What is Give Big?
Give Big is a 24-hour celebration of community fundraising for nonprofits in the Gallatin Valley. This year marks the 10th year of Give Big! More than 260 local nonprofits are participating. During the event, from 6 PM May 2 to 6 PM May 3, you can donate to the causes and organizations you care about through one centralized platform.
Any amount, whether $5, $10, or more, helps us bring programming and connection to our community. This is our primary fundraiser as an organization, and we deeply appreciate your support and partnership! You can make a donation to Queer Bozeman here. Please share the link with those in your life who want to support the queer community you live in. ❤️🔥
Why Support Queer Bozeman?
Connection and belonging in community are necessary and life-affirming for every human.
Laws and proposed legislation targeting the safety and expression of the queer community are hitting state legislatures around the country. Last year, this was making headlines, and the seven-month-old Queer Bozeman participated in Give Big for the first time. Bozeman and Gallatin Valley turned OUT in response. Queer Bozeman and our friends at the Pride House saw record-breaking numbers of donors for first-year participants.
We cannot thank you enough. Your support allowed us to expand our programming, establish recurring events that provided space and connection for our community, and take all the steps needed to become an independent nonprofit.
Threats to our community and our joy continue, so we have work to do.
This year, we want to grow, expand, and offer more. Take a look at what we’ve been up to and what we hope to do!
What have we been up to?
We continued Therapy Thursday, the flagship event established by our co-founders Chris Coburn and Sara Freedwoman. Every other month in 2023, we held a party to affirm, celebrate, and bring together queers and allies to express joy while we danced together.
Those dance parties included, we have held more than 36 events in the past year!
Our Recurring Events:
We revived a classic created by our community (big shout out to Emely Lambert!) called Queers & Beers. Queer Bozeman’s first iteration of the event started in June 2023 and has been held on the first Monday of every month, typically at the Shine Beer Sanctuary.
Queer Yoga, a donation-based class led by a queer instructor, started in July 2023. That event, held at Ekam Yoga, now occurs every fourth Monday of the month.
October 2023 gave us the opportunity to launch The Tea, a social gathering without alcohol, held every third Wednesday at Steep Mountain Tea House.
Therapy Thursday status
First, big congratulations to the Rialto for becoming a Logjam Presents venue in 2024! We were so grateful to the Rialto for hosting the first six Therapy Thursday dance parties, as well as our collaborative New Queers Eve event. We are currently looking for a new venue to regularly hold queer dance parties that will be cost-accessible to our community. Thank you for your patience!
Other Events & Collaborations
Including the events above, we’ve had 36 events in the past year. We’ve held two gatherings for parents of queer kids, queer parents, and queer families-to-be with State of Play. We’ve “Danced Around Gender” with a swing dance lesson and a social dance event with Downbeat Swing. We’ve also promoted events with partners, including a queer film night, a storytelling and scholarship info event, and a new moon circle.
For New Queers Eve, we joined a collaboration with three other queer organizations—the Countship of the ISCSM, Haus of Consent, and MSU’s QSA—to celebrate the turn of the calendar with dance, drag, and burlesque performances. We sold out the Rialto for this historic party!
We also regularly share other events and news for our community on our socials (IG, FB) and newsletter.
What do we hope to do?
Behind the scenes
The community board has been working hard. We held a board retreat in October 2023 where we established a mission, vision, structure with specific board roles and responsibilities, and planned for the future of what we intend to be a long-lived organzation. We are currently filing for nonprofit status. We’ve solicited applications from our community to expand the board and anticipate welcoming new members in May 2024.
Dreams For Future Programming
In our second year we hope to ramp up even more: We anticipate more family-centered events, outdoor activities, and resource sharing. As we grow we want to be able to offer mutual aid programs, support groups for specific identities, volunteer opportunites, and eventually education and advocacy.
These are big goals! We strive to always move with intention, center collaboration, and the needs of our community. Thank you for being so supportive, whether through donations, ideas, presence, enthusiasm, encouragement, or other means! We appreciate you all.
Who else should I support?
We know the importance of collaboration for community organizing. Here are other groups vital to our local queer community that we encourage you to support as well:
🦁 Pride House gives safe space and community to LGBTQ middle-grade and high-school students.
🪭 The Imperial Sovereign Court of the State of Montana (ISCSM) produces drag events, promotes and advocates for gender expression, and raises money for individuals, scholarships, and other community needs throughout Montana.
🏔️ Big Sky OUT is creating safe queer spaces in Big Sky. They have year-round programming and are organizing their first Pride celebration as a new non-profit!
💞 Bridgercare provides reproductive and sexual health care to south-central Montana. This year, their Give Big campaign goes toward providing sliding-scale fees – which helps make care more affordable and accessible to those who need it. Bridgercare is also our fiscal sponsor as we work to establish our non-profit status. Thank you!
Set aside time on May 2 or 3 to explore the Give Big website to find and support more organizations serving our community. Remember, you have just 24 hours to do so! This allows One Valley Community Foundation to amplify giving efforts with raffles and matching donations. It also makes it easy to support the organizations and causes you care about at once.
