As global Pride celebrations unfold this June, drenched in color, music, and hard-won freedom, one uncomfortable truth remains hidden beneath the glitter: LGBTQI+ movements are being asked to move mountains on pennies.

According to the Global Resources Report by the Global Philanthropy Project, less than 40 cents of every USD 100 in global philanthropic funding is allocated to LGBTQI+ groups. That’s not a typo. That’s the global average. And it’s worse in the Global South, where queer movements are resisting criminalization, state violence, and cultural erasure with little more than love, grit, and community.

This year’s Pride theme, Activism and Social Change, could not be more relevant. But it also begs the question—how do you fund social change when the very activists expected to lead it are barely surviving?

At Kuchu Times Media Group, we’ve spent years documenting the lives and struggles of LGBTQI+ Ugandans. We’ve told stories from the frontlines of artists, sex workers, faith leaders, trans youth, and rural queer women. Behind every act of resistance is a spreadsheet, a broken laptop, a rent crisis, or a grant that didn’t come through. Activism costs money. Safe spaces need rent. Healing requires therapy. Legal defense demands lawyers. And storytelling our greatest weapon against invisibility, requires equipment, time, and training.

And yet, our movements remain chronically underfunded. Meanwhile, the anti-rights opposition is raking in the dollars organizing conferences, launching disinformation campaigns, influencing policy, and pushing state-sanctioned hate with terrifying efficiency.

We cannot out-organize hate with hope alone.

This isn’t just a funding issue; it’s a question of values. If donors and development organizations truly believe in human rights, feminism, and justice, then LGBTQI+ organizing cannot be treated as a side dish. It must be centered. It must be funded; consistently, flexibly, and with trust.

We know the arguments: “the pot is small,” “there are too many priorities,” or worse, “LGBTQI+ issues are too controversial.” But let’s be honest; if an issue is too controversial to fund, it’s probably the one that needs funding the most.

At a time when LGBTQI+ communities face unprecedented levels of surveillance, criminalization, and political scapegoating particularly in Africa underfunding is not just negligent; it is dangerous.

Let us also be clear: visibility without protection is violence. Representation without resources is a photo op. We do not want to be the rainbow on your annual report if we are not also in your budget.

To our fellow activists: your work matters. Your unpaid labor, your passion projects, your emergency fundraisers on WhatsApp none of it should be the default. We deserve more than survival mode.

To our allies in philanthropy: funding LGBTQI+ movements is not charity, it is strategy. It is investing in the people who are reimagining justice, building alternatives, and refusing to disappear.

So this Pride, while we sing and dance and march, let us also demand. Demand a redistribution of power. Demand that our organizing is treated with the seriousness it deserves. Demand that the 40 cents becomes four dollars and beyond.

Because Activism and Social Change isn’t just a theme. It’s a call to action. And action requires resources.

Put your money where your rainbow is.