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Raise Money for Your Campus LGBTQIA+ Center by Serving Your Queer Community!

SIGN UP NOW!Learn More

01

How It Works

Register your university’s LGBTQIA+ center below, then invite students, staff, and alumni to join your PRIDE SCOUTS team! Your team members will work together to add every LGBTQIA+ friendly business, resource, and healthcare provider to QWELL Community Foundation’s GREATER app so all users in your area can anonymously find whatever they need to improve their queer wellbeing.

02

Why You Should Sign Up

Your campus center receives $100 from QWELL for each business your Pride Scouts team gets to claim their listing on GREATER – and so does your team member who got them to sign up! Your team’s contributions to the GREATER app will help improve LGBTQIA+ quality of life in your area by making it easy for queer folks to find the resources and services they need.

03

The Contest!

Challenge your school’s arch-rival to compete with your Pride Scouts team! The GREATER Pride College Contest is a fun, friendly, intercollegiate competition to see whether your team or your rival’s will identify the most LGBTQIA+ friendly businesses and resources for QWELL’s GREATER app. Did we mention there are PRIZES? 

About

QWELL x GREATER

QWELL Community Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in Austin, Texas, that works to improve LGBTQIA+ health and happiness.

QWELL’s app, GREATER, anonymously connects LGBTQIA+ people with the businesses, healthcare, and resources that support us. The app also houses our queer wellbeing research study and provide local data about how your local LGBTQIA+ is doing for your organization.

The GREATER Pride College Contest is funded with a seed grant from
Lady Gaga’s BORN THIS WAY FOUNDATION.

The Need

LGBTQIA+ people in QWELL’s Queer Wellbeing Study report difficulty in finding queer-friendly businesses and employers, healthcare, and other resources. Also, with the recent Supreme Court decision in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis permitting anti-LGBTQIA+ discrimination in public accommodation, it’s up to us to identify the businesses that deserve our LGBTQIA+ and Ally dollars. Our GREATER app makes those businesses easy to find, completely anonymously.

The Opportunity

  • Your Pride Scouts team will help LGBTQIA+ people in your area find whatever they need in the GREATER app.
  • There is no limit to how much $$ your campus center can raise for getting LGBTQIA+ friendly businesses to claim their GREATER listings.
  • Your Pride Scouts team members will earn money too!
  • Your center will be connected to many more potential business donors now and in the future.

The Lift

Your campus LGBTQIA+ center will be responsible for signing up students, staff, alumni, and supporters for your Pride Scouts team.

You’ll host team-building events and outreach days, celebrate milestones, and otherwise maintain your team’s cohesion and excitement.

QWELL will also help you fundraise to cover any costs for your participation in the program through your local Walmart’s Community Grants Program and other potential donors.

The Timeline

The first GREATER Pride College Contest will be Spring Semester 2024 (Jan-April).

  • REGISTRATION DEADLINE: DECEMBER 8, 2023

The second contest will run for the entire ’24-’25 school year (Sept-April).

  • REGISTRATION DEADLINE: AUGUST 1, 2024

Earn Points to Win!

Your Pride Scouts team will earn points toward Individual and Team Prizes for taking actions in QWELL’s GREATER app.

The participating campus center with the highest point total will win the GRAND PRIZE POT OF CASH.

Other prizes will be won for:

  • Biggest Team (1)
  • 100% Active Teams (All)
  • Most Businesses Added (1)
  • Most Listings Claimed by Businesses (1 per Team)
  • Best Cheat (1)
  • Most Team Members Added by One Teammate (1)
  • Team with the most QWELL Research Surveys Completed (1)

Frequently Asked Questions

How does our LGBTQIA+ Center win?

Every participating Center will receive $100 per year for every business that claims and keeps their listing on QWELL’s GREATER app because of their Team Members. There is NO LIMIT on this amount. Funds will be distributed to your Center at the end of the last semester of the contest. 

Did you catch that? Your Center will get $100 every year from every business you signed up that continues their monthly GREATER membership. 

Every Center participating in a contest will be eligible to win the Grand Prize. The amount of the Grand Prize increases with every business that claims its listing as part of the contest. 

Your Center will earn extra points toward the Grand Prize for every completed Queer Wellbeing Survey taken by Team Members in the GREATER app (Survey Launch-Fall Semester Only). 

Your Center can earn additional points for supplying social media content for the program and contest. 

Every member of a Center Team will be eligible to win supplemental prizes.

What constitutes an LGBTQIA+ Center?

QWELL’s GREATER COLLEGE CONTEST is open to:

  • LGBTQIA+ Centers or equivalent student groups at colleges and universities in the United States and its territories; and,
  • Members of Centerlink, the network of LGBTQIA+ community centers, in the United States and its territories.
How many Teams can be at one school?

One! Only your school’s official LGBTQIA+ center OR one equivalent student group can register for the GREATER College Contest.

Who can join our Campus Center’s Pride Scouts Team?

Your Team is whoever wants to help you win! For example:

  • Students at your school (& prospective students like surrounding high schools)
  • Staff at your school or Center
  • Your students’ and staff’s Parents, Friends, and Family Members
  • Alumni 
  • Community Supporters 

Your local LGBTQIA+ community center (must be registered with Centerlink)

Can our Team include members under the age of 18?

If your Center does youth work, you already know that  we must be extra cautious when programming for minors. 

All Team activity flows through QWELL’s GREATER app, which is safe for all ages. 

However, if you want to plan an in-person Team gathering that would mix minors and adults, you should take your Center’s usual precautions to protect LGBTQIA+ youth.

What tools does our Center receive to help us win?
  • Grantwriting support for your Pride Scouts team
  • Printable palm cards to hand out to businesses
  • Graphics package 
  • Outreach guidance and strategy calls with QWELL staff
  • “Cheat” suggestions
  • Social media strategy and support
Does it cost our Center anything to participate?

Nope! It’s absolutely free for you to participate! In fact, we’ll end up paying YOU when your Team gets businesses to claim their listings!!!

Why should our Center participate?

Besides the chance to prove your school is better than its rival? Your Center needs more incentive?? How about:

  1. Your Center gets $100/year for every business your team signs up that keeps their listing!
  2. Chances to win more money and other prizes for your Center!
  3. Networking opportunities with other Center leaders in the program!
  4. Even better, you’ll get early access to QWELL’s online platform that will make it easy for you to solicit LGBTQIA+ friendly businesses in your area for donations and other types of support in the future. 
  5. Future features will include a tool you can use to message all your Center’s Team Members using QWELL’s GREATER platform. You will be able to fundraise, share events, or share contest updates, for example. 
  6. You will also get access to the GREATER app’s data about LGBTQIA+ quality of life in your local area. Centers can use this data for grant-writing, program evaluation, lobbying, and other purposes. QWELL’s Queer Wellbeing Study provides helpful data about Queer Wellbeing in six dimensions:
    1. Physical Health
    2. Mental Health
    3. Relationships & Community Connectedness
    4. Living Environment 
    5. Learning Opportunities
    6. Economic Condition
What is QWELL’s Queer Wellbeing Study?

QWELL is the LGBTQIA+ community foundation serving Greater Austin, Texas, which has the nation’s third largest openly LGBTQIA+ population. 

Since 2018, we have conducted the Queer Wellbeing Study in collaboration with researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and Dell Medical School. 

Thousands of Austin-area LGBTQIA+ residents have completed the survey. Local LGBTQIA+ organizations and the City of Austin have found the data invaluable in measuring and tracking queer wellbeing. 

The data is used for grant-writing, program evaluation, academic publication, and decision support for actions to improve LGBTQIA+ quality of life. 

You can review some reports using the data here

For the first five years of the Queer Wellbeing Study, data was collected using an online Qualtrics form. Beginning in 2024, data will be collected through QWELL’s GREATER app, making it much easier for LGBTQIA+ people to answer the anonymous questions over time and providing deeper, more valuable data. 

Your Center earns extra points toward the Grand Prize for every survey completed by an app user on your team.

What if we can’t find enough LGBTQIA+ friendly businesses in our town to be competitive?

Who said you could only register businesses in your town? 😉

Cheating is highly encouraged! Visit our cheat page for ideas.

How can we keep all the businesses that we sign up for GREATER to maintain our annual donation from QWELL?

Smart question! 

The best practice is for your Pride Scouts to frequent these businesses (with their friends!) so the business feels constantly supported by your local LGBTQIA+ community.

Your team members can also sustain their interactions with businesses they signed up. By staying in regular communication, your team member can share your needs with the business and also inquire about how the business is doing.

Also, we’ll show our impact on their business! The GREATER app’s companion website will generate reports to share with participating businesses. These reports will show how many GREATER app users visited their business and how much spending was reported. 

Can we apply for grant support for our participation in this program?

Absolutely! Your participation is free, but there are costs associated with the GREATER Pride College Contest. QWELL Community Foundation will be happy to work with you on grants to support your participation in our Pride Scouts program. for example, we’ll help you ask your local Walmart for a Community Grant. 

You might want grant money to pay for program expenses like:

  • T-shirts and program swag
  • Printing palm cards for businesses
  • Any staff time dedicated to the program
  • Program promotions like advertising or event tabling.