS in Engineering Chemistry from the State University of New York at Stony Brook as well as a Juris Doctorate from the University of Iowa, College of Law.

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The Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice works for social, racial, and economic justice in the U.S. and internationally. Our grantmaking and philanthropic advocacy programs help lesbians and allied communities challenge oppression and claim their human rights.

Media Contact: Melissa Hoskins, Communications Associate

Phone: 212.529.8021 x26 Email: [email protected]

Just released: our Spring 2009 issue of eThreads. Read, watch and be inspired by Astraea’s incredible community of grantees and donors from Cape Town, South Africa to Texas. Hear Bin speak about lesbian, bi, and trans activism in China. Find out how Felicia made a personal connection to Astraea through philanthropy.  And that’’s just the beginning. Find out more now.

eThreads

March 2nd is the deadline for the Astraea Visual Arts Award that recognizes the work of contemporary lesbian visual artists within the U.S. Astraea welcomes submission of art in the following categories: sculpture, painting in any medium, print, drawing, works on paper, and mixed media.

Apply to the Astraea Visual Arts Award

Media Coverage

Excellent coverage by Feministe
Excerpt: “You can’t hear much more on the video than “this is what democracy looks like,” but that’s precisely the point of the disruption. Decisions about the future of this city shouldn’t be by a Trilateral Commission or a Bilderbergers forum, and we’’ve already seen what happens when bankers, and bankers on the other side of the revolving door, get carte blanche to decide how to shore up the economy their banks. The protest was organized by Right to the City, a national coalition of community organizing projects. Here in New York, that includes CAAAV (Organizing Asian Communities), FIERCE, Community Voices Heard, FUREE, JFREJ, Mothers on the Move and quite a few other local grassroots projects that you should know about. I know that one group, Picture the Homeless, has been trying for months to get a meeting with Bloomberg to get him to hear the voices of homeless people who are affected by the city’s policies. He refuses to meet with them. That’’s why disruption becomes necessary.

This is what democracy really should look like: grassroots movements of LGBTQ youth of color, women who’’ve had to deal with welfare, mothers trying to save the communities of the South Bronx, progressive people of faith, women of color working for low-income families, Latin@ immigrant communities, Asian women against violence, the list goes on and on. I’’m proud to see this kind of action bringing together so many different movements.” [Read the whole post and watch video]

ABC News

Newsday

New York Times

On March 5th, Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP) will team up with fellow Astraea grantee partner, the Audre Lorde Project, to present a joint benefit show, The Get Down. SRLP works to works to guarantee that all people are free to self-determine their gender identity and expression, regardless of income or race, and without facing harassment, discrimination, or violence. After recent legal victories for gender self-determination and protections for youth, SRLP has launched a new monthly legal clinic in the Bronx.

Law and Disorder

By Lauren O’Neill-Butler for ArtForum.com

New York, NY—SINK OR SWIM. Since art nonprofits (and downtown art nonprofits in particular) have dealt with those looming conditions for ages, it felt only natural that last Tuesday night, during several events feting such institutions, conversations about community would trump those about the economic downturn. White Columns celebrated its prestigious history with the opening of “40 Years/40 Projects,” and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project held its fourth annual “Small Works for Big Change” auction at the Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation. The latter, a benefit that is supported by donations and volunteers, raises funds for free legal services for low-income transgender and intersex people. Pressed to catch the 7:30 PM SRLP fashion show, and hoping to make a pit stop at the Swiss Institute for Marlo Pascual’s opening, time and space seemed to collapse as I rode a wave of giddy, infectious cheer, post–season of giving, pre-–Obama inauguration.

First up was White Columns, where ever-gracious curator Amie Scally pointed out a few highlights–––a 1970 New York Times review by Peter Schjeldahl, Lovett/Codagnone’s 1995 video Samurai Love, and the newspaper exhibition catalogue from the 2004 “Gloria” show. Did it come as a surprise to see the august critic and artists meandering around the galleries? Not really. Maybe it was all the ephemera going to my head, but already the art world seemed a little smaller, more tightly knit—1970s redux. Salvaged from basement archives, the show includes a 1988 checklist from Cady Noland’s exhibition, with works priced at two and four hundred dollars. Amid chatter about those now-bargain-basement prices, director Matthew Higgs elaborated on the archive’s poor condition, as we gazed fondly at the three remaining documents from Kim Gordon’s 1981 show and discussed the potential for a panel featuring all of the White Columns directors—a disparate clan, to be sure. Clocking the time—–nearly 7 PM—–on Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s Perfect Lovers, I squeezed through the by-then-bustling crowd and caught a taxi to SoHo.

At the Swiss Institute, wistful new works by fresh-faced Pascual were reminiscent of her show last year at White Columns––everything comes full circle. The hallways were crowded and the elevator packed, but the large main gallery, featuring a mammoth steel sculpture by Pierre Vadi and Christian Dupraz, was relatively empty, perhaps because no one wanted to step on the frail, barely there glass rings on the floor (although by the looks of it, several already had). During a few quick New Year catch-ups, I tried to persuade friends to tag along to the final destination of the night––it was, after all, a good cause. “I don’t like art that has an obligation,” one asserted. “You killed Proposition 8!” I heard someone retort. And off we went.

En route to the benefit, as we navigated the nearly barren streets, my mind wandered back to the early ’70s again. (Last year, the auction was at Sara Meltzer Gallery, and the year before at Orchard; its flight to SoHo seemed perfectly timed.) This quasi-nostalgia was in full effect once I arrived at Leslie/Lohman, where a few hundred participants were having the loudest art party I’’d ever seen. Tacked above the entrance desk, a large handmade sign—the sort familiar to protests and DIY celebrations––welcomed visitors to the auction, while T-shirts and posters for sale at prices from two to ten dollars suggested that no one would leave empty-handed.

“How bad do you want it?” someone screamed above the blaring hip-hop as I made my way toward the stage, shouldering through the sea of radical––and radically different––people. I tried to find out what “it” was––the art, the clothes, the drinks, or something more lubricious––but the show was just ending. Or at least, I thought it was, since the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were prancing around all night, selling raffle tickets for a two-hour “Kink Session.” Playing name-that-tune with some friends, I caught up with a few of the benefit’s organizers (full disclosure: I helped out over the summer) and checked the works lining the walls, taking second glances at Isabelle Woodley’s and Lisa Ross’s contributions. “I’m just relieved my work was bid on!” exclaimed another artist in the show, while one more told me he was just as relieved there were no bids yet. “Saving the best for last,” he said as I nodded, lip-synching to Madonna’s “Lucky Star.” It seemed hardly any time had passed before MC Jennifer Miller was screaming over the music for everyone to bid. On command, the pages appeared to fill up. During those fleeting moments, in the midst of joyful and jostling bodies, downtown seemed immune to the downturn.

As seen on ArtForum.com

The Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice has been named the “#1 Top Gay Charity” by Qweerty.com. The rankings were based largely on ratings by CharityNavigator.org, where Astraea has the highest rating–—4-stars—–for organizational efficiency, organizational capacity, and overall financial health. As a public foundation with a global reach, last year Astraea awarded more than $2.2 million to 198 organizations and 21 individuals in 120 cities and 47 countries around the world.

Read the post here: Qweerty.com

Over 100 people filled Astraea’s paper-snowflake bedecked offices last Thursday, December 4th. Pockets of conversation and laughter sprang up as donor and grantee partners, staff, board, and new friends came together to celebrate. Whether you were able to be with us in person that evening or not, we thank you—–you are an important part of Astraea and Justice in the Making the world over.