Out in the Open
Out in the Open is a 501(c)(3) grassroots nonprofit building community, visibility, and power among rural LGBTQ+ people in northern New England through annual Summits, retreats, mutual aid, healthcare navigation, and storytelling media.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2012
- HeadquartersBrattleboro, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingServices
What Out in the Open does
Out in the Open is a 501(c)(3) grassroots nonprofit organization founded in 2012 (originally as Green Mountain Crossroads, rebranded in June 2019) that builds community, visibility, knowledge, and power among rural LGBTQ+ people across northern New England — primarily Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. The organization is headquartered in Brattleboro, Vermont (on Wabanakik/Abenaki territory), with a secondary mailing presence in Monroe, Maine, and operates from an owned 3-acre rustic campus used for land-based programming. With a small staff of approximately 8 employees supported by community volunteers, it serves LGBTQ+ adults in rural areas with priority given to QTBIPOC, working-class/poor, 55+, trans women/femmes, and people with disabilities.
The organization's core offerings span movement-building programs (annual Summits, low-residency Writing Retreats, Trans Audio Retreats, fellowships, and ongoing organizing groups such as the Trans Femme Chill Club and Health Justice Working Group), direct services (the HEART healthcare navigation program launched in 2022, the Rural QTBIPOC/LGBTQ+ Mutual Aid Fund), and media projects (Out in the Open Radio Hour with 30+ episodes, the Pride & Prosperity Podcast focused on rural LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs, and oral history work including the Andrews Inn Oral History Project). Its underlying "technology" consists of community organizing methodology, Harm Reduction and Intentional Peer Support frameworks, audio storytelling/oral history tools, and a distinctive integration of art and cultural organizing — explicitly avoiding AI-generated content. Notable program infrastructure includes a 3-acre land campus near Brattleboro, twelve consecutive annual Summits since 2015, and over $33,700 in mutual aid redistributed to rural QTBIPOC/LGBTQ+ community members since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
The business model is a nonprofit donation-and-grant model. Revenue comes primarily from individual donations (one-time and recurring), foundation grants (including the Consortium on Substance Use, which funded HEART), and volunteer in-kind contributions. Programs are delivered free or on a sliding scale ($0–$1,200 for the Writing Retreat, with no one turned away for lack of funds), and donations are processed via Neon CRM. The go-to-market is community-led rather than commercial — relying on grassroots organizing, in-person events, an email newsletter, social media, podcasts/radio, and earned media — with a strategic posture that links LGBTQ+ liberation to broader movements (labor, harm reduction, prison abolition, Palestinian solidarity). Out in the Open operates without a parent company, subsidiaries, or disclosed outside investment.
Out in the Open firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Out in the Open
- Legal name
- Out in the Open
- Website
- https://weareoutintheopen.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2012
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Out in the Open is a 501(c)(3) grassroots nonprofit building community, visibility, and power among rural LGBTQ+ people in northern New England through annual Summits, retreats, mutual aid, healthcare navigation, and storytelling media.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Out in the Open industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Community Organizing and Social Justice Services
- NAICS
- Human Rights Organizations (813311), Social Advocacy Organizations (8133), Other Individual and Family Services (624190), Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations (813)
- SIC
- Services-Social Services (8300), Services-Membership Organizations (8600)
- akta.pro primary industry
- LGBTQ+ Rights & Advocacy Organizations (BPAGAFAE)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Public Health & Health Equity Organizations (BPAGACAL), Health & Support Communities (BPAMABAL), Community Health, Prevention & Health Education (BPAGACAC)
Keywords
Where Out in the Open is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Brattleboro
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices3 records
Markets served
Out in the Open business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Others, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Donations from Individual Community Members: Primary revenue stream through individual donations, including one-time and monthly recurring gifts. The organization actively calls for donations through its website and newsletter. Community fundraising campaigns have raised over $19,000 in single campaigns. The organization explicitly states it does not use AI-generated content, emphasizing human connection in fundraising.
- Foundation Grants: Grant funding from foundations that support rural LGBTQ+ organizing, social justice movement building, and health equity work. Supported by the Consortium on Substance Use (COSU) for the HEART Program.
- Volunteer In-Kind Contributions: Supported by volunteer time and resources. The organization coordinates volunteer safety teams, retreat support, program facilitation, and mutual aid distribution.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Hybrid | Multi-year contract | Full-cost participant |
| Hybrid | Multi-year contract | Sliding scale (reduced) |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels9 records
Out in the Open product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Out in the Open is a grassroots nonprofit organization that builds rural LGBTQ+ community, visibility, knowledge, and power in northern New England through a portfolio of free or sliding-scale programs. Its offerings include the HEART healthcare navigation program, the Rural QTBIPOC/LGBTQ+ Mutual Aid Fund, annual Summits, writing and audio retreats, fellowships, organizing groups, and media projects (radio hour, podcasts, oral histories). The organization serves rural LGBTQ+ adults across Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, with priority for QTBIPOC, working-class, older, and disabled community members.
Product overview
Out in the Open is a grassroots, movement-building organization (not a technology product company) offering community programs and services for rural LGBTQ+ people. The organization provides a portfolio of programs including community organizing, retreats and fellowships, media projects (radio/podcasts), the HEART healthcare navigation program, mutual aid funding, and educational zines and toolkits. These programs work together to build community, visibility, knowledge, and power among rural LGBTQ+ populations in northern New England.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- HEART Program (Health Equity and Access for Rural TLGBQ+) Volunteer-supported healthcare navigation program pairing trained volunteers with rural TLGBQ+ community members in Windham County, Vermont and the Northeast Kingdom, providing appointment planning, accompaniment, transportation, TeleHealth support, hospital check-ins, and referrals to TLGBQ+-friendly providers using Harm Reduction and TLGBQ+ positive advocacy principles.
- Rural QTBIPOC/LGBTQ+ Mutual Aid Fund Emergency financial assistance fund redistributing money to LGBTQ+ folks in rural northern New England, prioritizing QTBIPOC (Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, people of color), with applications accepted online and funds distributed on an ongoing basis.
- Low-Residency Writing Retreat Five-day low-residency writing retreat for rural LGBTQ+ adults exploring themes of time, radical imagination, personal and collective histories, memory, and queer temporal experience. Participants attend daytime workshops with facilitators (including Nico Amador and Diana Whitney) and return home or to off-site lodging in the evenings.
- Vermont Trans Audio Retreat Five-day residential storytelling retreat for Vermont trans and nonbinary people to learn audio production skills, featuring story circles, writing prompts, hands-on audio recording training, and collaborative audio short production, with all meals, lodging, and transportation support provided for 10-12 participants.
- ME LGBTQ+ Audio Retreat Audio storytelling retreat for Maine LGBTQ+ community members, co-hosted with Country Queers, providing hands-on audio recording training, story circles, writing prompts, and collaborative audio short production.
- Annual Out in the Open Summit Annual gathering for rural LGBTQ+ people featuring hands-on rural living skills, workshops, and community building, with 12 consecutive editions held since 2015.
- Pride & Prosperity Podcast Podcast featuring conversations with rural LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs and business owners, exploring themes of queer economic empowerment, worker cooperatives, and building the world we deserve. Episodes feature guests including Mel Baiser (HELM Construction Solutions), Eliza and Lee (VT Queer Craft Fair), Ace McArleton and Najat Croll (New Frameworks), Red Durkin (Everyone's Books), Raph Draws, and Isora Lithgow.
- Out in the Open Radio Hour Radio hour series featuring 30+ episodes covering topics including abolition, rural queer history, intergenerational community, Palestinian solidarity, Chinese medicine and trauma, with collaborations with Country Queers podcast.
- Andrews Inn Oral History Project Oral history project documenting rural LGBTQ+ community histories, contributing to the organization's archive of oral histories, radio episodes, podcasts, blog posts, and zines/toolkits that document rural LGBTQ+ experiences.
- Zines & Toolkits Educational and resource materials created by and for rural LGBTQ+ communities, providing organizing resources and community knowledge products available through the organization's website.
- Land - Building Home Campus Owned 3-acre rustic campus near downtown Brattleboro, Vermont featuring a covered timber frame pavilion, open-air gathering spaces, enclosed accessible bathrooms, and a solar generator for device charging, used to host retreats, Summits, and community gatherings.
Quantifiable outcome
- Distributed over $33,700 in mutual aid to rural QTBIPOC/LGBTQ+ folks since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Out in the Open
Customer profileNamed customers1 record
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Out in the Open technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature4 records
Out in the Open partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
14 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- Country Queers (Rae Garringer)coreOITO collaborates with Country Queers podcast (founded by Rae Garringer) on storytelling and audio production. Co-hosted the Vermont Trans Audio Retreat (March 2023) and the Maine LGBTQ+ Audio Retreat. Collaborating on Season Two of the Country Queers Podcast (also airing as OITO Radio Hour episodes), with cohort members from West Virginia to Hawai'i. Rae Garringer is a writer, oral historian, and audio producer with an MA in Folklore & American Studies from UNC Chapel Hill.
- Rae GarringercoreOral historian and audio producer Rae Garringer co-facilitates Trans Audio Retreats with OITO staff, providing hands-on audio recording training and oral history expertise. Founder of Country Queers project (2013) with background in public affairs at Appalshop's WMMT 88.7fm.
- Migrant Justice / Milk with Dignity CampaigncoreOITO is in solidarity with Migrant Justice's Milk with Dignity campaign and has committed to boycotting Hannaford Supermarkets until Hannaford joins the program. This partnership reflects OITO's multi-issue approach connecting LGBTQ+ liberation with farmworker rights and labor justice.
- New FrameworksminorFeatured in Pride & Prosperity Podcast Episode 4, New Frameworks is a high-performance natural building construction and training worker cooperative. OITO connects with New Frameworks around themes of building the world we deserve, communication as justice, and worker cooperative models.
- Everyone's BooksminorFeatured in Pride & Prosperity Podcast Episode 3, Everyone's Books is an independent bookstore in Brattleboro owned by Red Durkin. OITO highlights the importance of creating inviting spaces and generational transfers of businesses within rural LGBTQ+ economic ecosystem.
- HELM Construction Solutions (Mel Baiser)minorFeatured in Pride & Prosperity Podcast Episode 7, HELM Construction Solutions is a 7th generation Vermont construction company focused on impact and inclusion. Founder Mel Baiser discusses entrepreneurship as community building and doing less better.
- VT Queer Craft Fair / Queer Arts FestminorFeatured in Pride & Prosperity Podcast Episode 6, VT Queer Craft Fair (by Eliza and Lee) is a biannual fair celebrating queer makers and artists. OITO promotes queer economic empowerment through supporting events that 'move and multiply queer dollars.'
- The Root Social Justice CentercoreThe Root Social Justice Center in Brattleboro, VT is described as a foundational partner where OITO held early gatherings before having its own space. The organizations have symbiotic growth trajectories. Founded/part-founded by the late Angela Berkfield.
- Claire Wheeler / Re:WorkminorClaire Wheeler of Re:Work is facilitating OITO's strategic planning alongside the Board of Directors, helping chart the organization's next phases of growth and development.
- Sexual Minority ArchivesminorFeatured on the Out in the Open Radio Hour (Episode 32), the Sexual Minority Archives (founded by Ben Power) is one of the oldest and largest collections of LGBTQIA+ historical documents, media, and artifacts in the world. OITO highlights its work on creating intergenerational rural queer community.
- AlyssumminorReferenced in the Out in the Open Radio Hour Episode 24 on psychiatric abolition. Alyssum provides peer support and alternatives to psychiatric systems.
- Green Mountain CrossroadsminorOITO originated from Green Mountain Crossroads (GMC), an earlier iteration of the organization serving as a regional LGBTQ+ organizing hub in Vermont and New England. GMC blog posts from 2015 document early anti-racism organizing.
- Nico AmadorminorWriting retreat workshop facilitator for the 'Here Not Here: Finding Ourselves in the Archive' workshop at the 2026 Writing Retreat. Writer, popular educator, and community organizer with MFA from Bennington College. Recognized with Anzaldua Poetry Prize, Blue Mesa Review Poetry Prize, Breakout Poetry Prize, and Fine Arts Work Center Emerging Artist Fellowship.
- Diana WhitneyminorWriting retreat workshop facilitator for the 'Time-bending: the possibilities of past, present, and future' workshop at the 2026 Writing Retreat. Queer writer, educator, editor of bestselling anthology 'You Don't Have to Be Everything: Poems for Girls Becoming Themselves' (Claudia Lewis Award winner), and author of four poetry collections. Also serves as community organizer at OITO.
Scale indicators4 records
Recent moves8 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Out in the Open competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Outright International: Outright International is a global LGBTQ+ human rights organization. While geographically and functionally broader, it shares Out in the Open's focus on LGBTQ+ community visibility and movement infrastructure in under-served regions.
- Point Foundation: Point Foundation is the largest U.S. LGBTQ+ scholarship fund, supporting LGBTQ+ students nationally. It is a comparable peer in the LGBTQ+ nonprofit space with a focus on leadership development, though its modality (scholarships) differs from Out in the Open's rural movement building.
- Transgender Law Center: Transgender Law Center is the largest U.S. trans-led civil rights organization, providing legal advocacy, health access support, and movement building. It overlaps with Out in the Open's HEART Program focus on rural trans healthcare access but operates nationally with a legal-policy lens rather than rural community organizing.
- Trevor Project: The Trevor Project is the largest U.S. LGBTQ+ youth crisis intervention organization. It shares Out in the Open's LGBTQ+ youth-support orientation and media-savvy content strategy but operates nationally with crisis-services rather than rural community organizing.
- Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice: Astraea is an international philanthropic foundation resourcing LGBTQI social justice movements globally. While much larger in scale, it shares Out in the Open's movement-building orientation and funds rural/regional LGBTQI organizing efforts, making it a comparable funder-adjacent peer.
Direct peers
- Country Queers: Country Queers is an oral history and audio project documenting LGBTQ+ life in rural America, founded by Rae Garringer. It is Out in the Open's closest programming peer and existing strategic partner, sharing rural LGBTQ+ storytelling and movement-building methodology across overlapping geographies.
- Rural Organizing Project: Rural Organizing Project (ROP) is a grassroots organization building rural LGBTQ+ and social justice leadership across Oregon. It shares Out in the Open's rural-focused community organizing model, multi-issue framing, and commitment to leadership development in non-urban communities.
- Sylvia Rivera Law Project: Sylvia Rivera Law Project is a New York-based organization providing legal and community support to low-income transgender, gender non-conforming, and intersex people. It shares Out in the Open's commitment to multiply-marginalized LGBTQ+ people (QTBIPOC, low-income, rural/trans) and movement-building approach.
Regional players
- Migrant Justice: Migrant Justice is a Vermont-based farmworker-led organization running the Milk with Dignity campaign. It is a solidarity partner of Out in the Open and shares the rural Vermont geography and multi-issue liberation framework, though focused on migrant labor rights rather than LGBTQ+ identity.
- The Root Social Justice Center: The Root Social Justice Center is a Brattleboro, VT-based multi-issue community organizing hub. It is a foundational partner of Out in the Open and shares the rural New England geography, multi-issue framework, and grassroots organizing methodology, though with broader social justice rather than LGBTQ+-specific focus.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Out in the Open social profiles
Digital presenceOut in the Open financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Out in the Open leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles7 records
Out in the Open funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Out in the Open M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Out in the Open
What does Out in the Open do?
Out in the Open is a grassroots nonprofit organization that builds rural LGBTQ+ community, visibility, knowledge, and power in northern New England through a portfolio of free or sliding-scale programs. Its offerings include the HEART healthcare navigation program, the Rural QTBIPOC/LGBTQ+ Mutual Aid Fund, annual Summits, writing and audio retreats, fellowships, organizing groups, and media projects (radio hour, podcasts, oral histories). The organization serves rural LGBTQ+ adults across Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, with priority for QTBIPOC, working-class, older, and disabled community members.
Is Out in the Open a public or private company?
Out in the Open is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was Out in the Open founded?
Out in the Open was founded in 2012. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Out in the Open based?
Out in the Open is headquartered in Brattleboro, United States, in the North America region.
How does Out in the Open make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Donations from Individual Community Members are the primary driver. The others are foundation Grants and volunteer In-Kind Contributions.
Who are Out in the Open's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Outright International, Point Foundation, Transgender Law Center, Trevor Project and Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice. Direct peers are Country Queers, Rural Organizing Project and Sylvia Rivera Law Project. Regional players are Migrant Justice and The Root Social Justice Center.
Does Out in the Open have an API?
No public API is recorded for Out in the Open.
What industry is Out in the Open in?
Out in the Open's product category is Community Organizing and Social Justice Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAGAFAE, LGBTQ+ Rights & Advocacy Organizations, with a secondary code of BPAGACAL, Public Health & Health Equity Organizations. Its NAICS code is 813311 and its SIC code is 8300.