What we do.

ALMA Chicago is the Midwest's longest serving Latinx LGBTQ+ organization with a mission to expand power within Latinx, LGBTQ+, and gender-expansive communities. We build leadership capacity among Latinx and LGBTQ+ communities by developing emerging advocates, cultivating youth creativity, and ensuring historically excluded voices shape decisions that affect their lives. Our programs, rooted in culture, identity, and lived experience, equip participants with practical skills, mentorship, networks, and platforms to influence policy, community wellness, and civic life. We are fully community-funded, receiving no government dollars, and have relied on small contributions for more than three decades.

Federal retrenchment in funding for LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and youth-serving programs has cascaded across philanthropy. As major institutions pull back, community-based leadership initiatives like ours face significant strain, despite demand for these resources growing rapidly. This is the gap ALMA fills, but the scale of recent cuts threatens program continuity.

Major Impacts in Our Leadership Development Programs. 

Together, these programs form one of Chicago’s only culturally grounded leadership pipelines for Latinx and LGBTQ+ youth and adults. Losing them would mean losing a generation of leaders equipped to advocate for equitable healthcare, safety, dignity, and opportunity.

How Your Contribution Helps. 

With philanthropic institutions scaling back and more than $20,000 in losses to our youth programs alone, individual grassroots support is now the determining factor in whether these spaces survive.

Every dollar directly sustains program access for youth and emerging leaders.

$25 – Provides art supplies, workshop materials, or virtual learning tools $50 – Supports transportation stipends so youth can attend safely $100 – Covers meals and materials for a full day of leadership training $250 – Funds a professional mentor for one participant $500 – Supports lodging for a Román Legacy Scholar attending Creating Change $1,000 – Covers half the cost of one youth artist in ALMA Creates $2,350 – Fully sponsors one participant in the Leadership Institute $2,500 – Fully funds a Román Legacy Award scholar Any amount – Invests in the continuation of Chicago’s only Latinx LGBTQ+ leadership pipeline

Our Call to Action

Leadership spaces for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ youth should not be the first to disappear when budgets tighten. These programs are not optional, they are essential to building a future where our communities can advocate effectively, influence policy, and lead with confidence.

Stand with ALMA Chicago. Protect the next generation of Latinx and LGBTQ+ leaders. Your contribution, no matter the size, keeps these programs alive, accessible, and firmly rooted in community power.

Donate today. Ensure our leadership pathways endure.