Description

Pride with Purpose

A Pride Month Giving Competition Supporting Equality Texas

This June, we’re turning Pride into action with the launch of our first ever team-based fundraising competition: Pride with Purpose! Bring your friends together to raise funds for Equality Texas, celebrate Pride, and support LGBTQIA+ Texans across the state. 

The competition starts now and goes until the end of June. Whichever team raises the most money will be declared the winner and the team members will be handsomely rewarded. The sooner you and your team get started, the more time you'll have to raise money, so start a group chat, choose your team name, and register your team now!

Get started: equalitytexas.org/pwp

How It Works:

1. Form Your Team 

Any group can sign up. Activate your affinity group, congregation, small business, or employee resource group. Or just team up with a couple of friends who want to do good.

2. Build and Customize Your Campaign 

Utilize the OneCause platform, our tools, and your own creativity to design your fundraising page.

3. Rally Your Network

Share your page, tell your story, and invite others to support your team.

4. Compete + Celebrate

Track your progress on the leaderboard and compete for prizes all month long.

Why We're Doing This:

If you weren't aware, nonprofits have been facing declining support from foundations and corporate partners, particularly following anti-DEI backlash, growing anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiment, and shifts in national funding priorities. And due to these funding cuts, more organizations are up against each other for less available money. At the national level, for every $100 foundations were investing in organizations, only about $0.23 was going toward LGBTQIA+ orgs and causes—that's 23 CENTS, not dollars. All of this is making it harder to sustain this work, while the work is growing more critical everyday.

So we're calling on our community to help fill in the gaps and ensure we're able to continue fighting for queer and trans Texans—and have fun doing it! Pride, at its core, is a protest, and your participation in this competition is a protest against injustice, cruel government policies, cowardly corporations, and all the other forces trying to dull the sparkle of our vibrant community. Oh yeah, and did we mention there are prizes?! This is a competition, after all! In addition to major bragging rights, here's what your team can win!

Prizes:

First Place🥇

• 5 Tickets to an Equality Texas Signature Event, your team's choice of:
  • Equality Texas' 8th Annual Gala in Austin, November 21st, 2026
  • Barbara Jordan Garden Party in Houston, September 5th, 2026
  • Love Equality in Dallas, Spring 2027
• VIP Access at the event
• Feature in quarterly Donor Society newsletter
• PLUS all benefits of 2nd and 3rd Place

Second Place🥈

• 5 Tickets to an Equality Texas Regional Event, your team's choice of:
  • Merry Merry Martini Mixer in Austin, December 2026
  • Stuver Social in Austin, Fall 2026
• PLUS all benefits of 3rd Place

Third Place🥉

• Exclusive Equality Texas Pride Swag Pack to show off your success!
• Shoutout in our Pride recap email and on the Equality Texas website

Bonus✨ 

• Each Team that raises at least $1,000 will earn a basket of Equality Texas-branded goodies!

Start your team: equalitytexas.org/pwp