Our office will close without your support.

Please make a donation today to save LGBTQ+ policy research.

Founded in 2010 by Dr. Chris Surfus, The Surfus Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public policy and research foundation dedicated to advancing LGBTQ+ equality through groundbreaking research, evidence-informed public policy, and civil rights advocacy. For 16 years, we have worked to document disparities, challenge discrimination, and develop the evidence needed to build a more equitable and inclusive society.

Our work brings together something essential: independent LGBTQ+ research and real-world policy change. From developing an unprecedented combined dataset of the U.S. Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey to advancing local nondiscrimination protections across West Michigan, we connect rigorous research with practical solutions that affect people's lives.

 

Help Preserve an Independent LGBTQ+ Research Institute

 

Independent research is essential to understanding the challenges facing LGBTQ+ communities and developing policies that address them. The Surfus Foundation brings together national data analysis, local research capacity, and years of public policy advocacy under one mission. But our future is at risk. Our grant funding has been exhausted, and our founder, Dr. Chris Surfus, is personally paying our downtown Grand Rapids office rent to keep our work going. 

 

Without additional financial support, our office may close by August 2027 or sooner!

 

Your donation can help preserve more than an office. It can help sustain an independent LGBTQ+ research institution, protect our capacity to conduct meaningful research, and keep evidence-informed advocacy moving forward. Please stand with The Surfus Foundation. Help us continue producing research, informing public policy, and advancing equality for LGBTQ+ people in Michigan and across the nation.

 

Donate today. Help keep LGBTQ+ research, public policy, and advocacy alive in the Midwest.

 

Our work includes:

• Development of the largest combined dataset of the U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey, which provides us the largest data sample in our nation's history to estimate public health, economic, and wellbeing measures of the LGBTQ+ community, including nationally representative data on transgender people, to better understand disparities facing our lives.
• The Grand100 Campaign, which brought a 100 score on the HRC Municipal Equality Index indicating LGBTQ+ inclusiveness in Grand Rapids.
• The Michigan LGBTQ+ Rights Project - Our work reforming nondiscrimination policies to include sexual orientation and gender identity protections in housing, employment, and public accommodations.
• Advocacy to protect the LGBTQ+ community from discrimination by businesses like the Broadway Avenue LLC, which we filed a complaint that led to their business receiving a municipal civil infraction and then we took them to court to ensure businesses can't decide to discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community.
• Advocacy to ban harmful and disproven Conversion Therapy.
• Advocacy on anti-bullying policies in our public schools.
• Nine years of advocacy that led to nondiscrimination policies in Holland, Grandville, and surrounding areas.
• Advocacy for an inclusive nondiscrimination policy for Kent County at the county level that mirrors the policies already in place in Grand Rapids.

 

The Surfus Foundation is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization. Donations may be tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.