Donate

Up to 50% of SQSH’s budget is funded by individual donors. Our community-centric fundraising model allows us to hold ourselves accountable to the St. Louis queer/LGBTQIA+ community.

As a grassroots, community-led organization, we need your support to continue the work that we do. If you value our efforts towards queer and collective liberation, please consider donating to keep SQSH’s work going! Any amount is welcome and equally appreciated.

Help SQSH Thrive Alongside St. Louis Queer Community!

When we started SQSH in 2019 with our Peer Support Helpline, we never imagined that one program could blossom into ten, or that our small team could grow into a village of 113. But the dreams and power of our queer community are vast and holistic, and over the years we’ve had to get creative about how to meet the immediate wellness needs of community members, while working towards long-term change.

But as you can imagine, we still struggle with having our resources and capacity spread too thin, especially amidst the relentless anti-trans attacks and legislation in 2023. We humbly ask for your support to sustain our work towards queer liberation. Your contribution will go a long way towards providing spaces and supports for queer St. Louisans to thrive.

  • $10 funds one week of community outreach

    $10 funds one week of community outreach

    allowing SQSH to invest in community events, publicity materials, and awareness campaigns.

  • $25 funds one SQSH volunteer’s weekly stipend

    $25 funds one SQSH volunteer’s weekly stipend

    allowing LGBTQIA+ community members to volunteer their time and energy sustainably.

  • $125 funds one month of rent, allowing SQSH volunteers to take calls in a private, confidential office space.

    $30 funds one week of rent

    allowing SQSH volunteers to take helpline calls and meetings in a private, confidential office space.

  • $50 funds one month of phone bills, allowing SQSH callers to access free, confidential Helpline service.

    $50 funds one month of phone bills

    allowing SQSH callers to access free, confidential Helpline service.

  • $150 funds one SQSH volunteer’s training fees, allowing LGBTQIA+ community members to learn peer counseling skills to support others.

    $60 funds one SQSH volunteer’s training costs

    allowing LGBTQIA+ community members to learn peer counseling skills to support others.

  • $75 funds one month of insurance, allowing SQSH volunteers to take calls safely & securely.

    $75 funds one month of insurance

    allowing SQSH staff and volunteers to provide our services safely & securely.

  • $100 funds the cost of one community course

    allowing LGBTQIA+ community members to teach and learn valuable peer support and mental health skills from each other.

  • $150 funds 10 hours of staff salary

    allowing dedicated queer St. Louisans to sustain their livelihoods while doing high-quality work for the community.

Donate by Venmo, CashApp, or PayPal

If you already have a Venmo (@the-SQSH), CashApp ($theSQSH), or PayPal account, send a quick donation to SQSH with a single swipe! We recommend using CashApp to avoid transaction fees.

NOTE: If you wish to receive a thank-you email or tax acknowledgement letter, please use the donation form linked above on this page instead. Otherwise, if you donate via Venmo, CashApp, or PayPal, we may not be able to contact you, as these platforms generally do not collect your contact information when you donate.

Donate by Check or Cash

To donate by check, please address your check to “St. Louis Queer+ Support Helpline” and mail it to:

4220 Duncan Ave, Suite 201
St. Louis, MO 63110

To donate by cash or personally deliver your check to a SQSH representative, please email our Treasurer.

If you are interested in meeting with a SQSH representative, please email our Fundraising Team. We would love to chat with you about SQSH’s work.

Donate In-Kind

To reduce waste and promote mutual aid, SQSH is putting out in-kind donation wish-lists to crowdsource items from our community! All donations will go directly to supporting our volunteers/staff and achieving our mission of strengthening the St. Louis queer/LGBTQIA+ community.

Why are we crowdsourcing for office equipment?

Our office is not adequately equipped for our staff and volunteers to best serve our community’s needs. Since founding, our staff and volunteer base has grown from 16 to 85 people, straining the capacity of our office infrastructure and furniture, especially during meetings and training sessions. To improve staff/volunteer well-being and service confidentiality, we need your help to crowdsource office equipment!

How can you help?

  • If you own any of the items on one of our wish lists, donate them to SQSH through Amazon or mail, or contact one of our staff or volunteers to arrange for pick-up/drop-off!

  • Share our wish lists with your friends, family, and social networks!

Where should i mail my in-kind donations to?

  • Mail packages to: 4220 Duncan Ave, Suite 201, St. Louis, MO 63110

Importance of Funding

  • We're seeking funding to expand staffing to increase the quality & scale of our current programs, which we've sustained since founding.

    As of 2022, our annual budget is $106,618, with $65,792 dedicated to 2.0 FTE staff funding. This is currently spread out across 1 full-time staff (Luka, Executive Director) and 2 part-time staff (Amanda, Digital Communications Manager; Sindy, Peer Support Organizer).

    We recently received a $60,000 general operating support grant from The Abbey Fund. We’d like to fundraise $10,000 from our community to increase our staff salaries and benefits to $134,800, which will allow us to scale up Amanda and Avi’s roles to both full-time, with all staff paid at a salaried rate of $20.00/hour, $41,600/year (before taxes), with health insurance.

  • SQSH’s work now is extra timely and urgent, given the mixed grassroots feedback in response to 988’s launch; the research calling for healing justice approaches (Bosley, Harrington, Morris, Le Dantec, 2022); and the urgency of recent anti-trans legislation in Missouri and nationwide.

    Given provider shortages and burnout among mental health professionals amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, SQSH’s community-led healing programs represent a powerful resource and innovative model that deserves timely investment now.

  • Robust funding would allow us to make bold, strategic plans that strengthen the basis of our programs for years to come, instead of maintaining the status quo.

    • For our Training & Education programs, we'd be able to revamp our existing curricula by re-examining the root causes of gender- and sexuality-based oppression through critical scholarship; conducting stakeholder and community interviews; and building processes for sustainability (fee-for-service schedule, evaluation tools, train-the-trainer workshops) that allow this program to thrive for years.

    • For our SQSHBook Resource Guide, we'd be able to launch phase 2 (community reviews, vetting, and listing ownership) and phase 3 (conduct linkages to continuum of care and follow-up healing + accountability when queer St. Louisan users experience harm with specific resources).

    • For our Call Data Advocacy, we'd be able to build partnerships that form a pipeline for our call data reports; update our Call Log (data collection mechanism); and build a coalition of partners to identify and build consensus around an advocacy agenda for local queer activism.

    • For our Peer Support Helpline, we'd be able to expand our hours and caller base, as well as offer in-person peer counseling support at events and times of the year that hit the St. Louis LGBTQIA+ community particularly hard. These include Trans Day of Remembrance, community tragedies, "funerals" for queer loss and family rejection, etc.

  • We receive funding from a variety of sources:

    • Grants from foundations & partners: Peace First, International Trans Fund, Trans Justice Funding Project, Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, Racial Justice & Healing Fund, St. Louis Community Foundation, Chiron Community Giving Foundation, The Abbey Fund, Siteman Family Foundation, Gephardt Institute, AmFam Institute

    • Individual donations from fundraisers and campaigns

    • Fee-for-service payments from client & community courses

FAQs for Potential Donors

How is SQSH funded?

We started this project in 2019 using an initial $5,000 Civic Scholars grant from Washington University's Gephardt Institute for Civic & Community Engagement. In our first year, we were sustained by the following major funding streams: a $2,500 Mini Grant from the St. Louis Area Violence Prevention Commission, $1,900 from our 2019 Facebook Fundraiser, $400 from our 2019 Benefit Show by C U Next Tuesday, and $9,760 from our 2020 Fundraiser.

Since founding, we have sustained our organization through individual donations, fundraisers, grants, and awards. We publish annual financial reports to be fully transparent with how we obtain funding. Read our Annual Reports to view our Financial Statements from past years.

How will SQSH spend my donation money?

We use the donations we receive to support our key programs and the people planning and implementing them. This includes office rent, phone bills, software fees (database, website, videoconferencing), equipment (furniture, computers, phones), outreach (ads, flyers, social media), staff salaries, volunteer stipends, and insurance.

We publish annual financial reports to be fully transparent with how we spend our funding. Read our Annual Reports to view our Financial Statements from past years.

Will my donation be tax deductible?

Yes! Your contributions will be fully tax deductible. SQSH received our official 501(c)(3) non-profit status on June 9, 2020. You can view our 501(c)(3) approval letter from the IRS as a PDF. If you need a tax acknowledgement letter, please email our Fundraising Team.

How can I learn more about SQSH?

Please view Our Mission for detailed information about our organization's mission and goals.