About us
Our Story
The Visibility Impact Fund was founded as a giving circle in the summer of 2020, becoming the first EVER grassroots grant-maker to provide dedicated funds to bi+ communities. For decades, leaders in bi+ communities have advocated for more funding, highlighting how grant-makers ignoring our unique challenges is a root cause for why health and economic disparities are so much worse for bi+ people than lesbian, gay, and straight peers. Even with all this effort, bi+ people still only receive a small fraction of a percent of LGBTQ grants. All the while, bi+ leaders and advocates work tirelessly without financial support to provide community, support groups, training, education, and research that nobody else will. Bi+ communities make up over half of the LGBTQ community, and yet do not receive support from LGBTQ philanthropy.
Join us, and together we will change this and make the invisible majority visible.
Starting this fund as a giving circle allows all of us to have a say in where we want our money to go. It is a major step towards shifting funding models to support and address the unique needs of bi+ communities. We will work together to direct our money to fund bi+ specific nonprofit organizations, training & education, and programs & projects that have an impact on the lives of bi+ people. We will also be the first voice representing bi+ communities at the national LGBTQ Funders Table where we hope to be a catalyst to other grant-makers to dedicate funds to address our community needs.
Join us, and together we will change this and make the invisible majority visible.
Starting this fund as a giving circle allows all of us to have a say in where we want our money to go. It is a major step towards shifting funding models to support and address the unique needs of bi+ communities. We will work together to direct our money to fund bi+ specific nonprofit organizations, training & education, and programs & projects that have an impact on the lives of bi+ people. We will also be the first voice representing bi+ communities at the national LGBTQ Funders Table where we hope to be a catalyst to other grant-makers to dedicate funds to address our community needs.
Leadership Council Members
Camille Holthaus is passionate about creating community for bi+ folks and advocating for true bi+ inclusion in LGBTQ spaces. She has thirty years of experience as a community organizer and activist, most recently with Bisexual Organizing Project’s BECAUSE Conference and with her new blog Bi Pan Fluid Queer Intersectional Organizing, the beginning of a program to provide leadership training for bi+ communities.
Belle Haggett Silverman is a bisexual nonprofit professional driven by a desire to leave communities more vibrant than she found them. She has experience working in nonprofit management across a broad range of sizes and missions ranging in youth development, ecology, and bi+ issues. She is currently the President of the Board of Directors at the Bisexual Resource Center.
Lauren Beach (she/they) is a bisexual, ace spectrum, demigender person who is a Research Assistant Professor at Northwestern University’s Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing, where she is Associate Director of the Evaluation, Data Integration, and Technical Assistance Program. A longtime bi+ advocate, they currently serve as a Steering Committee Co-Chair of the Chicago Bisexual Health Task Force.
Jim Larsen is passionate about creating community and space for bi+ folks to celebrate who and what they are positive ways. He has been involved in bi+ advocacy as a member and treasurer of the Bisexual Organizing Project and Chair and Co-chair of the BECAUSE Confernce. For a period of time, he was “Bi for bucks”, working as the Finance and Operations Director at OutFront Minnesota.
Meg Weireter is committed to building and maintaining spaces where bi+ people can thrive. She works in the private sector in web content moderation, and currently serves as Clerk on the board of Bisexual Resource Center.
Neil Aasve is the lead organizer founding The Visibility Impact Fund. He has been a bi+ activist since coming out as bisexual in 2007. He was a board member of the Bisexual Organizing Project in the Twin Cities, PAVES Nonprofit in Denver, and briefly worked as the Safe Schools Manager for One Colorado. He currently works as a nonprofit consultant for True Summit Consulting, and is a fierce advocate for public education.
We are recruiting Leadership Council and Grant-making committee members. Apply Today!
Belle Haggett Silverman is a bisexual nonprofit professional driven by a desire to leave communities more vibrant than she found them. She has experience working in nonprofit management across a broad range of sizes and missions ranging in youth development, ecology, and bi+ issues. She is currently the President of the Board of Directors at the Bisexual Resource Center.
Lauren Beach (she/they) is a bisexual, ace spectrum, demigender person who is a Research Assistant Professor at Northwestern University’s Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing, where she is Associate Director of the Evaluation, Data Integration, and Technical Assistance Program. A longtime bi+ advocate, they currently serve as a Steering Committee Co-Chair of the Chicago Bisexual Health Task Force.
Jim Larsen is passionate about creating community and space for bi+ folks to celebrate who and what they are positive ways. He has been involved in bi+ advocacy as a member and treasurer of the Bisexual Organizing Project and Chair and Co-chair of the BECAUSE Confernce. For a period of time, he was “Bi for bucks”, working as the Finance and Operations Director at OutFront Minnesota.
Meg Weireter is committed to building and maintaining spaces where bi+ people can thrive. She works in the private sector in web content moderation, and currently serves as Clerk on the board of Bisexual Resource Center.
Neil Aasve is the lead organizer founding The Visibility Impact Fund. He has been a bi+ activist since coming out as bisexual in 2007. He was a board member of the Bisexual Organizing Project in the Twin Cities, PAVES Nonprofit in Denver, and briefly worked as the Safe Schools Manager for One Colorado. He currently works as a nonprofit consultant for True Summit Consulting, and is a fierce advocate for public education.
We are recruiting Leadership Council and Grant-making committee members. Apply Today!
|
|