San Diego Foundation Launches National Rainbow College Fund in California

Octo­ber 31, 2024 – San Diego, CA – Today, San Diego Foun­da­tion (SDF) launched the Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund (NRCF) in Cal­i­for­nia, the first schol­ar­ship designed to exclu­sive­ly sup­port LGBTQ+ stu­dents pur­su­ing their ambi­tions for high­er edu­ca­tion regard­less of the pub­lic nature of their sex­u­al and gen­der iden­ti­ty.

The Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund is pow­ered by San Diego Foun­da­tion, one of the largest com­mu­ni­ty foun­da­tions in the U.S. and the largest provider of schol­ar­ships of any com­mu­ni­ty foun­da­tion in Cal­i­for­nia. The mis­sion of the Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund is to lessen the finan­cial bur­den for young peo­ple who iden­ti­fy as LGBTQ+ or who are grap­pling with the secre­cy of remain­ing in the clos­et. The ground­break­ing fund address­es the unique chal­lenges LGBTQ+ stu­dents face such as social accep­tance, men­tal health issues and fam­i­ly rejec­tion that can hin­der their abil­i­ty to afford col­lege that in turn impacts long-term eco­nom­ic earn­ing pow­er.

“Speak­ing from per­son­al expe­ri­ence, I know that many young peo­ple strug­gle with the fear of being out­ed or com­ing out. It can be over­whelm­ing. Like many young peo­ple, I did every­thing pos­si­ble to hide who I was because I feared being kicked out of my home and my fam­i­ly, as well as being cut off finan­cial­ly and emo­tion­al­ly,” said Mark Stu­art, Pres­i­dent and CEO of San Diego Foun­da­tion. “Every LGBTQ+ per­son should have the means to real­ize their edu­ca­tion­al dreams, regard­less of the pub­lic nature of their sex­u­al and gen­der iden­ti­ty.”

The $2,500 award per select­ed stu­dent may be used for tuition, books, fees, room and board and oth­er edu­ca­tion­al expens­es. It does not need to be repaid. The appli­ca­tion peri­od is from Jan­u­ary 15, 2025 – March 5, 2025. San Diego Foun­da­tion will make stu­dents’ pri­va­cy the high­est pri­or­i­ty dur­ing the appli­ca­tion process. All infor­ma­tion sub­mit­ted to the appli­ca­tion por­tal will be con­fi­den­tial.

Set­ting the prece­dent in Cal­i­for­nia, San Diego Foundation’s vision is for the fund to grow to be a nation­al source of finan­cial aid for LGBTQ+ stu­dents to attend the tech­ni­cal school, col­lege or uni­ver­si­ty of their choos­ing.

To apply, a stu­dent who iden­ti­fies as LGBTQ+ whether pub­licly or pri­vate­ly must be a high school senior; an incom­ing or cur­rent col­lege or uni­ver­si­ty stu­dent; or an adult re-entry stu­dent. Appli­cants need to have lived in Cal­i­for­nia for at least one year and must demon­strate finan­cial need by com­plet­ing the Free Appli­ca­tion for Fed­er­al Stu­dent Aid (FAFSA), the Cal­i­for­nia DREAM Act Appli­ca­tion or the Fed­er­al Stu­dent Aid Esti­ma­tor Tool. Stu­dents must plan to enroll in at least 6 units in an accred­it­ed pub­lic or non­prof­it com­mu­ni­ty col­lege; four-year uni­ver­si­ty or trade/vocational school any­where with­in the Unit­ed States. For more details about eli­gi­bil­i­ty and selec­tion cri­te­ria, please vis­it rainbowcollegefund.org/scholarship-program/.

The need for this schol­ar­ship is well-doc­u­ment­ed. Accord­ing to a sur­vey con­duct­ed by Stu­dent Loan Hero, LGBTQ+ stu­dents face sig­nif­i­cant bar­ri­ers in pay­ing for their edu­ca­tion. Fam­i­lies may not finan­cial­ly sup­port their chil­dren, lead­ing LGBTQ+ stu­dents to turn to loans to finance their school­ing. LGBTQ+ bor­row­ers had a high­er debt bur­den on aver­age, with $16,000 more than their cisgender/heterosexual peers: 60% of LGBTQ+ stu­dent loan bor­row­ers regret tak­ing out stu­dent loans; 28% feel that they can’t man­age their stu­dent loan pay­ments and more than 53% report­ed earn­ing less than $50,000 per year. For every $1,000 schol­ar­ship a stu­dent receives, they are 5% more like­ly to com­plete their edu­ca­tion.

Pri­va­cy remains a major con­cern. A 2022 study from the Williams Insti­tute found that LGBTQ+ stu­dents are four times more like­ly than non-LGBTQ+ stu­dents to choose col­lege in a state with a more wel­com­ing cli­mate and to live away from fam­i­ly; 60% of white LGBTQ+ stu­dents are not out to staff/faculty and less than 40% of LGBTQ+ stu­dents of col­or are out to staff/faculty. Com­mu­ni­ty col­leges have even high­er rates of keep­ing sex­u­al iden­ti­ty pri­vate: more than 70% white LGBTQ+ stu­dents and 65% LGBTQ+ stu­dents of col­or are not out.

LGBTQ+ rights have been under increased attack in gen­er­al, but also trans­gen­der and gen­der diverse com­mu­ni­ties in par­tic­u­lar. This polit­i­cal land­scape is the back­drop by which teenagers are nav­i­gat­ing their iden­ti­ties while emerg­ing into adult­hood. The Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion pub­lished a study doc­u­ment­ing that approx­i­mate­ly 3.3 per­cent of high school stu­dents iden­ti­fy as trans­gen­der and anoth­er 2.2 per­cent are ques­tion­ing their gen­der iden­ti­ty. Trans­gen­der and gen­der-ques­tion­ing teenagers report­ed alarm­ing­ly high­er rates of bul­ly­ing at school, per­sis­tent sad­ness and sui­ci­dal thoughts and behav­ior. About one in four trans­gen­der stu­dents said they had attempt­ed sui­cide in the past year, com­pared with 11 per­cent of cis­gen­der girls and 5 per­cent of cis­gen­der boys.

About the National Rainbow College Fund

Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund (NRCF) is the first schol­ar­ship designed to exclu­sive­ly sup­port LGBTQ+ stu­dents pur­su­ing their ambi­tions for high­er edu­ca­tion regard­less of the pub­lic nature of the student’s sex­u­al and gen­der iden­ti­ty. The ground­break­ing fund address­es the unique chal­lenges LGBTQ+ stu­dents face such as social accep­tance, men­tal health issues and fam­i­ly rejec­tion that can hin­der their abil­i­ty to afford col­lege that in turn impacts long-term eco­nom­ic earn­ing pow­er. Set­ting the prece­dent in Cal­i­for­nia, San Diego Foundation’s vision is for the fund to grow to be a nation­al source of finan­cial aid for LGBTQ+ stu­dents to attend the tech­ni­cal school, col­lege or uni­ver­si­ty of their choos­ing. Learn more at https://rainbowcollegefund.org/.

Fol­low NRCF on social media: Insta­gram: @RainbowCollegeFund, Face­book: Rain­bow Col­lege Fund, X (for­mer­ly Twit­ter): @RainbowColFund, LinkedIn: Rain­bow-Col­lege-Fund

About San Diego Foundation

For near­ly 50 years, San Diego Foun­da­tion has been inspir­ing endur­ing phil­an­thropy and enabling com­mu­ni­ty solu­tions to improve the qual­i­ty of life in our region. Our strate­gic pri­or­i­ties include advanc­ing racial and social jus­tice, fos­ter­ing equi­ty of oppor­tu­ni­ty, build­ing resilient com­mu­ni­ties, and deliv­er­ing world-class phil­an­thropy to real­ize our vision of just, equi­table and resilient com­mu­ni­ties. Since our found­ing in 1975, SDF and our donors have grant­ed $2 bil­lion to sup­port non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions strength­en­ing our com­mu­ni­ty. Join us in com­mem­o­rat­ing 50 years of impact – and look­ing toward the next 50. Learn more at SDFoundation.org.

Contact

Cheryl Reiss, Lan­dis Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Inc., (415) 640‑5431, NRCF@landispr.com, www.landispr.com