National Center for Transgender Equality
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Transgender people face systemic discrimination as a matter of policy in essential areas of life including school, work, healthcare, and public life. The federal government plays an important role in eliminating the structural and systemic barriers that transgender people face. Federal and state policy touches the lives of all trans people, whether through the ID documents trans people carry, safety-net programs trans people depend on, or ability to get recourse when trans people have been mistreated.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Policy & Advocacy
NCTE fights for policies at the federal, state and local level that allow transgender people to not only survive, but thrive. NCTE works on advancing policies changes on a variety of topics from health care, the identity documents, to housing. NCTE also mobilize trans people and their allies to act against anti-trans policies.
Where we work
External reviews

Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
1. Change federal policies addressing a variety of topics (health care, housing, employment,, criminal justice) to improve the lives of transgender people across the country.
2. Change state and local policies addressing a variety of topics (e.g. health care, identity documents, schools, and jails and policy) to improve the lives of transgender people in those state.
3. Fight anti-trans actions at the federal, state and local level.
4. Educate policy makers and the public about trans people and their lives.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Goal 1 Strategies
1: Identify policy needs and create a create a strategic federal agenda document .
2: Develop a set of high-level briefing memos outlining federal policy priorities.
3: Educate relevant federal and state policymakers on discriminatory policies and regulations impacting trans individuals.
4: Track, analyze, and create strong administrative record and case for protections with strong legal arguments, real stories of discrimination, and authoritative experts for each of the proposed policy change.
Goal 2 Strategies
1: Educate governors and state policymakers on discriminatory policies impacting trans people.
2: Provide state and local advocacy partners legal analysis, draft policies, talking points, and other technical assistance to persuade policymakers.
3: Collaborate with state agencies, partner organizations, and other stakeholders on policy changes and media strategy to elevate trans voices.
Goal 3 Strategies
1: Educate relevant federal and state policymakers on discriminatory policies and regulations impacting trans individuals.
2: Track, analyze, and create strong administrative record and case for protections with strong legal arguments, real stories of discrimination, and authoritative experts for each of the proposed rollbacks.
3: Provide strategic advice, legal analysis, and other technical assistance to state and local advocacy partners.
4: Train and mobilize trans people and allies to directly engage in policy change.
Goal 4 Strategies
1: Release and distribute a U.S. Transgender Survey (USTS), which is a collection of data on transgender peoples experiences of discrimination, violence, and acceptance within schools, jobs, criminal justice, housing, public accommodations, and family relationships.
2: Prepare public-facing documents to educate trans people and allies on NCTE's policy agenda.
3: Use press and social media to educate the public about the experiences of trans people and their families.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
NCTE has 17 years of experience working with federal, state, and local policy makers on policy change. It works closely with other national organizations and state and local partners. NCTE is committed to supporting and training local advocates to help it accomplish the work.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Throughout NCTE’s 17-year history, it has worked with the federal government to first acknowledge the existence of transgender people and their policy concerns, and later, to persuade it to change more than 150 policies to address the pervasive barriers to opportunity, justice, and well-being for transgender people.
In the past 4 years, states introduced more than 150 anti-trans policies attacking the rights of trans people. NCTE, with partners, was able to stop most of these state attacks, it has not been able to block all of the attempted direct attacks on trans people at the federal level.
NCTE has worked with several states to change their policies. Many states have updated their policies to decrease the administrative burden to change a person's name and gender on their state ID and/or birth certificate. Many states have also updated their state employee health care and Medicaid policies to remove restrictions to trans health care.
What's next? The Trump Administration has advanced major policy rollbacks regarding many important, life-affecting issues (, including those relating to trans students’ rights in school, rights to transition-related health care, open military service, trans people’s treatment in federal prisons, and trans data collection. NCTE is still working to delay or prevent more coming and must work to reverse these policies as soon as it is able.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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National Center for Transgender Equality
Board of directorsas of 04/05/2022
Rachel See
Jae Henderson
Steph Perkins
Joseph Arroyo
Adam McLain-Snipes
Carolyn Weiss
Sissi Yado
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? GuideStar partnered on this section with CHANGE Philanthropy and Equity in the Center.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
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Gender identity
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Sexual orientation
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Disability
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