Iola Foundation

Education:It Gets Better EDU exists to ensure our uplifting and informative stories reach LGBTQ+ youth and their peers wherever learning takes place. With an impactful youth ambassador program, student-driven grantmaking initiatives, and a growing library of free educational resources for educators and student leaders, thousands of middle and high school students engage with It Gets Better EDU programming every year.In 2024, It Gets Better EDU, with support from American Eagle and their generous customers and additional support from the MAC Viva Glam Foundation and Tumblr, returned with season three of 50 States. 50 Grants. 5,000 Voices, awarded nearly $250,000 in grants to 25 schools and community organizations throughout the United States. Grants supported a range of LGBTQ+ inclusive projects, from launching Genders & Sexualities Alliances and diversifying libraries to sexual health training videos for educators and Pride celebrations. Throughout the year, our 10 Youth Voices ambassadors proved themselves to be stellar spokespeople for the organization and their fellow LGBTQ+ youth, talking with the press about issues facing trans youth in schools, inclusive education, access to mental health, the importance of visibility during Pride Month, and more. In October, the Youth Voices traveled to Los Angeles for our third annual Youth Summit where they participated in a full day of leadership training at the It Gets Better offices, visited the Funko Store in Hollywood, participated in a photoshoot with acclaimed photographer Maxwell Poth, and more. Our collaboration with Hopelab and Centerlink in support of the digital mental health resource imi (available at https://imi.guide/) hit a major milestone in August by officially reaching 100,000 users. In December, It Gets Better took over full ownership of imi. Additionally, thousands of educational materials were accessed by educators throughout 2024 to reach more than 1,700 educators and more than 103,000 students participating in both on and offline learning environments.

Global:It Gets Better is the world's largest storytelling effort to empower LGBTQ+ youth. Investing in local, like-minded organizations outside the US, It Gets Better brings storytelling and other life-affirming support to communities of LGBTQ+ youth around the globe.By the end of 2024, the It Gets Better Global Affiliate Network spanned 19 countries across four continents with global storytelling efforts happening in eight languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, German, Greek, French, and Hungarian. In September, It Gets Better hosted its first ever Global Summit live on Twitch, a collaboration with It Gets Better Mexico that was broadcast in English and in Spanish. The summit gathered representatives from our Global Affiliates in Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru with special appearances from our global grantees in Bolivia and Costa Rica. The summit also featured a presentation of our Spanish language EduGuide promoting inclusive language for nonbinary people. It Gets Better saw several projects that were funded through its Global Grants initiative come to completion. The Museo de la Identidad y Orgullo (MIO) in Costa Rica celebrated their efforts to preserve the history of the LGBTIQ+ movement through the digitization of over 150 queer magazines published between 1980 and 1995. As part of the project, MIO hosted engaging workshops in both urban and rural communities in Nosara, Monteverde, and San Jose. Additionally, the project was made accessible through social media, with over 100K views garnered on TikTok. The project's expansive reach was made possible through partnerships with organizations like Nosara Pride, Monteverde Diverso, and the University of Costa Rica.Colectivo Daria y Fraternidad did exceptional work with their grant funds to recover LGBTQ+ history from within indigenous communities of Bolivia. The organization worked tirelessly, through numerous educational and artistic events offered to communities across the country, to bring to light many of the ancestral LGBTQ+ beliefs and practices that have often been forgotten at large. Over 4,200 LGBTQ+ youth participants were impacted through the resources, mentorship and skill-building opportunities this project offered that fostered new avenues for self-expression and community engagement. Additionally, It Gets Better Espanol initiative was given a giant boost in 2024 thanks to a three-year commitment from Converse to support our capacity-building efforts to expand It Gets Better storytelling initiatives, educational programming, and global community-building efforts to positively impact Spanish-speaking LGBTQ+ youth audiences here in the US and abroad. It Gets Better Espanol launched its first ambassador program on Instagram, working with creators from around the world to bring our unique brand of uplifting content spanish-speaking LGBTQ+ youth. Additionally, we collaborated with Queer Chameleon on a pilot program advice series for Spanish-speaking LGBTQ+ youth on Instagram. Our Instagram channel saw its audience grow by 62% and logged more than 220,000 impressions in 2024.