Dear PFLAG Supporter,

As we move into Pride month, I know I’m thinking a lot about queer community and what that can look like. For your PFLAG chapter, community might look like your board, members, volunteers, partners…the list goes on. Pride is always an opportunity to kick off your community-building work for the rest of the year; as you’re meeting folks and making connections, keep in mind what an ongoing partnership could look like for the rest of the year. That could even look like collaborating with other PFLAG chapters in your area or state!

In addition to community building and collaboration, in this edition of Leadership Learnings you’ll find: 

• Working Together—PFLAGers Get the Job Done!

• Donation Rerouting

• Urban Think Tank Alert!

• Global Social Media Campaign - May 15-17

• Regional Roundup

Working Together—PFLAGers Get the Job Done!

One of the cool things about The PFLAG Chapter Network is the power of being able to network with and support other chapters. There are some great opportunities for your chapter to collaborate with local and state sibling chapters all year round, and especially during Pride season. 

Here are some ways we’ve seen chapters work together:

• Shared tabling opportunities (both tabling together and volunteering to table for another chapter)

• Pooling speakers for a Speakers Bureau

• Partnering on bringing in speakers

• Shared scholarship programming

• Hosting events together

• Tabling/marching at area Pride events together

• Advocating together at the State and local levels 

• Sharing resources, including physical assets like a canopy to table, or administrative logistics like a membership ask letter 

It’s a great time to start thinking about this, too, as we look forward to an important election season.

If you want to connect with other PFLAG chapters and don’t know where to start, consider coming to the next regional call or Think Tank. Not an urban or rural chapter? Look out in a few weeks for info on June’s Think Tank, which will be open to all PFLAG chapters!

A Heads Up About Donation Rerouting

Over the last couple of months, we have seen an uptick in folks donating to PFLAG National with the intention of giving to their local chapters. Due to limitations around the IRS and our chapter model, there are a few steps our team has to take to get those donations to the chapters they were intended for, including filling out a few pieces of extra paperwork. Additionally, almost all donor software takes a portion of funds donated for processing fees. PFLAG National can only transfer the amount of money we receive to chapters, which will nearly always be less than the donor's original gift due to these charges.

We want to make sure those donations come directly to you as often as possible, both to avoid fees and paperwork and so that you have all the relevant donor information for the future. On our donation page, PFLAG National directs folks to the Find a Chapter map for those looking to donate directly to chapters. If you haven’t added your chapter’s website or social media to the Member Portal, this is your reminder to do so! It’s the best way for folks to find your chapter on the PFLAG National page. If you need support in updating your chapter information, reach out to me or check out our written Member Portal User Guide here!

If you haven’t recently, consider sharing the ways folks can donate directly to your chapter in your newsletter, social media, and at meetings. Need help getting online donation platforms set up? Reach out to me for recommendations around what works for other chapters!

Urban Think Tank Alert!

Register now for this month’s Urban Think Tank coming up on Monday, May 11th at 5pm-6:30pm PT / 8pm-9:30pm ET. This Urban Think Tank will be focused on communications tools, tips, and tricks. 

Urban PFLAG chapters may be trying to reach broad and diverse audiences with communications. This can look like a newsletter, social media, newspaper inclusions, snail mail, flyering... the list goes on. What tools reach which audiences? What is most effective? How can your chapter best wield each communications tool to make it engage the most people?

In addition to giving and receiving advice and feedback through discussion, during this Urban Think Tank you'll have the opportunity to learn from fellow urban chapter leaders in a more thorough and structured manner via a short presentation by leaders from PFLAG San Francisco.

Global Social Media Campaign

Together with LGBTQ+ and parent organizations from around the world, we’ve created a social toolkit for International Day of Families (May 15) and International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia (May 17). We invite all of our chapters to participate in this global campaign using this social media toolkit. We hope to have a far and wide reach, and having the PFLAG Chapter Network uplifting this shared message and accompanying visuals is sure to help us do that in a coordinated way across the country and around the world. The toolkit includes specific content and copy to post to your social media platforms on each day, including on May 16th, when we'll bridge these two important days with a post and call-to-action for families to affirm, support, and love their LGBTQ+ children. Have questions? Reach out to the digital team at [email protected].

Regional Roundup

PFLAG Danville/San Ramon Valley (CA) is based in a community with a large AANHPI, specifically South Asian, population that the chapter historically has not been able to reach. With relatively new South Asian leadership, PFLAG Danville/San Ramon Valley has worked hard to build an inclusive environment and increase their outreach to the local AANHPI community and has started to see a shift in demographic at their meetings and events. Other neighboring chapters, such as PFLAG Clayton-Concord, have had the same challenge in building community with local AANHPI LGBTQ+ people and allies, and PFLAG Danville/San Ramon Valley has partnered with them to support them in this effort, including by co-hosting a recent event for the local South Asian LGBTQ+ and ally community.

This is a great example of how chapters are partnering and expanding their outreach across diverse communities in service of joint goals.

Stay safe,