The intersection of Latino community-based organizations’ activism and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) advocacy – and how they can really help each other – is the central theme of a new briefing paper being released by Hispanics in Philanthropy.

“Small Steps to Big Change: Why Support for Local Latino Groups Is Critical to LGBTQ Organizing” focuses on a survey of LGBTQ advocacy campaigns over the past five years that found them to have been 35 percent more effective when they included Latino partners or substantial Latino support.

The briefing paper and its accompanying video also illustrate the trend with a case study of MassEquality’s collaboration with the Chelsea Collaborative, a HIP Funders Collaborative for Strong Latino Communities grantee, to achieve passage of the Transgender Equality Rights Bill in Massachusetts. Columbia University Associate Professor Frances Negrón-Muntaner, Ph.D., authored the report with HIP Program Manager Lacy Maria Serros.

The research also points to the opportunities that this trend offers philanthropies for redirecting their funding strategies away from assumptions that large mainstream organizations led by non-Latino whites are best suited to address the discrete health, immigration, and employment challenges faced on a daily basis by the rapidly expanding Latino LGBTQ community. Latino community-based groups appear to be more suitably positioned to meet the growing needs of this group, the paper suggests.

 Read the Report