wayOUT

wayOUT/About

About

Five friends. One rooftop. Ten years of showing up for queer youth.

Give nowMeet the team
The whole room on its feet, arms up, at the LA Gayla

Photo by Kit Karzen

Our mission

wayOUT empowers grassroots organizations to make a lasting, positive impact on LGBTQ+ youth across the nation.

By making affirming spaces and life-saving resources more accessible in local communities, we are creating a safer WAY for queer youth to be OUT as their most authentic selves wherever they are.

Our vision

Every LGBTQ+ young person deserves an affirming space close to home, especially where it's hardest to grow up queer.

The wayOUT LGBT Foundation is a 100% volunteer 501(c)(3).

100%

of proceeds go to the youth organizations.

100%

volunteer. Nobody gets paid.

2016

the year it started, in San Francisco.

Our story

It started on a rooftop in San Francisco.

It was 2016. Five friends were talking about a country pulling apart, and what that was doing to LGBTQ+ people. So they pooled what they had and picked a target: queer youth, in their own hometowns.

The first Gayla, in 2017, set out to raise $20,000. It raised over $100,000. That check went to Magic City Acceptance Center in Birmingham, Alabama. Since then, more cities have brought the party home and picked up the work.

Volunteers cheer as a giant check for Magic City Acceptance Center is held up at the 2017 Bay Area Gayla
The first check · Bay Area Gayla · 2017
  1. 2016

    Five friends start wayOUT in San Francisco.

    The founder's first fundraiser raises $20,000 for The Trevor Project.

  2. 2017

    The first Gayla, in the Bay Area.

    Goal: $20,000. Raised: over $100,000.

  3. 2018

    New York starts a chapter.

  4. 2019

    Los Angeles joins.

  5. 2020

    Seattle starts a chapter.

    Its first season ran through the pandemic, and it raised money anyway.

  6. 2022
    Milestone

    wayOUT passes $1 million granted.

    Six years in: five chapters, 19 youth organizations.

  7. 2024

    Our biggest single grant: $199,898.

    Raised by Los Angeles for Outright Vermont.

  8. 2024
    Milestone

    wayOUT passes $2 million granted.

    Eight years in: 25 youth organizations in 19 states.

  9. 2025

    $40,000 from national to EmpowerMT.

    Missoula, Montana. Granted directly by our national board.

  10. 2026

    Ten years. Our chapters today: Los Angeles and Seattle.

Leadership

The people behind wayOUT.

All volunteers.

Brenden Kennedy

Brenden Kennedy

he/him

National Board President

Tiffany Barillas

Tiffany Barillas

she/her

National Board Treasurer

Richard Gadsden

Richard Gadsden

he/him

Los Angeles Chair

Ty Ohman-Myers

Ty Ohman-Myers

he/him

Seattle Chair

Join our national board

Three seats are open:

  • Corporate Partnerships
  • Growth
  • Impact
Get in touch
The wayOUT Way

We're the middle person, on purpose. We spotlight the youth organizations most people never hear about, and put them in front of a room ready to give.

We fund the small, local youth organizations with boots on the ground: the ones doing the most with the least, in the places bigger charities don't reach.

1

Identify

We look for local leaders and grassroots organizations already doing the work for LGBTQ+ youth, especially where support is hardest to find.

2

Listen

We ask what they need and what a real investment would let them do, and we take their lead.

3

Fund

We raise the money through our chapters, our partners and our big nights, and we send it to them.

4

Advise

When it’s useful, we share what we’ve learned and open our address book. They decide what to use.

5

Connect

We introduce them to each other and to bigger networks, so no one’s doing this alone.

1:1:1

One chapter. One youth organization. One season.

After the check clears, we stay. We mentor, we connect our youth organizations to each other and to bigger networks, and we keep telling their story.

See every youth organization we've funded

Our values

Our values spell it out.

W

Welcome everyone.

Giving shouldn't need a gala budget. Anyone can join in.

A

All of it goes out.

100% of proceeds go to the youth organizations, because we're all volunteers.

Y

Youth first.

Every decision starts with the young person it reaches.

O

On the ground.

We back local leaders who already know their community, and they decide how to spend it.

U

United.

Chapters, donors and youth organizations, connected.

T

Turn up the joy.

Doing good should feel good. Feeling good is fun. Joy is the strategy.

Ten years in. 100% of proceeds still go to queer youth.

Give now