A Braver Cause

I created A Braver Cause to pay forward funds and fiscal support for grassroots non-profit organizations that specifically serve BIPOC and LGBTQI+ individuals. I created The Giving Branch to make my value of contribution actionable.

Who we support

With so many incredible ways to support grassroots organizations today, we’ve identified three specific criteria to for our annual donee choice.

Know of an organization we should consider? Contact my team here.

  • 1. Empowerment

    We allocate support to organizations that, as their central mission, are empowering BIPOC and LGBTQI+ individuals through vocational training, financial education, and/or mental health services and whose majority funding is used for direct programming to those they’re serving.

  • 2. Disrupting oppressive systems

    We support organizations that are disrupting the direct impact of oppression (including but not limited to white supremacy, ableism, patriarchy, queerphobia, transphobia, xenophobia, and scarcity capitalism) for the promotion of and action for healing justice and equity.

  • 3. Grassroots funding

    We generate funds for organizations that are currently raising less than $1M in annual funds with the majority of their funds (51% or more) directly funding program services.

Our current donee is Brave Trails

About Brave Trails

Brave Trails is a national non-profit organization dedicated to LGBTQ+ youth leadership. In their own words, “We offer accredited summer camps, family camps, mentorship programs, meet-up groups, and year-round leadership programming. All of our programs focus on helping LGBTQ+ youth find what they need most to thrive: their people, their place, and their passion.”

Why we’ve selected them:

1. Empowerment

Brave Trails directly empowers LGBTQI+ youth by offering summer camps, mentorship, leadership training, and a new mental health chapter with the goal of helping LGBTQI+ youth make meaningful changes in their own communities.

2. Disrupting oppressive systems

Brave Trails is disrupting oppressive impact by giving a safe haven to a population of kids that are living on the fringe. LGBTQI+ youth are impacted every day by bullying, gender discrimination, and a lack of home safety.

3. Grassroots funding

Brave Trails is a grassroots organization raising $600,000 annually with 71% of their funding in 2019 and 52% of their funding in 2020 going to direct programming. Note that their direct program support was diminished in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Learn more about Brave Trails and their programming at bravetrails.org

Read their most recent fund reports here: bravetrails.org/reports