The Issue:

For more than 25 years, Ruth Ellis Center has welcomed LGBTQ+ young people experiencing rejection and housing instability to a safe space providing food, healthcare and community. In 2025, that work became significantly harder. The federal administration made LGBTQ+ organizations a primary target, introducing policy changes, funding restrictions, and ideological pressure that threaten the safety and legal standing of organizations like Ruth Ellis Center.
 

The challenge was complicated and deeply human. The organization could not fully engage or combat the government out of safety for the young people it serves. But it also could not ignore what was happening. Anything said publicly had to be honest enough to honor the moment, but measured enough to avoid making Ruth Ellis Center or its young people a greater target.

 

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Lens of Empathy:

Strategy InKind worked closely with Ruth Ellis Center's leadership and staff to understand the human reality behind the headlines. What emerged was a picture of an organization holding extraordinary weight: staff navigating fear and uncertainty while continuing to show up every day for young people who needed them. And the young people themselves, as the organization's own language so powerfully captured, were practicing joy as a form of resistance.

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The response to an administration trying to erase them would not be confrontation. It would be clarity, dignity, and rallying of the community around the young people who needed them most.

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Our Impact:

Strategy InKind served as a strategic partner in the development of Ruth Ellis Center's 3-year Strategic Plan alongside lead facilitator TNS Consulting. In a moment of external pressure and uncertainty, the plan established three cultural anchors rooted in internal strength: Collaboration, Learning, and Sustainability. 

That internal strength soon had an external outlet. The year-end annual appeal letter generated an unusual response: donors reported reading it word for word. On the back page, they found a list of redacted words, terms the federal government had banned, such as inclusive, allyship, and evidence-based. The device, conceived by a staff member and developed collaboratively with Strategy InKind, made the threat tangible and personal without putting the organization at legal or operational risk.

The results were remarkable. Year-over-year, donations increased by nearly 200% and the donor base grew by nearly 20%, proving that when an organization speaks with empathy and courage, its community shows up.