Dear PFLAG Supporter,

Happy Spring! 

Did you know that March 31 is International Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV)? Every year we mark this special day by celebrating the accomplishments and victories of transgender people while raising awareness of the work still needed to end the continued discrimination, harassment, and harm against the trans community and their families.

While PFLAGers are vocal and active allies year round, #TDOV offers another opportunity to show your loud, proud support. Take a look at our TDOV Social Toolkit for inspiration and graphics to share widely with your community! #TransLivesMatter

Time to plan for Pride!

It's already time to start thinking about Pride season planning for your PFLAG chapter! Pride events offer incredible opportunities to celebrate diversity, raise visibility in our communities. Whether it's participating in Pride marches and parades, hosting informational booths, or organizing educational workshops, there are countless ways to show support and solidarity throughout Pride month and beyond!

As you’re starting Pride planning, a great first step is listing the dates of all relevant pride events in your area and deciding which opportunities you’d like to take on. Remember to explore new and diverse opportunities for community engagement like family pride, trans pride, Black pride, and special local, regional, or national level efforts, like GiveOut Day. Some activities you might consider when planning to support a local pride event include: 

• Marching and tabling at Pride events hosted by other organizations or representing PFLAG at other community events, like Juneteenth celebrations or community festivals. 
• Sharing your PFLAG story as a speaker during a Pride performance event or a special event, like an interfaith breakfast or social hour representing PFLAG. 
• Engaging in advocacy work, like writing an op-ed for a local newspaper about PFLAG and Pride, hosting a Read With Love-in, or working with local officials to request a Pride proclamation or fly Pride flags throughout June.  

An important note hosting Pride is outside of the scope of PFLAG's mission and is, in many cases, considered fiscal sponsorship, which means it’s not permitted for chapters. Instead, we recommend attending Pride events hosted by another organization, or partnering with another community group to host. If your chapter is currently planning to host Pride, please reach out to us so we can make appropriate arrangements based on your situation. 

Branding Compliance

Last week in Leadership Matters, It’s been over one year since we celebrated PFLAG's 50th anniversary and PFLAG National launched and began rolling out our organization-wide rebrand. It’s been incredibly exciting to see the impact of these new materials—from our new logo to our updated mission, vision, and messaging to our new branded graphics—and the way our visibility has so significantly increased, both online and in communities across the country.

Last year, we shared with PFLAG Chapter Leaders a document regarding our mutual responsibilities to each other—PFLAG chapters and PFLAG National—which included a section on chapter communications, in particular around the use of these new materials. So many chapters have dived into Canva, reached out for support, and updated their materials, including their chapter websites, social media accounts, and email signatures, using the new logo, correcting our name so that it reflects PFLAG not as an acronym, and using beautiful new graphics and inclusive imagery. They look wonderful, and we know this work takes time and resources; we’ve been so happy to support you in this effort.

We also know that while some chapters have navigated this process with relative ease, others have had a harder time, whether due to lack of time, needing support with technology, missing the communications on the rebrand entirely, or even a combination of all of these!

Because our mutual responsibilities call for the consistent use of these materials, we want to ensure that every chapter has the support and materials they need to complete their chapter rebrand by December 31, 2024. To that end, over the next several weeks, Chapter Engagement and Communications staffers will be reaching out to connect individually with chapter leaders to connect and support, no matter which phase of the process you are in. We’ll help by providing chapter logos and technology/branding support, as well as support with chapter operations if your rebrand process is held up by tasks unrelated to the actual rebrand itself.

Whatever you need, we are here to help with it! So keep an eye out for this communication, which will hit your chapter inboxes in the next two weeks.

NEW: Urban Think Tank Alert!

We know that PFLAG chapters in different communities have different needs, which led to the development of the Rural Think Tank. However, we also know that urban chapter leaders face specific challenges and would also benefit from a space to share ideas and get advice from their peers. Thus, the Urban Think Tank!

Urban Think Tanks will occur bimonthly, starting April 17th, and be facilitated discussion focused on a specific topic. The first topic will be “finding your niche.” Cities are often rife with LGBTQ+ resources, leaving PFLAG chapters to wonder where they fit. Whether your chapter has found the perfect way to meet community needs and work with other organizations or your chapter is trying to find the right programs and right audience, this space is for you! Register to attend and support other chapter leaders: Wednesday, April 17th: 5pm-6:30pm PT/8pm-9:30pm ET

Regional Roundup

Pride season brings with it some fantastic opportunities to engage with community partners . Connecting with corporate or business partners can be a great way to get the word out about PFLAG, create community connections, and even raise some funds for your chapter! If you’ve never had a corporate partnership before, here are some places to start.

• Start at home! Asking a community partner for something is hard, be it for monetary or volunteer support, so start where that conversation feels easier - your board! Take some time at an upcoming board meeting to ask chapter leadership and/or members to identify their own companies or places with colleagues and connections to approach. Having a connection is half the battle. 
• Find your friends! When considering prospective partners, look into their DEI goals (if any), social responsibility, presence of Employee Resource Groups (ERG) - particularly a Pride ERG, to make the ask for support more appealing and custom to their goals. The more customized the ask can be, the better. If there is a program or specific need the chapter has, sometimes asking for support of that cause is better than general operating support because it allows the partner to have a more quantifiable impact and they can easily see how their gift makes a difference. Additionally, when looking into these goals and/or opportunities with potential partners, you can sometimes find their charitable giving process outlined on their website, and sometimes even a grant request or application form. 
• PFLAG National Partners - Although these partnerships are with National, many have regional offices and locations that might have capacity to support local chapters through events, scholarships, and more. If chapters identify a PFLAG National partner that has a presence in their community, there may be an opportunity to introduce local chapter leaders to regional contacts! Have an idea you’d like to propose? Reach out to David Kinstley, Corporate Philanthropy Manager, at: dkinstley@pflag.org. We’ll start the conversation! Regardless of engagement with national partners and local chapters, when communicating with a National partner, be sure to include a National staff member on all communication to ensure wires don't get crossed and to maintain the national partnership. 
• PFLAG National can help! You’re not alone in connecting with community partners! The PFLAG National team is always happy to help you and can advise on best practices, help craft introduction letters, give guidance on grant writing, and more! We also have a fantastic PFLAG Academy Online session, Fundraising 101: Skills for PFLAG Chapters that walks through forming relationships with community partners! 

Have great success with a community partner? We want to hear about it! Starting a relationship with a partner is hard, and we want to celebrate with you! In addition, other PFLAG chapters can learn from your success, or build into larger partnerships with National. Reach out to your Chapter Engagement team member and let them know!

Stay safe,

Abby Shuler (she/her)

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