Papi Femme embraces Ginny Woolf in (W/HOLE).

Happy February!

We’re definitely feeling the love this month. Our hearts are overflowing with gratitude for your word-of-mouth, donations, and well-wishes that helped us meet our funding goal of $75,000.

Yes, that means all 2019 Effing Foundation grants are now fully funded!

Sending special thanks to the Freeman Foundation for awarding us a grant to support our sex-positive educators and artists.

To learn about the 14 projects we’ve funded this year, visit effing.org. And be sure to follow The Effing Foundation on Facebook and Twitter for regular updates about our grantees’ important work. This week on social, we’ll be recognizing Valentine’s Day by celebrating love in all forms: polyamorous, queer, kinky, monogamous, ace/aromantic – and of course self-love too!

Happy December, friends!

I can hardly believe 2018 is almost over: A year ago we were raising money for our very first pilot grants. We spent the past twelve months helping our grantees do magical things, and then we started the whole process over again!

Honestly, the hardest part of starting a not-for-profit has been the "asking people for money" part, but it's what I've got to do again this month because I want to see a more sex-positive future. We have an outstanding group of grant candidates, and we need your help to get these projects off the ground.

Fund a sex-positive future!

Happy Giving Tuesday!

Today I'm thrilled to announce our 14 amazing grant candidates for this year with sex-positive projects on a wide range of topics, from teaching porn literacy and crafting erotic LARPs to providing support to survivors of sexual assault via podcast. We've just launched our year-end fundraiser to raise $75,000 to make these 14 grants and keep the Foundation moving forward.

Today, 11/27, only, Facebook will match your donation dollar-for-dollar. Please make a gift to support these artists and educators now!

No Facebook? No problem! You can contribute with no fees via PayPal or one of the other methods available on our Donate page.

Happy October, Foundation friends!

There's lots of exciting news to share with you: a new Advisor has joined our council, and we have a new partnership with the Sexplanations Road Tour!

We're thrilled to welcome Cecilia Gentili to our Advisory Council:

Cecilia Gentili (she/her) currently serves as the Managing Director of Policy and Public Affairs at GMHC, the world’s first and leading provider of HIV/AIDS prevention, care and advocacy. Originally from Argentina, Cecilia found her passion for advocacy and community service when she started working as an intern at the LGBT Community Center in New York City several years ago. From 2012 to 2016, she managed the Transgender Health Program at the Apicha Community Health Center. Cecilia is also a contributor to Trans Bodies, Trans Selves: A Resource for the Transgender Community, and a board member at Transcend Legal and Translatina Network. For fun, she loves performing at storytelling and stand-up comedy events where she talks about her life experiences. Cecilia is very passionate about advocating for her community, especially Latina transgender women who may have a history of sex work, drug use and incarceration.

Cecilia has been making herself right at home, offering all kinds of helpful feedback to this year's grant applicants. I'm so honored to have Cecilia, with her wealth of experience and expertise, join us!

Welcome to September!

Happy July!

Our newsletter this month is going to be very short: We've got one big announcement, and I wanted to make sure I let you know ASAP.

After awarding $40,000 in pilot grants, today we're launching our first grant cycle which is open to the public!

The first step in our grant process is completing the Open Call for Projects. This is a multi-page online survey where you tell us a bit about who you are and what you'd like to do. Submissions are due by 11:59pm US Eastern time on Wednesday, August 15.

Happy June to you!

I hope things are going well for you all this month! I have to confess that I'm feeling pretty stressed out at the moment -- I'm about to start traveling, some for fun and some to promote the Foundation. (YAY!) But at the same time, we're preparing for the next round of grants, and I'm only going to be home for less than 3 weeks out of the next 8. (EEK!)

This month I wanted to offer you a sneak peek from ( ) ("whole"), the experimental queer erotic film that received one of our pilot grants. The Effing Foundation is officially Executive Producer! (Can I even? Once again: No, I cannot even.)

The ( ) crew has been shooting in Philadelphia this week thanks to your Effing donations! Check out the amazing cast:

From left, performers the Shape, Alice the Wolf, Ginny Woolf, Shay Knox, Parts Authority, Trouble Clef, Erykah Ohms, Evie Snax, Papi Femme, and Special Guest, shooting "Opening Sequence" for AORTA films' ( ). This film is made possible by a grant from the Effing Foundation!

A marvelous May to you!

Thanks to your support, our pilot grantees are out in the world doing fabulous sex-positive work! That said, I realized the other day that I'm not sure I've done a very good job of sharing their stories. What are these Effing resources actually doing?

Take, for example, our pilot grant to the Adipositivity Project by Substantia Jones. As Substantia says, she's "a fat woman and [her] photo-activism campaign serves people marginalized due to their size, gender, race, sexual expression, physical ability, and otherwise non-conforming bodies." In recent years, her photographs have been exhibited all over the world, including a solo exhibition at the Te Manawa Museum in Palmerston North, New Zealand; and as part of group exhibitions Graz, Austria; Sardinia, Italy; and at the Tate Modern in London.

(Cute couple captured by Substantia thanks to the Effing Foundation!)

Welcome to April!

I am thrilled to announce that our Board of Directors has awarded two new grants this past month: Congratulations to More Than No and PolyDallas Millennium!

 
(More Than No, left; PolyDallas Millennium "Rewriting the Rules", right)

A marvelous March to you, friends and Effing supporters!

I absolutely meant to write you all last month to announce that our Board has awarded our first six sex-positive grants! But then right after the grants were approved, I was suddenly swamped with work as I added "Grant Administrator" to my list of roles at the Foundation. Whew!