Fundusz dla Odmiany

Fundusz dla Odmiany (For a Change Fund) is a Polish nationwide LGBT+ non-governmental organization founded in 2019 by activists Magorzata Maciejewska and Aleksandra Muzinska. The most important goals of our Foundation include: - counteracting discrimination, in particular on the grounds of psychosexual orientation and gender identity, - disseminating knowledge about equality and counteracting discrimination, in particular on the grounds of psychosexual orientation and gender identity, among the general public, non-governmental organizations, and public and private institutions, - promoting social acceptance of people, regardless of their psychosexual orientation and gender identity, and of... read more Fundusz dla Odmiany (For a Change Fund) is a Polish nationwide LGBT+ non-governmental organization founded in 2019 by activists Magorzata Maciejewska and Aleksandra Muzinska. The most important goals of our Foundation include: - counteracting discrimination, in particular on the grounds of psychosexual orientation and gender identity, - disseminating knowledge about equality and counteracting discrimination, in particular on the grounds of psychosexual orientation and gender identity, among the general public, non-governmental organizations, and public and private institutions, - promoting social acceptance of people, regardless of their psychosexual orientation and gender identity, and of the relationships they form, - activities supporting the development of local communities based on solidarity, cohesion, mutual assistance, and respect for diversity, - activities for non-governmental organizations, in particular those counteracting discrimination based on psychosexual orientation and gender identity, - social assistance, including assistance to families and individuals who, due to their psychosexual orientation or gender identity, find themselves in difficult life or financial situations, and equalizing life opportunities for these individuals. In our mission: 1. We empower individuals and groups who want to create open communities, award mini-grants, advise on how to provide wise support, and facilitate action. 2. We mobilize allies to take action and courageously support LGBT+ people. 3. We build a community of people who care about creating local and grassroots initiatives for LGBT+ people outside of large cities. We work based on the theory of change method. It assumes that about 70-80% of people in Poland live outside of large metropolitan areas-mainly in smaller cities and rural areas. Actions for LGBT+ people rarely take place there. If we want real and systemic change for our community, we must act there, involving local communities in our work. We award grants on a participatory basis. This means that we make decisions about awarding grants together with the organizations and groups that have submitted their projects. Transparency of the process and the opportunity to learn from each other, inspire each other, and get to know each other and our perspectives are important to us. We trust that local communities know best what actions they need most. We see this method as a great opportunity to build communities, strengthen communities, and inspire hope. Our direct beneficiaries are: 1. LGBT+ people living in local communities in villages, small and medium-sized towns, who are ready to work on their own identity and talk openly about themselves in their local community. We know from experience that these are mainly young people between the ages of 18 and 30. This is a generation that is much more courageous and strongly involved in activism. This does not change the fact that older people are also becoming more and more involved. 2. Allies (supportive people) - these are mainly women living in local communities in rural areas and small and medium-sized towns who do not agree with homophobic rhetoric in public life, usually know an LGBT+ person personally (child, neighbor, student), who are leaders in social life (KGW, teachers, village leaders, employees of cultural centers and libraries). 3. Local communities that participate in activities proposed by our grantees or our team (meetings in villages and small towns). The specifics of this group depend on the proposed activity: they may be teachers (if the activity is aimed at them), they may be the local LGBT+ community, members of rural women's clubs, or school students. In our theory of change at the product level, we distinguish three pillars of activity: 1. Grant program The goal of the grant program is to increase the number of places where LGBT+ people can live better (more safely). So far, we have organized: - 5 Grant for Change competitions (up to PLN 5,000-5,500), - 1 SuperGrant competition (up to PLN 10,000), - 2 special editions of mini-grants (social activities for LGBT+ people, activities for neuroatypical LGBT+ people) (up to PLN 5,500) - 4 editions of "Change Step by Step" (up to PLN 4,900) - two cooperating funds: the Marching Cities Fund (financing equality marches in small towns), the Milo Mazurkiewicz Fund (social assistance for transgender women and non-binary people in difficult family and financial situations) With our knowledge and support, we have reached over 200 localities and trained 42 people to bring about change in their local communities. We have donated over PLN 1 million in grants and donations for local activities. We also mobilize and support LGBT+ allies. Through various networks, our activities reach not only LGBT+ activists, but also many allies who want to work for change in their communities. We conduct training for LGBT+ people who need specific knowledge and skills to organize and take action. In 2021, we organized a pilot program called "Change Step by Step." At that time, it was an educational and development course for people living in south-eastern Poland - the part of the country considered to be the most conservative, where so-called "LGBT-free zones" have been announced since 2019. Out of the 39 applications we received, we ultimately supported 16 people. For several months, we trained them in local advocacy, community building, introducing change in communities, and safely organizing events for LGBT+ people. At the end, we gave them a mini-grant for their own activities. Thanks to this, the first rainbow initiatives appeared in Krosno, Dukla, Sandomierz, Tarnow, Zakopane, and the village of Wygnanka. Due to the great success of the pilot program, we decided to make it a permanent part of our activities. We invited over 40 new people from all over Poland to participate in the next three editions of the program: Gliwice, Tychy, Nysa, Wagrowiec, Gniezno, Chrop, Bielsko-Biaa, Grodzisk Mazowiecki, Bolesawiec, and Garwolin. We created the program with the support of the German organization MitOst and developed it with the support of: Active Citizens - Regional Fund, National Democratic Institute, German Marshall Fund. 2. Community building program A program of workshops, webinars, training sessions, and meetings on LGBT+ topics prepared for four selected groups within the spectrum of our activities: - groups/individuals who received grants from us; - groups and individuals who participated in competitions but did not receive grants; - the wider community of people sympathetic to the LGBT+ community - our donors. Among other things, we have created a series of webinars entitled "How Do You Do It," which addresses issues related to the LGBT+ community and local activism (including how to work in conservative communities, how to operate in a small town, what inclusive language is, how to organize queer events, how not to burn out - webinar recordings available on YouTube). The US and Danish embassies supported us in the development of this section. 3. "Meetings at Your Place" - a program of meetings in rural areas and small towns. We organize community meetings on the situation of LGBT+ people with rural communities (Rural Housewives' Clubs, rural libraries and cultural centers, rural non-governmental organizations). Our strategic partner in this activity is the Rural Development Foundation, which helps us reach new communities and mobilize local leaders to take action in this area. In addition to our team, these meetings are led by nine trainers from all over Poland who have been specially trained by us. We have already organized rural meetings in, among others: Wygnanka (Lublin Province), Osowa Sienia (Lubusz Province), Chropachy and Wieruszow (odz Province), Kujanki (Wielkopolska Province), Morzeszczyn (Pomeranian Province), and Wiazownica-Kolonia (Swietokrzyskie Province). The result of the program is an increased sense of community and belonging among LGBT+ people and their allies, as well as deeper empathy and mindfulness towards others. 4. Alliance education program This program, which we are still developing, is based on the results of our own strategic study of Poles' kindness towards LGBT+ people, which we conducted in 2021. We carried out a "service design" process for this program, which will now allow us to test an educational "service" for people who would like to strengthen their allyship skills. The program includes launching or strengthening existing online and offline channels and tools to equip the Polish public with the knowledge and language needed to support our community. This program also intersects with the community building program (point 2). The result of this program will be an increase in kindness towards LGBT+ people, expressed as an increase in personal activity on behalf of our community.