Sustaining the Midwest’s Anchor Latinx LGBTQ+ Organization
For more than three decades, ALMA Chicago has served as the Midwest’s leading Latinx LGBTQ+ organization, creating space for community leadership, advocacy, and cultural pride. ALMA is one of the longest-serving Latinx LGBTQ+ organizations nationwide.
Founded in 1989 during the HIV/AIDS epidemic, ALMA began as a volunteer-led effort rooted in peer support and community care. Over time, ALMA evolved into a vital civic voice and has played a key role in major policy efforts, including the passage of marriage equality in Illinois.
ALMA exists to expand power within Latinx, LGBTQ+, and gender expansive communities – those that face overlapping systems of exclusion related to race, immigration status, gender identity, and economic inequality. ALMA supports individuals and advances systemic change by:
- Developing and investing in leaders with lived experience
- Offering specialized service referrals for LGBTQ+ youth and families
- Advocating for policies that reflect the full complexity of Latinx LGBTQ+ communities
- Ensuring Latinx LGBTQ+ voices are present in spaces where decisions are made
- Creating spaces to elevate and celebrate community, culture, and pride
Over the past four years, ALMA has grown significantly, including:
- Hiring its first full-time Executive Director, marking a transition from a volunteer-led to professionally led organization
- Launching Illinois’ first Latinx LGBTQ+ Advocacy Leadership Institute
- Initiating a statewide network of Latinx and LGBTQ-serving organizations to strengthen culturally competent services
A Critical Moment
Despite this momentum, ALMA is now facing a period of significant financial uncertainty. Like many grassroots organizations, ALMA operates with limited funding at a time when public funding is constrained, philanthropic priorities are shifting, and corporate support is declining.
At the same time, Latinx LGBTQ+ communities are navigating heightened threats, including attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, barriers to healthcare access, immigration-related instability, and housing insecurity. As demand for ALMA’s leadership continues to grow, the resources needed to sustain this work have not kept pace.
Without immediate investment, ALMA will be forced to significantly scale back programs, limit leadership development opportunities, and reduce its presence in policy spaces at a moment when its voice is needed most.
The ALMA Legacy Fund
To meet this moment, ALMA’s Board of Directors has launched and seeded the ALMA Legacy Fund—a $50,000 campaign to provide immediate, flexible support to sustain ALMA’s mission, staff, and protect its 36-year legacy of leadership, advocacy, and pride.
We invite you to make a leadership gift to help secure ALMA’s future. Leadership gifts of $1,000, $2,500, and $5,000 will anchor this effort.
