Policy Promotion or Community Care: Explaining the Dual Activities of LGBTQ+ Organizations

Abstract LGBTQ+ organizations have a crucial dual role. They advocate and lobby for equality, while simultaneously providing vital services for LGBTQ+ communities. Different literatures provide perspectives on the hybridity of these organizations’ activities, highlighting the relation between political context and organizational capabilities. Yet, each body of literature emphasizes different elements. Building on key insights from nonprofit, social movement, and interest group literatures, this study investigates the contextual and organizational factors shaping the political and community-oriented activities of 294 LGBTQ+ organizations across 17 European Union countries. Using a unique dataset, it reveals that organizations faced with governmental repression reduce their political activities and increase their community-oriented activities. Organizational factors such reliance on membership fees and amount of funding sources have only a limited influence on organizations’ activities. These findings offer a more comprehensive understanding of how political and organizational contexts shape the work of LGBTQ+ organizations and emphasize the need for LGBTQ+ organizations to balance advocacy with community engagement, particularly in diverse and repressive environments.