About TPI

Our Mission

Trans Pride Initiative is working to provide assistance and support for transgender and gender diverse persons in areas of healthcare, housing, employment, education, and public accommodations.

Our Vision

TPI undertakes our efforts with a vision of creating a world where all identities related to gender are free from stigma, where relationships are subject to no administrative regulation beyond that of individual agency and desire, and where all individuals may freely express themselves in terms of gender and relationships without fear of violence.


Our Values

  • No one is disposable
  • Stigma can be eliminated
  • We are making a difference
  • Everyone can contribute to moving our community forward
  • Community comes first
  • Service to community builds individual integrity
  • Our work will be ineffective if it is not intentionally intersectional
  • All relationships that are meaningful to those involved are valid
  • The power of the people is more important that the power of policy
  • Everyone has the capacity to succeed given the right tools and knowledge
  • Justice is transformative and restorative, not retributive
  • We are effective stewards of our world and the environment

Getting Involved

Volunteering

Volunteering is simple at TPI. Contact us by phone or email and let us know you would like to get involved, and we can discuss our volunteer needs. As all our work is organized under committees, you may want to look through the Committees page and go over the information there to learn about what committees have active projects on-going. Committees not currently active are also opportunities to get involved if you would like to help develop the committee.

Membership

Involvement at TPI is intended to build community through a mutual aid perspective. Paid staff positions are limited and intermittent, so we depend on volunteers and we hope that we can structure your involvement so that you benefit from volunteering, just as we benefit from your involvement. For some, “benefit” could mean just participating in the work; for others it could be learning new skills, gaining knowledge in some area, or gaining experience for a resume or other need such as community service requirements.

Our Member Guide (PDF, 1.7M) provides the most comprehensive overview of our work and how we are structuring membership. Our orgainzational structure is based on the experiences and lessons learned by other organizations like Sylvia River Law Project, FIERCE, and INCITE! Women, Gender Non-Conforming, and Trans People of Color Against Violence.


Organizing Documents

TPI is posting our organizing documents to share our experience and work with others considering a nonprofit organization. All of these documents are available for you to download and use as benefits your situation and needs.

TPI Certificate of Filing

The Certificate of Filing is the notice from the Texas Secretary of State certifying that a Certificate of Formation for a Domestic Nonprofit Corporation has been filed.

TPI Bylaws

The TPI bylaws define how Trans Pride Initiative is organized and the basics of how we conduct our work. This has the definitions of officer duties, information about meetings and other routine procedures, how we deal with conflicts of interest, and other basic procedures.

Our 501(c)(3) Application (Form 1023 and Attachments)

The 501(c)(3) application is our request to the Internal Revenue Service to be designated a public charity. The public charity designation means donors can deduct their donations from taxes owed, and that we can apply for government and foundation grants for which we might not otherwise qualify.

We have posted our application here for other nonprofit organizations to use if it might serve as a template or guide for their own 501(c)(3) application.

501(c)(3) Letter of Determination

The 501(c)(3) Letter of Determination provides two important pieces of information. First, it notes the organization qualifies for tax exempt status at the federal level, meaning contributions to the organization are tax deductable. Second, it lists the classification of the organization as a public charity or a private foundation.

Trans Pride Initiative has received a Letter of Determination dated April 21, 2013, and retroactively effective from August 12, 2011, stating that the organization is “exempt from Federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code” and that we further are classified as “a public charity under 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) as a publicly supported organization.”


Meeting Records, Annual Reports, and Tax Filings

TPI makes all our meeting records and operational documents public for the sake of transparency. The following provides links to all these documents.

Board Meeting Minutes

This section holds the agendas and minutes of our board meetings from the initial beginning of TPI's work to the present. The meeting items are arranged in reverse chronological order, with the most recent meeting materials posted closest to the top.

2023 (click to show / hide available files)

2022 (click to show / hide available files)

2021 (click to show / hide available files)

2020 (click to show / hide available files)

2019 (click to show / hide available files)

2018 (click to show / hide available files)

2017 (click to show / hide available files)

2016 (click to show / hide available files)

2015 (click to show / hide available files)

2014 (click to show / hide available files)

2013 (click to show / hide available files)

2012 (click to show / hide available files)

2011 (click to show / hide available files)

Annual Reports

Trans Pride Initiative was formed in 2011, and our first annual report was created for our 2012 year of operations. The annual reports are each available at the links below.


Tax Filings

Nonprofit organizations are only required to file Form 990-N, also called an e-Postcard) if they have gross receipts of less than $50,000 in a year. TPI met this filing requirement until 2018, the first year that we received more than $50,000 in donations and grants and were thus required to file Form 990-EZ. Below are the Forms 990 for each year we have filed.