Dear PFLAG Supporter,

As we approach the end of the year, I’m thinking a lot about all of you: the PFLAG chapter leaders on the ground who are the heart of our work. I’m so grateful for all of your work, whether it is facilitating support meetings, showing up at school board meetings, bringing in speakers for your community, or any other PFLAG work you’ve been doing. I know this has been a hard year and I’m so appreciative of the dedication you’ve shown to PFLAG. Thank you for all you do!

In this edition of Leadership Learnings you’ll find: 

• End-of-Year Giving
• Local Advocacy Corner
• Urban Think Tank Alert
• ICYMI Reminders
• Resilience Roundup: Winning!

End-of-Year Giving

It’s hard to believe that 2025 is coming to an end—what a year it’s been!!! This time of year is always a great time for PFLAG chapters to focus on fundraising, as community members may be looking to direct their funds around Giving Tuesday and the end of the year. While this may be a challenging financial time for some folks in your community, others might be excellent potential donors. The funds you raise could allow you to help support those struggling, whether it is by providing food at meetings, doing a food drive, or partnering with a local nonprofit that meets its clients’ basic needs. As you’re brainstorming ways to fundraise this season, remember to take advantage of PFLAG National’s resources:

• Connect with our Development team! They are a fantastic resource to help with individual giving, grant writing, and partnering with businesses and corporations. You can reach the team at give@pflag.org 
• Use the templates in Canva
  • Add your chapter logo and information to the Giving Tuesday social media template
  • Make use of the branded letter, brochure, and envelope templates.
• Customize the community sponsorship partnership ask template
  • Highlight what your chapter did over the course of the last calendar year and how you will use the funds.
  • Name that especially in this year, your PFLAG chapter has been very needed and very busy
  • Don’t recreate the wheel! You may have already compiled content showing the work your chapter has done for your annual meeting; you can use that same list/language.

Make sure individual donors are given a record of their donation to use for tax purposes. Adapt the donation receipt template and send it to each donor, as a thank you for their donation.

Local Advocacy Corner

I know many of you are ramping up your engagement with local government and decisionmakers these days—thank you!!! It’s tough work, but taking action can feel supportive when things are tough.

If you are currently meeting with your local government (town/city councils, school boards, county commissioners, committees, etc), please take a quick moment to let us know about it! We’ll be using this information for our Fighting For Our Pride campaign to create relevant resources and support in order to best meet your advocacy needs, as well as take a look at what chapters are engaging in the most. We’re all in this fight together!

Urban Think Tank Alert!

The Urban Think Tank is back! December's topic will be building partnerships and coalitions. We will discuss identifying and reaching out to potential community partners and working with other groups towards specific goals. Urban PFLAG chapters often have many potential organizations, businesses, schools, etc. that they can partner with, but how do you decide who to work with? How do you vet other groups and get their buy in? How do you build reciprocity? We will cover all of this and more! Whether this is a struggle or a success story for your chapter, come prepared to share and support other urban chapter leaders.

Register now for December’s Urban Think Tank, which will take place on Tuesday, December 9th at 5pm-6:30pm PT/8pm-9:30pm ET.

In Case You Missed It (ICYMI)

•  
• Planning a holiday celebration or social media campaign to end 2025 with a bang? Check out our list of winter holidays for inspiration!
• We’re constantly adding educational content to our PFLAG Academy Online catalog about LGBTQ+ identities. Need a meeting topic? Consider taking a look at the catalog, and don’t miss the training tomorrow about aromantic and asexual allyship!

Resilience Roundup

Are you remembering to celebrate your wins? This year has been a lot for everyone; it’s so easy to miss the small wins in the midst of all the things you have to worry about as PFLAG leaders. As you’re reading this, take a moment to think about something you’re proud of that your chapter has done in the last three months, big or small! As you’re reflecting on this work, take time to be proud of yourself and your board for what you’ve accomplished!

Stay safe,

Shaun Connors (he/they)

Having trouble viewing this email? View it in your web browser