Impact of USAID Suspension on LGBTI+ Civil Society Organisations

The abrupt suspension of USAID funding in early 2025 has had devastating effects on LGBTI+ civil society organisations around the world. Of the 43 organisations Kaleidoscope Trust surveyed in the immediate aftermath:

• 29 experienced direct impacts, resulting in an estimated USD $8.67 million in lost income
• Several organisations lost over 50% of their income, putting them at risk of closure
• Essential services—including health, mental health, legal aid, and safe spaces—have shut down or sharply scaled back.

This has increased the vulnerability of LGBTI+ individuals to violence, discrimination, security threats, and economic precarity— especially in Africa and the Pacific, where anti-LGBTI+ backlash is particularly severe. The cuts have also accelerated a global rollback of LGBTI+ rights, undermining decades of advocacy and disrupting life-saving services.

“This moment must serve as a wake-up call for our community and broader movement to urgently recommit to advancing sustainable, long-term funding models for LGBTI+ civil society. Without decisive action, hard-won progress in global LGBTI+ rights may be lost.” 

– Alex Farrow, CEO, Kaleidoscope Trust

In response, with support from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), Kaleidoscope Trust successfully disbursed over £600,000 in grants to help our partners continue delivering their life-saving work. Linked to the grants, recipient organisations also participated in semi-structured qualitative interviews to quantify the impact of the suspension of USAID and to help us understand how LGBTI+ organisations have specifically been impacted.

Our research identifies three major consequences of the USAID cuts:

• Financial precarity: Sudden funding gaps led to immediate layoffs, closure of community centres, and the shutdown of essential services, affecting communities already often facing financial precariousness.
• Service disruption: Vital programmes in health, legal support, and crisis response were reduced or eliminated, increasing community vulnerability.
• Long-term setbacks: The crisis created a loss of trust and partnership, weakened advocacy momentum, and exposed the limits of donor funding models that prioritise short-term deliverables over long-term sustainability and movement-building.

Kaleidoscope Trust has leveraged these findings to launch a new research report which issues a powerful call to action and includes clear recommendations for policymakers, donors, and civil society actors. 

You can read the full report here.