In May 2026, the Trans Arts Community Care Fund distributed a total of $350,000 in one-time, unrestricted grants to 14 organizations. The fund celebrates the trans arts community’s ongoing cultural contributions that define the Bay Area as one of the most vibrant, inclusive and artistically bold regions in the world. The Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Walter & Elise Haas Fund and Gerbode Foundation developed this fund to honor that impact and respond to direct conversations with trans leaders about the acute need for support during this intense moment of disinvestment, destabilization and direct attacks on trans people and communities.
Administered by Horizons Foundation, the fund reflects a shared commitment to ensuring:
- Trans arts organizations have the resources to maintain spaces of community safety and creative discovery.
- Trans artists and makers have the resources to keep creating and shaping the region’s cultural identity through their artistic experimentation, radical inclusion and dedication to joy as a form of resistance.
The following organizations, selected by a committee of five transgender and gender non-conforming cultural leaders in the Bay Area, received one-time grants:
- Anonymous
- Diamond Wave
- Fresh Meat Productions
- Hala Collective
- Oakland To All
- Oaklash
- Peacock Rebellion
- Queer Arts Featured
- Queer Rebel Productions
- Queering Dance Festival
- San Francisco Transgender Film Festival
- The Transgender District
- Trans March
- Weaving Spirits Festival of Two-Spirit Performance
A grantee from the Weaving Spirits Festival of Two-Spirit Performance noted, “Too often, this work is done out of love alone, and while love is abundant, it should not be the only currency.” This funding honors and supports the grantees’ essential, valuable and impactful labor.
While cultivating arts and cultural programming is vital and worthy work in and of itself, these organizations also serve as far more, acting as safe gathering spaces, sources of care, and sites of connection that help trans artists and community survive, create and thrive.
As grantee Hala Collective shared, “Our focus is on sustaining the infrastructure of mutual care. When trans artists are fed, paid and gathered in a room where they do not have to translate their existence, the art that emerges is transformative. That is the anchor we provide.”
Too often, this work is done out of love alone, and while love is abundant, it should not be the only currency.
Weaving Spirits Festival of Two-Spirit Performance
Acute Challenges Facing Trans Arts Organizations
For many decades, the trans community has faced discrimination, marginalization and a lack of financial and moral support. More recently, the unjust trends have worsened and the urgency of need has increased as a result of executive orders infringing on the rights of all LGBTQ+ people, targeted anti-trans policies and funding cuts. According to Funders for LGBTQ Issues 2024 Resource Tracking Report, just 3 cents of every $100 dollars awarded by US foundations was directed to transgender and gender nonconforming communities and issues. This represents a 9% decrease from 2023 to 2024, compounding a multi-year trend. The report’s key insight is that more substantial funding is needed to respond to growing anti-LGBTQ, anti-rights and anti-democracy movements.
How The Trans Arts Community Care Fund Was Created
In early 2025, the Kenneth Rainin Foundation heard from their grantees at trans-serving and trans-led arts organizations about the ways that anti-trans legislation, discrimination and violence was escalating under the current presidential administration. The resulting harm threatened the safety and sustainability of individuals, organizations and entire communities who are integral to the Bay Area arts ecosystem.
Moved to action by the mounting crises, the Kenneth Rainin Foundation engaged the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, Gerbode Foundation and Horizons Foundation to join efforts to support the trans arts community and create more resounding impact together. Working as partners allowed the group to pool more capital, split responsibilities and use shared expertise to move at the speed and scale needed.
“As a result of listening closely to our grantees and following their leadership, we saw an opportunity to commit resources in ways that align with community priorities,” explained Rainin Foundation Arts Program Officer, Sarah Williams. “Informed by close collaboration with peer funders and trans artists and makers who are essential to the Bay Area arts ecosystem, the Trans Arts Community Care Fund is both an investment in the region’s experimental, radical and creative legacy and a chance to publicly demonstrate our allyship in a moment that requires both urgency and care.”
As a result of listening closely to our grantees and following their leadership, we saw an opportunity to commit resources in ways that align with community priorities.
Sarah Williams, Rainin Foundation Arts Program Officer
About The Participatory Grantmaking Process
The fund included a participatory grantmaking process to ensure that the affected community members had the power to decide who and what to fund. A committee of five transgender and gender non-conforming cultural leaders in the Bay Area created the grant criteria and then nominated and selected the organizations that would receive funding.
To be eligible to receive a Trans Arts Community Care Fund grant, organizations needed to be trans-led and trans-serving with cultural missions that support artistic practice and production or that use arts and culture as a key strategy in supporting their mission. The selection process prioritized trans-led organizations. The committee used the Transgender Law Center’s broad definition of “trans,” which encompasses transsexual, transgender, genderqueer, Two-Spirit people, and more generally, anyone whose gender identity or expression is nonconforming and/or different from their birth-assigned sex.
Importantly, the participatory grantmaking process helped the funders reach new groups. Some of the selected recipients had never previously received funding from any of the foundations involved, indicating that this community-led, participatory approach expanded reach.
While the Trans Arts Community Care Fund was a one-time joint initiative, the funders hope that the responsive and participatory framework acts as a model for how others can work in trust-based ways that center the voices and ideas of the communities they’re seeking to support.
If you are interested in learning more about this collaborative funding effort and supporting the transgender arts community, contact the Kenneth Rainin Foundation’s Arts Program Team.
