The Lesbian Genius Fund is a grant-making programme established and operated by EL*C – EuroCentralAsian Lesbian* Community to move money where it has always been needed: directly into the hands of lesbian organisations. Because lesbian organisations are not a niche. We are not an afterthought. We are not a “target group” to be remembered at the end of a strategy. We are builders of movements, makers of culture, defenders of communities, producers of knowledge, organisers of care, resistance and political imagination. Across Europe, Central Asia and beyond, lesbian organisations are numerous, diverse, radical and alive — yet we remain among the least funded actors in the global human rights ecosystem. The latest data shows that only 2% of global LGBTIQ+ funding goes to lesbian groups and projects, and within that 2%, Europe and Central Asia are among the least funded regions in the world. This is not a coincidence. It is a funding failure with political consequences. The Lesbian Genius Fund was created to interrupt that pattern — and to prove what becomes possible when lesbian movements are resourced with trust, ambition and power.
The Lesbian Genius Fund, powered by EL*C, is uniquely placed to do this work because we are not funding the movement from the outside. We are the movement funding itself. As a network of more than 250 lesbian organisations and several thousand individual members, EL*C is led by, accountable to and shaped by the communities it serves. Our grant-making began in 2020 as an emergency response to the COVID-19 crisis and has since grown into a strategic funding engine for lesbian advocacy, campaigning, research, festivals, archives, protection from gender-based violence, economic empowerment and the everyday survival work that keeps movements alive. In just over five years, we have supported 97 lesbian organisations, funded 123 projects, and invested more than €3.5 million into lesbian organising. Our primary focus is Europe and Central Asia, but we also act as an intermediary for lesbian funding in other regions, including Latin America and the Caribbean, Southern Africa and Asia, in cooperation with similar lesbian networks in those regions. Through a participatory grant-making model, funding decisions are made by lesbian community representatives democratically elected by EL*C’s membership. Because we know that those closest to the struggle are closest to the solutions. History has taught us that strong lesbian movements are essential to dismantling patriarchy, sexism, misogyny, lesbophobia, homophobia, biphobia and transphobia. Without lesbians, there is no meaningful social change. Our goal is unapologetic: to financially support every lesbian organisation in Europe and Central Asia, every year, with at least enough funding to cover their core operating needs. We will not stop until the lesbian movement is funded like its genius has always deserved.
The Lesbian Genius Fund supports a wide range of movement priorities through five core funding programmes. Each stream is shaped by the needs, strategies and urgency of lesbian organisations themselves — resourcing the work that protects our communities, builds our power, preserves our histories, shifts narratives and makes lesbian futures possible.
Violence against lesbians is not incidental. It is rooted in patriarchy, misogyny, lesbophobia, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, racism, ableism, economic injustice and other systems that try to control our bodies, silence our voices and limit our freedom. Lesbians Against Violence Programme exists to resource the lesbian organisations that are confronting this violence every day — in homes, communities, institutions, public spaces and movements.
Through this programme, the Lesbian Genius Fund supports lesbian-led and lesbian-focused organisations working to prevent, respond to and challenge gender-based violence against lesbians. The programme strengthens grassroots groups at local, national and regional levels through direct funding, capacity development, mentoring, coaching, peer learning and collective movement-building.
Beyond funding individual projects, this programme invests in the long-term power and resilience of lesbian organisations. It supports groups to grow stronger, safer and more sustainable, while building the knowledge, leadership and solidarity needed to confront violence in all its forms.
Since its launch, the programme has supported 41 organisations and 52 projects, distributing close to €2 million in direct funding to strengthen grassroots initiatives and collective responses to violence.
The Lesbian Against Violence Programme works to prevent and combat intersectional violence against lesbians by resourcing the organisations closest to the realities on the ground. Through direct funding, the programme has supported survivor-centred services, community-based protection, evidence-building, training for professionals, and coordinated advocacy aimed at changing the systems that too often fail lesbians.
The programme is implemented through two funding cycles. In the first cycle, running from September 2024 to September 2025, EL*C supported 21 projects with more than €800,000 in funding. The second cycle, running from October 2025 to October 2026, supports 31 projects with more than €1.1 million, reaching lesbian communities in over 20 countries.
Beyond the numbers, the programme is helping to shift power. It has strengthened trust between lesbian communities and institutions, created new evidence where data was missing, amplified the voices of lesbians who are too often pushed to the margins, and built stronger collaboration between grassroots lesbian organisations and mainstream service providers.
These projects are not only responding to violence — they are building the foundations for long-term safety, visibility, justice and recognition for lesbians in all their diversity.
Lesbian organisations do not only respond to crisis — they build political power. They defend rights, challenge institutions, shift public narratives, hold governments accountable and make lesbian lives visible where they have been ignored, erased or pushed to the margins. The Lesbian Agenda programme exists to resource this power.
Through this programme, the Lesbian Genius Fund supports lesbian organisations to strengthen their advocacy, grow their political influence and advance the rights of lesbian communities. It combines direct funding with mentoring, capacity development, coordinated advocacy and opportunities for transnational collaboration — because strong movements need resources, skills, strategy and solidarity.
This is funding for movement infrastructure: the everyday, strategic and often invisible work that allows lesbian organisations to survive, grow and lead. It supports groups to become stronger watchdogs, sharper advocates, more visible public actors and more powerful forces for equality and justice.
Since its launch, the programme has supported 43 organisations, distributing €850,000 to strengthen movement infrastructure, organisational growth and collective impact.
The Lesbian Agenda programme supports EL*C member organisations to grow their advocacy power, increase their political influence and advance the rights of lesbian communities. Through direct funding, the programme resources grassroots organisations while also offering mentoring, capacity development, coordinated advocacy opportunities and spaces for transnational collaboration.
The programme is implemented through two funding cycles. In the first cycle, running from December 2023 to December 2024, EL*C supported 31 projects with €550,000 in funding. The second cycle, running from June 2025 to December 2025, supported 12 projects with €300,000, reaching lesbian communities in over 20 countries.
Across both cycles, the programme has shown what happens when lesbian organisations have the resources to organise, speak, gather and lead:
Beyond the numbers, this programme has helped strengthen the infrastructure of lesbian organising. It has supported lesbian organisations to build trust with institutions and stakeholders, bring under-represented voices into public debate, generate evidence, create spaces of visibility and belonging, and connect grassroots initiatives with broader networks and movements.
These projects are not only strengthening individual organisations — they are building a more visible, resilient and politically powerful lesbian movement rooted in equality, solidarity and collective action.
Economic freedom is not a side issue. It is movement survival. The Lesbian Economic Power programme was created because lesbian communities are pushed to the margins of the economy in multiple ways: through discrimination in employment, unequal pay, unsafe workplaces, limited access to capital, and the chronic underfunding of lesbian organisations. In a shrinking funding landscape, lesbian movements cannot rely only on short-term project grants. We need resources, revenue, skills, businesses, assets and economic autonomy.
Lesbian Economic Power programme responds to this reality by investing in two connected forms of change: strengthening the economic position of lesbians themselves, and building the financial sustainability of lesbian organisations. The programme supports lesbian organisations not only to become more stable and self-sufficient, but also to implement actions that directly improve the lives, income, opportunities and economic security of lesbian community members.
Until 2028, EL*C will invest more than €2 million in the Lesbian Economic Power programme, with the expectation of funding over 50 lesbian organisations through the programme. In parallel, EL*C plans to invest around €5 million in its own social enterprise model by 2028, with an expected annual profit of over €1.5 million. These resources will strengthen EL*C’s long-term sustainability and create new funding streams that can be reinvested into lesbian organisations and the wider lesbian movement.
By 2028, Lesbian Economic Power programme aims to build a new layer of lesbian economic infrastructure — one that strengthens organisations, creates opportunities for lesbian communities, and generates resources that can be reinvested back into the movement.
Lesbian Economic Power programme is about turning survival into strategy. It is about refusing dependency as the only future available to lesbian movements. And it is about building the economic force we need to fund our work, employ our communities, own our ideas and shape the futures we deserve.
Crises do not affect everyone equally. For lesbian organisations and communities, emergencies often intensify existing violence, isolation, poverty, repression and exclusion. When institutions fail, borders close, wars begin, activists are attacked, or organisations are pushed into survival mode, lesbian movements need resources that are fast, flexible and built on trust.
The Lesbian Emergency programme was established by EL*C in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 crisis and its impact on lesbian organisations and communities. During the pandemic, many lesbians faced increased isolation, economic insecurity, violence and lack of access to care, while organisations struggled to sustain essential services and community support. What began as an emergency response to COVID-19 has since grown into a broader rapid support mechanism for lesbian movements facing crisis.The programme was further expanded to support lesbian organisations and communities affected by the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, as well as lesbian organisations and lesbian human rights defenders facing other urgent threats. These include attacks or threats of attacks, state repression, judicial proceedings, legal persecution, security risks, sudden humanitarian needs and emergency situations that threaten the safety, wellbeing or continuity of lesbian organising.
This programme is built on the understanding that emergency support is not only about survival. It is about protecting the people, organisations, knowledge, spaces and relationships that make lesbian movements possible. In moments of crisis, rapid funding can mean the difference between isolation and solidarity, shutdown and continuity, fear and resistance.
Since its launch, the programme has provided urgent funding to lesbian organisations and communities facing crisis, helping them respond quickly, protect their people, sustain their work and continue organising when it matters most.
Lesbian movements are local, regional and global at the same time. Our contexts are different, but our struggles are deeply connected: patriarchy, misogyny, lesbophobia, racism, anti-gender politics, shrinking civic space, violence, poverty, erasure and underfunding do not stop at borders. Neither should our solidarity. The Global Lesbian Cooperation programme was created to strengthen transregional lesbian organising by supporting regional lesbian networks to connect, cooperate and build collective force across the world. Led by EL*C as an intermediary and movement partner, the programme brings together 5 lesbian networks from Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Southern Africa — not as separate struggles, but as parts of one global fight for freedom, dignity and justice.
This programme is based on a simple political belief: lesbian networks must be resourced to stand with each other. When one region is under attack, others must be able to respond. When knowledge is built in one movement, it should travel. When advocacy happens globally, lesbian voices must be present, coordinated and impossible to ignore.
Since its launch, the programme has supported 4 regional networks and distributed more than €200,000 in direct funding to strengthen their work. The overall value of the programme was USD 1.5 million, but the majority of these funds could not be spent because the grant was abruptly terminated by the Trump administration.
But the mission was not terminated.
Despite the current funding gap, the Global Lesbian Coalition of 5 regional lesbian networks remains a strategic priority. Its purpose is bigger than one grant, one donor or one political moment. The need for global lesbian cooperation is urgent, and the vision remains clear: to build a world where lesbian networks across regions are connected, resourced, visible and able to act together.
The future of lesbian movements is global. Our resistance is global. Our care is global. Our agenda is global. And the work of resourcing global lesbian solidarity continues.
