Over the years, GiveOut’s donor community has found innovative ways to fundraise for LGBTQI human rights around the world. One such supporter is Altman Solon, a strategy consulting firm in the tech, media and telecoms space. Their workplace Pride network ‘Plus’ participated in last year’s Pride Run 10K and will participate again this year, raising funds for GiveOut’s grant partners and building team solidarity around global LGBTQI activism.
The Pride Run 10K is a not-for-profit run organised annually by volunteers from London Frontrunners, an inclusive running club for LGBTQI people. For Altman Solon’s team, it represented more than just a fundraising opportunity – it was a chance to connect their internal diversity efforts with broader global movements for equality.
We sat down with Bea Egido, who leads the European arm of Altman Solon’s Pride network, to discuss how their workplace community mobilised colleagues to support global LGBTQI activism, the power of corporate partnerships in amplifying grassroots movements, and why global solidarity matters when fighting for equality.
“Our overarching goal is to make Altman Solon an inclusive place to work by organising events for members to connect, growing visibility of LGBTQI issues to allies and senior leadership, and using our platform to push LGBTQI social issues broadly. “
Could you start by introducing yourself? Who are you, what do you do at Altman Solon, and what’s your role with the Pride Network?
My name is Bea, pronouns she/her. I’m part of the LGBTQI community and I really love being part of the community, especially in such a vibrant city like London. I also try to make space, in my professional career, to help others enjoy that same sense of community.
I work for Altman Solon, a strategy consulting firm in the tech, media and telecoms space. I’m a Manager there and I’ve been with them for five years. I’ve always been part of the LGBTQI network, which we call ‘Plus’.
At Plus, I lead the European part of the network. Our overarching goal is to make Altman Solon an inclusive place to work by organising events for members to connect, growing visibility of LGBTQI issues to allies and senior leadership, and using our platform to push LGBTQI social issues broadly. My role is to help members devise and deliver our Plus strategy, as well as organising events.
Last year, the network ran the Pride 10K in support of LGBTQI rights through GiveOut. What was the inspiration behind the fundraiser?
In the grand scheme of things we’re quite a small network, 600 to 700 people in the company, 200 to 300 in Europe. The year before last, we did well at member connection and raising visibility, but very little in using our platform for the broader community. So, we agreed that was a goal for last year.
We wanted something focused on being active and wellbeing. We also thought, because we’re small, why not partner with a high profile LGBTQI event? Especially if you’re a small network, sometimes you can feel a little bit alone, so joining forces with other groups reminds you of how many people are fighting for the same things. So that’s why we chose the Pride 10K Run.
Then we needed to choose a charity. We set out to choose an NGO that we wanted to work with over a couple of years, as well as a charity that the team felt passionate about. We loved GiveOut’s global aspect and focus on high-impact work in regions around the world most behind in LGBTQI human rights. We’re a global firm with a diverse workforce, so it resonated strongly with our people.
Do you have any highlights or memorable moments from the run?
It was a lovely, sunny day in Victoria Park, East London. What was particularly cool was the togetherness of everyone. A few members ran, but there were also allies from our team who came and ran as well. We’ve got a particularly great ally who has their own band, who came just to support us.
I loved seeing everyone get involved in different ways. Most importantly, thinking about the impact we can have. This year, Alexia and Rashida from GiveOut came to talk at Altman Solon about GiveOut’s work. Seeing the full room with Alexia explaining GiveOut’s impact is something I’m proud of.
What advice would you give to other workplace networks considering similar fundraising efforts?
Firstly, if you’re smaller, jumping on something external like the 10K Pride run minimises internal work and you benefit from the energy of a big group.
Secondly, choosing an NGO you want to work with long term is great. We’ve seen the benefits of that – having speakers from GiveOut come to talk, getting emails about GiveOut events, and now this conversation. Choosing a charity you care about, and that’s also receptive to working with you, is super valuable.
Thirdly, make it inclusive for different ways of participating. A 10K can be quite a lot, so find different ways people can participate. That might be coming to have drinks after the race, cheering on from the sides, or walking the 10K instead.
I would also find creative ways to maximise how much you can fundraise. We had people fund their own entry fees, then the firm matched whatever the employees fundraised. Company matching is a great way to amplify the impact of your fundraising.
Finally, there’s power in intersectionality – working with other company networks that might focus on specific global areas can help you get more scale.
What’s important about supporting LGBTQI human rights activism globally, especially where rights are under threat?
We all agreed that we would love to help all LGBTQI social issues. But when we were discussing what charity we should work with long-term, we really felt moved by the point that progress is obviously not equally shared geographically.
Just because we’re running the race in London, we didn’t want to be thinking that we can only help in London. We actually thought, what are the regions or people who have the least LGBTQI rights and that would benefit the most from progress?
That’s why we wanted to choose a charity like GiveOut that pools resources from the UK, but actually focuses on the most pressing issues globally. Obviously, that doesn’t mean that the UK doesn’t have its own problems. We’ve seen it with recent court rulings and with 100,000 people at Trans Pride, which is amazing in showing resistance, but also showing the scale of the challenge that we have at home.
But in this case, we felt that global solidarity really matters because not only do some regions lack basic LGBTQI rights, but we also felt that they struggle the most in getting the resources to overturn that. London has the power to have 100,000 people turn up in the streets, whereas obviously, wherever you have fewer rights, it’s harder to even begin fighting back.
This years Pride Run 10k Run is on 20 September at Victoria Park in London. If you would like to get involved with Pride Run 10k this year and support LGBTQI human rights activism around the world, learn more here.
To find out more about fundraising with GiveOut, go here.