Charitable Impulse

Howard K. Hill, founder and president of The Prosperity Foundation, spoke with us recently about the foundation’s work. The Prosperity Foundation’s mission is to strengthen Connecticut’s black communities in critical areas such as health, education, and economic development.

Q: What are your current efforts to catalyze community giving?

A: In April 2017, through our Small Grants Initiative, the Prosperity Foundation awarded grants ranging from $1000 to $2000 to 11 non-profit organizations. These initiatives are grassroots organizations in African American communities throughout Connecticut that are focusing on strengthening the community in education, economics, and health. These groups are not directly connected to larger foundations for their stories to be heard, so TPF is engaged in their activity which helps us with catalyzing them to make a difference where they live.

One of the grantees, Girls for Technology of Hartford, CT is an initiative aimed at encouraging young girls who are interested in the STEM field. They recently had their annual educational event and we were able to attend and see the impact they’re making. In addition to attending events hosted by grantees, TPF has hosted many events that speak to the unique issues that the black community faces: bringing the community together, and encouraging people to think in the long term and to give back in a long-term, permanent way. As a concept, it is more a sense of self-care.

Q: Do you think projects like yours are part of a larger movement to link community-based giving to critical issues in communities of color?

A: Absolutely. There is a disparity of opportunity in communities of color than among White communities. For families, it is getting harder for people to place their children in activities – to even have activities that would be available in larger communities. This is where the grantees of the Prosperity Foundation are able to help. I am seeing more and more pro-black movements that are more street level, versus national level, and my goal is to bring those street-level organizations together and put them under one roof so that we can leverage our narrative and leverage whatever power and resources we have to bring in more.

I envision the Prosperity Foundation not as a state of Connecticut program, but more of a national brand, where you have chapters or organizations in every state where black people can go to find black endowments that give to black causes. It is disempowering to always feel as though you’re going to someone else to get money that you need in order to survive and do work in your own community. It is good to be able to receive money from someone who looks like you.

There is this huge issue of dignity and self-worth and self-respect that is never discussed by the larger foundation community. We don’t have space to think about the possibilities of the black community because we are constantly under attack, constantly oppressed. And this is a systemic issue. The Prosperity Foundation creates a system that allows space for us to think about and act upon those things that are good for us, in a way that is empowering to the people.

Q: What would you say is your unique approach to philanthropy?

A: It’s the way we’re changing the narrative. We’re removing that word “charity” from all our messaging, because we don’t believe the black community is a charity case – they are people, they are organizations, they are vehicles that are making a difference in the lives of our children. Certainly within the black community it is imperative that we talk about collaborating all of our efforts, especially financially. We see the hurt that is occurring, whether it is from the history of slavery to the recent police shootings of unarmed black youth to the white supremacist movement, we must change the narrative within the black community to that of self-sustainability. The Prosperity Foundation was founded by black dollars for black purposes for the black community. We put the dollars in the community that we live in to make sure that they have the resources to do what needs to be done.

There has to be a place to go. You go to the NAACP for civil rights issues; you go to the Prosperity Foundation when you want to focus on economics, health and education – the larger issues that plague us. And education is not as simple as getting a scholarship. The goal of education is to open the minds of our people. Slavery has done a tremendous job of conditioning the minds of people, for generation upon generation upon generation – and it is on autopilot, moving faster and faster and faster. My goal is to interrupt that in a systematic way – to actually do something – and using philanthropy to do that, putting a laser focus on what is good for the black community.

Q: How are you documenting this project?

A: We hold two major events every year: one in April, when we award the small grants, and one in December, when we acknowledge those organizations that have started new funds through our foundation within that year. We document absolutely everything that we do. Our events are videotaped and photographed, we put information on our website, we have our literature at local events, we’re on social media. We’re documenting by capturing moments as they are happening; but we don’t want to be just a moment. Images are just moments, and we are movement driven. We use our website to make sure we’re presenting some of the history behind what we’re doing.

In August, there was Hurricane Harvey in Texas. An earthquake, killing more than 300 people, hit central Mexico in September. Just weeks later, Hurricane Maria so thoroughly devastated the island of Puerto Rico that years of rebuilding are ahead.

All of these natural disasters hit amid recent policy moves out of Washington that have deepened profound anxieties and resolve among Latino communities throughout the United States.

In response to it all, Latinos are standing strong and doubling down. José Calderón, president of the Hispanic Federation, observes: “These are the moments when we see some of the best of the human spirit. We see values like solidarity and service, compassion and caring. These are the values that guide our work.” His New York-based organization has seeded a relief fund for homeless Mexicans and, for Puerto Ricans, launched the UNIDOS Disaster Relief & Recovery Program.

Other philanthropies that serve Latinos say they, too, are seeing their communities stepping forward. They point to a surge in Latino giving to organized philanthropy and a new commitment to civic engagement, driven by the immediate needs of disaster victims and an urgent threat to the security of families, neighbors and friends.

Paying It Forward

On the immigration front, the Latino Community Fund of Washington has established a “resiliency fund” to support community nonprofits in Seattle and statewide that are providing DACA renewal assistance, legal aid and other services. At the root of the fund’s efforts, says Executive Director Peter Bloch Garcia, is “building a culture of giving, within our communities of color, from folks of color themselves. Our model is about being a community resource, by and for the community.”

“Our model is about being a community resource, by and for the community.”

— Peter Bloch Garcia, Latino Community Fund of Washington

The California-based Latino Community Foundation is responding with “by organizing and mobilizing its Latino Giving Circle Network to raise funds for the Latinos families hardest hit by recent natural disasters and the harmful national policies impacting our communities,” says CEO Jacqueline Martinez Garcel. As the only statewide foundation in California, “LCF is committed to leveraging the influence and power of this network to support Latino-led nonprofits on the frontlines of social justice” Garcel says. In less than five months, LCF has raised over $500,000 for these groups through its Norcal Wildfire Relief Fund, Mexico Earthquake Relief Fund, and Puerto Rico Hurricane Relief Fund which will support the Hispanic Federation’s UNIDOS fund.

“Latinos are a force. In California, we are 15 million strong and we can use our strength and power to lift up communities and families in their greatest hour of need” Garcel says. “Latinos are ready to pay it forward. Building on the cultural values to ‘lift others up as you rise’ and traditions of generosity, the Latino Community Foundation has established the largest network of civically engaged Latino philanthropists in the country” she says. And the key to leveraging this expression of power, she says, is “demystifying what it means to be a philanthropist.”

That is the core message shaping outreach at the Latino Community Foundation of Colorado. “I hear this it a lot: ‘It’s hard to engage Latinos in philanthropy,’” says Carlos Martinez, executive director. “And my response to that? Yes, it is – if you’re using the same approach with Latinos that you use for everybody else. It has to be tailored.” The task for his foundation and others, he says, “is educating our community and finding different ways to engage folks.”

‘Family Is No. 1’

The family is the focus at the Denver-based fund. “No matter what generation of Latinos you talk to, when you ask them about their top three values, family is No. 1,” Martinez says; the question is how to use this to “create connections across the community.”

“No matter what generation of Latinos you talk to, when you ask them about their top three values, family is No. 1”

— Carlos Martinez, Latino Community Foundation of Colorado

His foundation has designed a pair of fundraising efforts around that “family value.” On a smaller scale is the Cambio para el Cambio/Change for Change campaign: In partnership with a local bank, the Latino Community Foundation of Colorado distributes piggy banks to families along with a set of instructions to make a deposit once a month. “We encourage them to take that time to have a conversation about giving back to the community,” Martinez says. On a larger scale, in August the foundation launched its Generations of Giving campaign with a goal to encourage 100 families to give anywhere between $1,000 and $10,000 a year over a three-year period. “We’re characterizing it as a family pledge – recruiting siblings, parents, other members of the family to contribute manageable amounts. Together we’re creating a legacy.”

Donors can direct their gifts to the foundation’s endowment, to initiatives and grants or to an unrestricted fund. Martinez says a portion of those unrestricted donations might go toward assisting Colorado’s undocumented immigrants. “We do have an initiative on immigration here at the foundation, but we don’t have a lot of individuals giving to that fund – they are giving to the immigration organizations themselves,” he says. “We’re careful not to step on the toes of our grantees, to compete with them for money. We’re only as successful as our grantees.”

In California, Garcel says her foundation is taking a similar approach to funding statewide campaigns for support of undocumented immigrants. “We are standing behind these organizations’ platform to build power together,” she says. Through its Latino Giving Circle Network, she says, “we have access to a network of donors and corporations. As much as we can, we serve as a vehicle to collect that money and turn it over to our partners.”

Latino funders are also noting a new dynamic that holds special significance in a culture where role of the family is paramount: Young people are often the ones leading the call for philanthropic giving and community participation. Garcia, of the Washington-based fund, sees in this dynamic real potential for fostering an enduring commitment among Latinos to advocacy and civic engagement, which his fund views as a central mission. Youth involvement, he says, is “a trend that I want to continue to cultivate. Their hope and activism can create a broader impact.

“Some of the older folks are more jaded,” Garcia observes. “So much of the time – during voter registration, canvassing, at the phone banks – we were hearing, ‘my vote doesn’t count; my voice doesn’t matter.’” Young people, he says, are powerful communicators of “hope and optimism, of the message that people are not isolated.” And he notes that some of the most compelling advocates for engagement in Washington state have been among undocumented youth. “Their leaders have been some of the most effective in the community in encouraging documented families to register: ‘I can’t vote; you can. Please. You have more power than I do.’”

“If you provide Latinos with the appropriate vehicles to give back and a culturally relevant platform to do it, they will engage.”

— Jacqueline Martinez Garcel, Latino Community Foundation (CA)

“They’re watching the same news that we are,” says Garcel of the San Francisco-based foundation. “Given these crises – DACA, Puerto Rico, Mexico – it’s the kids who are saying, ‘Mom, Dad, how can we be a part of this?’” She points out that “the median age for Latinos in this country is 27. What is the next wave of Latino philanthropists going to look like, and how can we ensure that we are being responsive to what drives and motivates giving for them?”

The bottom line, she says, is this: “If you provide Latinos with the appropriate vehicles to give back and a culturally relevant platform to do it, they will engage.”