In February 2000 Mountain Pride Media, publisher of Out in the Mountains, Vermont's only newspaper for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community, received a grant of $2,000 from Astraea National Lesbian Action Committee in support of general operating expenses. Mountain Pride Media applied this grant in reaching out to the women's community to become active donors of Mountain Pride Media. The visibility and respect of Astraea within the women's community contributed enormously to the success of these efforts.

The Astraea Challenge

     The $2,000 grant was combined with $1,500 and $750 gifts from two Vermont lesbian donors to fund a challenge pool of $4,250. We used this pool to match donations to Mountain Pride Media made by women during calendar year 2000 on a 2:1 basis. For example, if a woman donated $50 to Mountain Pride Media, another $100, representing the "Astraea match," was donated from this pool. We opted to retain our original goal of raising $3,000 from the women's community (rather than the $2,125 that the pool supported under a true 2:1match). We are glad we did, as this initiative ultimately brought in $3,246 from women donors which, when combined with the challenge funds, totaled $7,496. Mountain Pride Media would not have met its $20,000 individual fundraising goal were it not for this critical support from the women's community.

     We recognize that sustaining and enhancing our outreach to the women's community requires an on-going commitment that can never be satisfied through the successful implementation of a single program, but this experience provided many of us the opportunity to address these issues for the first time, and to develop skills and greater ease with the solicitation process. We have been encouraged by our experiences and will continue to strive towards greater gender equity and stronger donor education outreach to the lgbt community in Vermont.

Please make your own contribution today!