Charity Guide

These local LGBTQ charities are proudly making an impact in Austin

Get involved with these local charities making an impact in Austin.

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As an inclusive city for all, Austin nonprofits work hard to empower, protect, and ensure the rights of our LGBTQ citizens. It’s not surprising that the city ranks among the top LGBTQ-friendly destinations in the U.S., boasting a vibrant queer community and allied advocates.

In a city with such a dynamic and mobilized community, it’s easy to join in the effort of addressing issues and defending the freedoms of LGBTQ Austinites. Here’s a look at the organizations making an impact. Learn how to get involved, volunteer, and donate in support of queer people of color, youth, and at-risk groups in Austin.

AIDS Services of Austin
Mission: AIDS Services of Austin is Central Texas' largest provider of critical HIV-dedicated services. It is also dedicated to enhancing the health and well-being of the community and people affected by HIV and AIDS. The group helps people navigate the maze of social and medical services to get the care and knowledge they need to live with HIV. AIDS Services of Austin also works with community groups through special initiatives to ensure that people undergoing this highly personal experience can maintain their health and well-being. They also work to fight indifference and stigma by both supporting clients through obstacles and by educating the community to reduce indifference fueled by stereotypes, fear, beliefs, and stigma.
Membership: $1,200 annually. For information, contact director of development Christopher Alberts at 512-406-6115.
Get involved: Donate or learn how to volunteer here.
Big event: AIDS Walk Austin and Red Ribbon Dinner Series

Allgo
Mission: For over 30 years, allgo has worked to create and sustain queer people of color activists, groups, organizations, and allies through artistic expression, promoting wellness, and grassroots organizing. Allgo celebrates and nurtures vibrant queer people of color communities in Texas and beyond by supporting artists and artistic expression; promoting health within a wellness model; and mobilizing and building coalitions among groups marginalized by race/ethnicity, gender/gender identity, and sexual orientation/sexual identity in order to enact change.
Membership: Allgo members pledge either a monthly or annual donation and/or a regular in-kind donation and/or regular volunteer work. Contact allgo to sign up to become a member.
Get involved: Donate or learn how to volunteer here. For more information, email allgo@allgo.org.
Big event:Statewide Queer People Of Color Activist Summit

Austin Gay and Lesbian Pride Foundation
Mission: Formed in 2010, the Austin Gay and Lesbian Pride Foundation is a 100-percent volunteer-run organization dedicated to managing and organizing Austin's annual PRIDE Celebration and Stonewall Rally, with a mission to educate, provide resources for, and connect the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community in Austin.
Get involved: Learn how to become an Austin PRIDE festival or parade volunteer here.
Big event:Austin's Annual PRIDE Celebration

Equality Texas Foundation
Mission: The Equality Texas Foundation works to secure full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer Texans through education, community organizing, and collaboration.
Get involved: Donate here and volunteer here. You can also pledge to fight back against hate crimes, new laws that grant a license to discriminate, efforts to undermine marriage equality, and blocking access to healthcare here.

Out Youth Austin
Mission: Out Youth promotes the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and social well being of sexual and gender minority youth so that they can openly and safely explore and affirm their identities. Using value-based programming, Out Youth creates programming and provides services for Austin-area youth as well as educational services for parents, educators, and caregivers.
Get involved: Donate here. The nonprofit is actively looking for volunteers to help with everything from family dinners to community engagement events. Go here to learn more.
Big event:The Glitz Gala

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MESSAGE OF PARAMOUNT IMPORTANCE

Austin theater auctions off chance to write message on iconic marquee

Paramount Theatre/Instagram

The Paramount Theatre is auctioning off the chance to share a holiday message on its marquee.

Austinites craving the limelight might get the chance to see their name in lights — or at least a personalized holiday message — illuminated on one of Austin’s most historic marquees.

As part of the Austin Theatre Alliance’s final 2020 auction to raise funds for the Paramount and Stateside theaters, the nonprofit is offering up an array of unusual and very “Austintatious” items for bid, including the chance to share a customized holiday message on the iconic Paramount Theatre marquee.

The auction item is one of several dozen currently up for bid through ATA’s online holiday auction, which runs through December 11.

With a starting bid of $1,500, the Paramount marquee message is one of the pricier items in the auction, but it may be well worth the glory, as the winning bidder can treat all of Austin to a two-line, 80-character custom holiday message that will be professionally photographed and live on the marquee for a minimum of four hours. (It should be noted that the chosen message is subject to review. After all, this is a nonprofit theater marquee, not the infamously sassy El Arroyo sign.)

Having to cancel or reschedule hundreds of planned shows because of COVID-19 concerns, the Paramount Theatre has had a particularly rough year but recently reopened at 25 percent capacity for limited engagements, like its Holiday Film Series, which is currently underway. Funds raised from the auction enable the ATA, which manages the Paramount and Stateside, to reach Central Texas students through virtual programs, employ venue staff, and help the historic theaters survive the pandemic.

In addition to the Paramount marquee message item, the auction also includes other perfectly weird items befitting a homegrown Austin event, like Matt Lankes photos of Willie Nelson playing chess and the late, great Billy Joe Shaver looking contemplative while perched on a bridge in Waco; and several autographed guitars, including one commemorative acoustic guitar signed by 10 of Austin’s most notable musicians, Ruthie Foster, Carrie Rodriguez, and Tameca Jones among them.

Of course, there is no lack of booze-forward packages, hotel stays, and artist-signed prints also up for grabs. But true lovers of the Paramount Theatre will find the item with the highest opening bid ($5,000) steals the show: a private catered dinner for four on the Paramount stage.

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