If bankers aren’t doing well these days, imagine the condition of nonprofit groups serving marginalized queer populations. Still, fund-raising efforts march on in all corners of LGBT life, and this week, two scrappy, vital organizations with intersecting trans-focused causes team up to infuse their coffers and provide some kick-ass entertainment to boot.

The Get Down, a show packed with local musical talents with an activist bent, is a joint effort of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project and the Audre Lorde Project, and represents the first time the two organizations have teamed up for an event. “Sylvia Rivera Law Project does direct service, which is amazing and crucial,” says Audre Lorde Project volunteer Lucia Leandro Gimeno. “We get to the root of the issues and work toward policy changes.”

Founded in 1994 as an organizing wing of Advocates for Gay Men of Color, the Audre Lorde Project moved into its own Fort Greene, Brooklyn, home in 1996 with the mission to fight for social and economic justice for “lesbian, gay, bisexual, two-spirit, trans and gender-nonconforming people of color” in the NYC area. It’s known for its annual Trans Day of Action for Social and Economic Justice, headed by its TransJustice group, which draws hundreds to the streets each year just before Gay Pride weekend; the organization is currently working with the city’s Human Resources Administration to create a policy that would grant safe and equal access to financial aid, food stamps and other forms of assistance.

The Sylvia Rivera Law Project, named for the late Stonewall vet and trans activist, meanwhile, works to fight discrimination of trans and “gender-nonconforming people.” The staff attorneys there provide free legal services—both in its Manhattan office and at a new clinic held at the Bronx Community Pride Center—and argue precedent-setting lawsuits, like in its 2002 victory that established that transgender youth in foster care have the right to dress in accordance with their gender identity.

“We also had a name-change case recently,” explains June Brown, communications coordinator for SRLP, in which a transwoman was denied permission to legally change her name to one that’s female because her gender hadn’t been medically altered. “This was a case where the judge was really miseducated about the whole thing, and unfortunately, this type of thing is very prevalent,” Brown says.

Other issues revolve around aiding transwomen who are held in men’s prisons and put into solitary confinement for their own protection. “People say, ‘If you’re trans and put into solitary confinement, what’s the problem?’ They don’t realize that the correctional officers abuse prisoners too.”

Get Down is a place for trans-supportive artists to shine. Included on the bill are Brooklyn social-change duo Climbing PoeTree, soulful singer Ganessa James, punk-rock activists JODA!, root-folk trio Mahina Movement and Novice Theory, a.k.a. Geo Wyeth, an intense vocalist and multi-instrumentalist who feels a particular connection to the event’s beneficiaries.

“I’m a trans person and I’m also a trans person of color, which people may not realize,” he says. “My mother is African-American, which is a large part of my cultural identity.”

An Apple retailer by day, Wyeth makes the queer-performance-world rounds at night, playing accordion, piano, guitar and percussion and performing what he calls “story songs.” He’s emboldened by the thought of taking part in the ALP/SRLP event.

“I have an affinity for any group attempting to organize community in New York City, because community is a hard thing to find here sometimes,” he says. “And the event itself is a coming together, and I’m down with that.”