TERMS OF REFERENCE (available as a PDF here)

Global Philanthropy Project and ILGA World are seeking interested representatives from civil society, philanthropy and donor governments to submit expressions of interest for the Global Steering Committee for the Pathways Project.

Pathways is a groundbreaking global project, which aims to identify and catalyze pathways to increased and improved funding for LGBTI communities around the world. It will gather data from the LGBTI movement across each region of the world and compare it to donor tracking data from the Global Resources Report, in order to bring even greater focus to funding decisions that address the needs and priorities identified within the different parts of the international LGBTI movement and to where funding gaps are most critical.

Pathways’ goals are to:
● increase the amount and quality of resources directed towards improving the lives of
LGBTI persons across the world.
● develop credible, reliable and accurate evidence on the needs, priorities and funding
landscape of the international and regional LGBTI movements
● inform and influence grantmakers (donor governments, multilaterals, private foundations
and public foundations/ intermediaries

Composition of the Global Steering Committee
The Global Steering Committee will ideally be comprised of 13-15 members (with equitable representation between funders and activists), based on the following:
● At least one representative (civil society, philanthropic funder or government donor) from each of the regions that will comprise the regional survey project (6)
● At least two civil society members who identify as trans (2)
● At least two civil society members who identify as intersex (2)
● At least two civil society members who identify as lesbian, bi or queer women (2)
● At least one government or multilateral funder, private foundation and intermediary
funder (3).

Principal Roles of the Global Steering Committee

Over the course of the Pathways project (expected to last 3 years), members of the Global Steering Committee will be expected to fulfill the following roles:

● Define the minimum core set of research questions that would be required to be included within each of the regional survey projects. This will ensure that there is a consistency of data collected across the regional surveys and allow for comparative analysis between regions and at a global level once all regional surveys have been completed.

● Provide advice to the global project coordinator throughout the different stages of the project, including:
- the initial development of the project structure
- timeline for roll out of each of the regional surveys
- the process for developing global analysis at the end of the regional research projects, including potential consultants to lead this analysis
- the development of a global advocacy strategy to advance the findings of the
regional and global surveys.
● In collaboration with the Global Project Coordinator, GPP and ILGA World, select the lead organization for the regional survey projects, review and provide feedback of documentation and project material as requested.
● Promote and be a point of information for the Pathways project within members’ existing networks and communities of practice (civil society, philanthropy, government) during key points of the project, including the initial launch and release of regional and global comparative reports.

Given resource and logistic constraints, the work of the Global Steering Committee will be carried out in English and, for the most part, virtually.

Criteria for membership

GPP and ILGA World are looking for candidates who ideally met the following criteria:
● Strong knowledge of, and engagement with:
- the global LGBTI movement, including main actors, movement infrastructure and political dynamics, and current priorities (for civil society members); the global LGBTI funding landscape, including main actors, funding infrastructure and current funding priorities (for funders)
- at least one regional LGBTI movement, including main actors, movement infrastructure and political dynamics, and current priorities (for members representing a region)
- specific population-based movement, including main actors, movement infrastructure and political dynamics, current priorities and issues (for members from the trans, intersex and LBQ women movements)
● Experience in participating in similar global, multi-region projects and proven history of working effectively in teams.
● Capacity to provide expert advice separate from an individual institutional perspective
● One of more of the following set of skills:
- research and survey design and implementation, and data analysis
- community organizing
- advocacy (particularly funder advocacy)
● Fluency in English.

Members of the Global Steering Committee can participate in either an individual or organizational capacity, although if participating in the latter, they would need to have organizational approval to participate. Current members of the ILGA World Board and the GPP Executive Committee are not eligible to sit on the Global Steering Committee, due to an actual or perceived conflict of interest.

The Global Steering Committee will be selected through a public, open call that will commence at the launch of the project. As the work of the Global Steering Committee will be in English due to resource constraints, the open calls will also be conducted in English. GPP and ILGA World will participate in the selection of the members of the Global Steering Committee.

Time Commitment
As the Global Steering Committee will be constituted for the entirety of the project, members would be asked to participate from the establishment of the Committee at the end of 2023, until the research phase of the project is finalized at the end of 2026. Participation is required and is expected to include at the minimum and not limited to:
● An initial 2-day in-person meeting in early 2024
● 2 conferences calls (lasting approx. 2-3 hours) each year in 2024-2026
● Occasional email correspondence with updates on the regional surveys during 2024-2026
● A final 2-day in-person meeting in 2026 to provide feedback on global meta-analysis and advocacy strategy for advancing the research findings.

GPP and ILGA World reserve the right to terminate the membership of any Global Steering Committee members.

Compensation and expenses
At the end of the Pathways project, members would be offered a voluntary one-off honorarium of US$1,000 for participation on the Global Steering Committee, which they can choose to accept or forgo. Reasonable expenses associated with in-person meetings, including return economy airfare, hotel, airport transfers meals and incidentals, will be reimbursed.

Schedule for recruitment of Global Steering Committee
August 2, 2023 Call for expressions of interest
September 15, 2023 Close of expressions of interest
October 15, 2023 Selected members are notified

Background to Pathways
In pursuit of more and better resources for the international LGBTI movement, in recent years several research projects have been undertaken to highlight current funding levels, the needs and priorities of specific parts of the movement, and critical funding gaps, in order to influence funder decisions and the donor field in general.
These include:
● the Global Resources Report (global donor tracking);
● the State of Intersex Organizing and the State of Trans Organizing reports (global CSO surveys); and,
● ILGA-Europe’s European and Central Asia LGBTI funding assessment (regional CSO survey).

When GPP and ILGA-Europe undertook a comparative analysis between the European and Central Asia data from the 2015-16 Global Resources Report and the European and Central Asia LGBTI funding assessment, the new insights gained from comparing the supply and the demand side of LGBTI resourcing in the region were significant and have opened up opportunities for new streams of funding from donor governments and foundations in Europe that have not traditionally prioritized funding LGBTI organizations.

These projects point towards the potential of a global project that gathers data from the LGBTI movement across each major region of the world and compares it to donor tracking data from the Global Resources Report. A project that would provide pathways for current and future funders to direct their resources to address the needs and priorities identified within the different parts of the international LGBTI movement and to where funding gaps are most critical, impact can be best had and synergies can be created for shared advocacy with grantmakers and CSO movements.