LGBT Impact Travel Models for Connecting Potential Donors to LGBT Communities in the Global South

Abstract

As international and community-based non-governmental organizations (NGOs) face reductions in funding for LGBT and other human rights issues, they are seeking alternative funding sources to continue providing necessary social services and advocacy. Many of these organizations are ill-equipped to develop new donor relationships, and finding a sustainable and suitable form of funding requires a critical and iterative process. This report details one such process, highlighting Mossier Social Action and Innovation Center, a Minnesota-based non-profit organization that is focused on increasing funding streams for organizations in the Global South that provide advocacy and support to LGBT communities and entrepreneurs. With Mossier, our Capstone Team developed four distinct models to connect potential LGBT identifying and ally donors to nonprofits around the world. In the report, we present these models examined through a Developmental Evaluation framework1, which allowed our team to provide the insights necessary to rapidly adapt the project based on feedback from relevant stakeholders. In many ways, these models prove to be mileposts in the developmental process of finding a viable solution to alternative sources of funding. These models arose from a constant stream of information that precipitated both small and large shifts to the project. Due to this adaptive nature, the boundaries that define where one model ends and another begins are hazy. Regardless, each iteration of the model clearly represents a significant change necessitated by the information our team received from stakeholders.