Dear community,
In late August, the Telling Queer History board of directors and our Executive Director Rebecca J. Lawrence decided that it is time to bring TQH to a graceful close. It was a really hard decision to make, and we’re sorry to surprise you with this announcement.
Thank you for believing in TQH and in our work. Your efforts and support have made it possible for us to exist. We are deeply grateful to every community member, funder, board member, advisor and elder, storyteller, volunteer, ASL interpreter, and contractor who has made TQH possible for over a decade.
Here are some of the reasons that supported the decision to sunset:
Getting to an ongoing sustainable level of financial support, including general operating funds, has been hard. This program year we only received one grant, which was program specific. However, that grant allowed us to hire two new contract staff who will work with us to create a touring interactive gallery exhibition showcasing TQH’s legacy and impact. It will travel to greater Minnesota in the first half of 2025.
We are so grateful for all of the individual supporters- like you!- who have donated. Yet, the amount of money we’ve raised through individual giving has declined. We understand. It’s a presidential election year. There have been ongoing financial challenges for everyone since the pandemic began, and we know you are feeling the economic crunch too.
Then, there’s the shared challenge of LGBTQ+ organizations receiving very small amounts of overall grant funding. These are systemic issues in philanthropy and nonprofits. The Equity Lab’s LGBTQ+ Index showed that giving to LGBTQ+ orgs doubled over the past decade, which sounds great! Turns out, LGBTQ+ orgs receive only $1 of every $500 donated nationwide.
RJ, staff and board members have experienced ongoing bouts of burnout and health issues, exacerbated by the ongoing Covid pandemic. To exist as a generative, innovative, community responsive and under-resourced organization is exhausting.
You probably have questions, like what is the timeline, and what can I do to help?
We will need you to continue supporting us financially so we can have enough time and general operating funds for an intentional close. We are in conversation with our funders and key stakeholders, trying to gain additional general operating support. Our ideal timeline would be to sunset the organization’s programming by next June and to close out the business end of the 501(c)3 by the end of next July. To help that happen, we need our sustaining donors to maintain their gifts through June and raise an additional $25,000 through this final program year.
What comes next?
You are invited to a community gathering to kick off our sunset process on October 19th from 2-4pm at the MPLS Central Library (more details to be announced). Join us to process this news, get your questions answered, and learn what comes next.
We have been preparing our archives to live with the Tretter Collection at the University of Minnesota. We are considering partnerships with other community organizations to house parts of our work, such as the digital LGBTQ+ history timelines and walking tours. We will keep you informed as these partnerships develop.
Currently available digital assets like our archived stories, timelines and articles, will remain available throughout the sunset period. We expect to add much more to our archives over the coming months.
With enough financial support, we will be able to sunset over the next 9 months. Assuming that is possible, we plan to host an end-of-life celebration in June 2025, an organizational funeral where you can gather with us to say goodbye and share ritual, food, stories, music, laughter and tears. At that celebration we will invite you to dream with us about the rich life that might sprout from the seeds we have planted.
Stay tuned for details about the community gathering in October (coming soon) and more. Follow our social media feeds (@tellingqueerhistory on Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook), subscribe to our monthly newsletter, and check our website (https://tellingqueerhistory.com).
Your story IS Telling Queer History. You have helped us to world-build through joy. Thank you!
Sincerely,
Rebecca Lawrence, founder & executive director
Lucinda Pepper, contract communications & operations manager
And the TQH board of directors:
Jaymie Wagner, board chair
Nikolas Fox, treasurer
Meghan Lafferty, secretary
Mo Mayo
Gereon Fuller
Cam Pajyeeb Yang
Mycall Riley
RJ/ Rebecca facing the camera telling us of the closure and upcoming plans. Captioned video on youtube.
https://youtu.be/q-N7Hy21Huo
Spoken Content from video: Hello everyone, this is Rebecca or RJ and I am the founder and executive director of Telling Queer History. I am reaching out to let you know that the team behind Telling Queer History has decided to sunset our organization, which means we will be closing in June 2025. We are planning a long Minnesota goodbye that starts on October 19th with a community conversation and then lead into an exhibit of our stories and our organizational archives throughout the year, ending with an end of life celebration in June 2025. It was a hard decision to let something go that we have loved and nourished for 11 years but we have hope that the seeds that Telling Queer History has planted will bring something that we can't even imagine, something we need even more. I want to say thank you to everyone that has held this with me for the last 11 years. We've had hundreds of donors, volunteers, board members, team members, advisors, storytellers. It is truly a blessing to be able to reflect back on how much our community has pour into this idea that stories and connection are worth our time. So thank you for everything you have done for Telling Queer History and please stay engaged with us through this process. We are so grateful for you.