Hispanics in Philanthropy Online

With regards to the project’s governance, the overall policy and direction of the Collaborative is managed through an Assembly of all funders (local as well as national), while the implementation and selection of grantees is managed by a committee of local funders in various sites.

At the site level, site committees meet regularly to accomplish the following activities – define site parameters, tailor guidelines, adapt Request for Letters of Intent (LOI), review LOIs, review proposals, make site visits, and make final grant determinations. The local sites have the flexibility to adapt the Request for Letters of Intent and Request For Proposal guidelines. The templates created by the Collaborative are designed as a starting point. There are only two criteria for the project that are non-negotiable – that agencies be Latino-led and that they have annual operating budgets under $2 million.

The Collaborative is funder–driven and combines local decision-making with national governance. An Assembly, comprised of all funders, sets grantmaking policy. A steering committee, comprised of FC funders and HIP Board Members, reviews policy-level matters in between the annual meetings of the Fall Assembly. At the local level, once funds have been raised for a site, a site committee will disseminate a Request for Letters of Intent to Latino nonprofits, invite and review proposals and make grant recommendations. As a project of HIP, the Collaborative falls under the fiduciary responsibility of the HIP Board of Directors, which is represented on each site committee.

The project is administered by Hispanics in Philanthropy (HIP), a membership association of grantmakers committed to increasing philanthropic support of Latino communities and to promoting greater participation by Hispanics within organized philanthropy. HIP brings to the Collaborative a strong network of individuals with experience in collaboratives and within Latino communities.

Investing in the Collaborative does not have to be an “either-or” proposition. For funders, the value added of the Collaborative is its ability to leverage dollars on a national scale, while retaining decision-making at the local level. The Collaborative is a benefit for local and national funders alike: for local and funders, their dollars are matched at a dollar-to-dollar ratio; for national funders, their funds may go to local, grassroots organizations that they may not have been able to access otherwise. All grantees are convened at least twice a year and offered capacity-building training and networking opportunities. Since most local and national funders don’t convene their grantees on a regular basis, this convening element of the program design is a value-added benefit for all funders.

Additionally, all funders participating in the Collaborative will benefit from the collective knowledge and expertise of Collaborative members, the opportunities to share with other funders, and the opportunity to impact the Latino nonprofit sector at the local as well as national level. For Latino nonprofits, the Collaborative will not only provide them with hands-on technical assistance to strengthen their organizations, but will also provide leadership training and networking opportunities that will assist them in gaining greater visibility within philanthropy.

The Collaborative seeks to work with “small- to medium-sized, Latino led” organizations. At the overall project level, the Assembly has defined “small- to medium-sized” as an organization with an annual operating budget of less than two million dollars. It is important to note that the $2 million cap is for annual operating budgets, which means nonprofits can have assets greater than that—the measurement is the annual operating budget.

Grantee organizations must be public tax exempt organizations under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Additionally, applicants must be “Latino-led,” which means they must meet at least one criterion under “leadership” and at least one criterion under “mission” below:

Leadership	Mission
A majority of board members are Latino	A majority of the people directly served by the agency are Latino.
The majority of the agency’s senior management is Latino	The mission statement specifically targets a Latino subgroup(s)
The agency’s executive director is Latino

An organization qualifies for a Collaborative grant if it has its own 501(c)(3) or a fiscal agent. The fiscal agent itself does not have to meet the leadership or mission criteria for “Latino-led,” but the group that is being sponsored does.

Today, the Collaborative is an established initiative. We are constantly learning about Latino nonprofits and communities through our grantees and members of the network. In addition, we regularly hold outreach sessions in each of our Collaborative sites. At this point, every grantee that meets the criteria set is eligible to apply for funding. HIP staff and site committees then review every application. Though not everyone receives funding, we review and therefore learn about many Latino nonprofit organizations throughout our fifteen sites.

One of the goals of the Collaborative is to allow the Latino community to find its own solutions to its problems, and a key to that is empowering and strengthening Latino-led organizations. Hence, the Latino-led criteria, as established by all the funders of the project, is critical in this Collaborative.

It is also understood that there are regions of the country that may have a growing Latino population but not a sufficient number of Latino-led organizations. In these regions, it may be necessary to formulate ways of increasing Latino participation and decision-making within mainstream organizations that serve them. Direct grants will not go to non-Latino organizations, but it is possible to establish a program to assist these organizations in increasing Latino participation and thus leading to the Collaborative’s goal of greater Latino leadership.

The Collaborative funds organizational capacity-building projects only. It is not program specific, but will focus instead on supporting a range of capacity building and leadership development efforts to ensure that groups addressing these issues are able to sustain their work and have an ongoing role in developing sound public policy. Examples include strategic planning, board development, fundraising, etc.

Local site governance is determined by the local funders and is quite flexible. Some sites have opted for two co-chairs, others for rotating chairs, and others for no chairs of the committee. Each funder has one vote, in the cases where a vote is needed. However, foundations can have one or more representatives in the process – while still having one vote. Decisions as to how large the committee should be and whether prospective (but not yet actual) funders can participate are determined by the local funders.

With regards to new funders, rolling membership is accounted for differently per site. In most sites, prospective funders are invited from the beginning and participate in the decision-making process (although not allowed to vote until they are officially funders). In some sites, new funders do not come on board until the tail end of the grantmaking process and thus choose to wait for the next round before participating.

The requirements for a Funders’ Collaborative “site” are that it have at least $250,000 in local funds committed and that there be at least two local funders involved. Hence, the Collaborative’s “sites” can encompass part of a state, a state, a region or any other geographically defined area. The specific parameters of the site will be determined by the local funders that are participating within the given region.

If funds are geographically restricted, the grants will be directed accordingly. However, many funders are flexible on the match and are able to distribute the funds outside of their geographic area. Because the focus of the Collaborative is on larger, multi-year grants, we do not need a large number of applicants within a geographic area – but we do need high quality requests. In regions where funds are geographically restricted, the local committee will have to ensure that sufficient outreach is done to the existing Latino organizations prior to the grantmaking phase. If not enough organizations within a geographic area apply, or good quality proposals are not received, then the local committee will have to reconsider its outreach effort, or think differently about how to fund Latino organizations in that geographic region. The same applies to programmatic restrictions, which the Collaborative also accommodates. Again, the emphasis would be on outreach to qualifying organizations to ensure a sufficient number of applicants.

At the project and local level, capacity building is very broadly defined and flexible. Hence, one of the first steps for local committee members is determining how they want to define capacity building for their particular region. Some committees may choose to define capacity building broadly whereas others may choose to limit the type of efforts they will fund. Hispanics in Philanthropy chooses to support capacity building because we believe that before an organization can implement programs, it must first work toward its own sustainability. HIP believes that by strengthening the actual organization and its leadership, the organization will go on to strengthen the community through its own long-lasting programs. Some examples of capacity building include supporting an organizations goal of developing a strategic plan, strengthening the board, diversifying its funding, strengthening its communications, etc.

Our theory of change is based on the assumption that the nonprofit sector plays a specific role as a vehicle for participation and engagement of the Latino community and that it needs sustained support. We seek to assist in the strengthening of this sector through capacity building grants, culturally-specific training and networking. The work of the Collaborative will promote change for disenfranchised communities (of which a large portion of the Latino community is comprised) not through direct services to individuals, but indirectly, by strengthening the institutions which provide services, as well as serve as vehicles for participation for these disenfranchised communities.

We are encouraging two to three-year grants, but that depends on our funding capability.

Our efforts have thus far been focused on promoting the participation of institutional donors such as foundations and corporations in the Collaborative, but moving forward we are open to participation from individual donors.

The purpose of the Collaborative is to be complementary to, not competitive with funders’ support of other Latino causes. Investing in the Collaborative is not an “either-or” proposition, but is “in addition to.”

At the national level, HIP has hired an outside consultant to conduct a formal evaluation of the Collaborative. All grantees across all national sites are asked to complete a pre- and post- assessment. Also, grantees submit annual progress reports.

Leadership development is a key component of the Collaborative. Hence, the project offers leadership training at the local and project level. At both levels, there are convenings of all grantees. The goal of the convenings is not only to provide formal training to grantees, but also to encourage peer-learning and networking. The leadership component of the Collaborative is based on the premise that much leadership already exists within Latino communities and we want to tap into that as well as build on it. We expect to use Latino nonprofits as trainers and peer educators throughout our program.

A transnational convening of all first-year grantees (including those from Latin America) developed by a committee of funders with knowledge of leadership development, capacity building and training (the Leadership Training Institute) was held in July 2003. In February, 2007 HIP held its second national-level convening of grantees, the 2007 HIP Leadership Conference, in Los Angeles.

We recognize the need to have culturally competent consultants for our grantees. In some sites, we offer a workshop on how to hire a consultant, for those organizations that have not previously had experience with consultants. We are also survenying HIP grantees, members and funders to help us identify culturally competent consultants in a more effective way.

The Funders’ Collaborative is a project of HIP. The success of the FC grew out of HIP’s membership network. The majority of the Funders’ Collaborative funders are also dues paying members.

HIP offers outreach information sessions to all eligible applicants in all Funders’ Collaborative sites. In addition to hearing from Latino organizations on their capacity building needs, site committees use these sessions to give organizations more information on capacity building, other capacity building initiatives, and the application guidelines. The outreach sessions provide prospective applicants a great opportunity to learn about each of the funders as well as the Collaborative.

The Collaborative began as a coordinated funding effort, initiated by foundations and corporations, to provide capacity building support to small to medium sized Latino nonprofit organizations. By strengthening the Latino nonprofit sector, the Collaborative increases the options, resources and vehicles for participation available to the Latino community. Phase One of the Collaborative focuses on achieving the objectives below:

1. To strengthen the organizational capacity of small- to medium-sized Latino nonprofits.
2. To increase philanthropy’s understanding of Latino nonprofits, the communities they serve, and the role they play in civil society.
3. To foster leadership among Latino nonprofits that incorporates a vision of inclusiveness and collaboration.
4. To increase the net amount of philanthropic dollars flowing to Latino nonprofits.

Phase Two builds on the foundation created in the first phase and enhances it. It maintains the same objectives that were laid out for Phase One, but also places greater emphasis on:

1. Continuing to address historic inequities in funding by growing philanthropic investments in Latino communities and Latin America
2. Increasing philanthropy’s understanding of Latino nonprofits, the communities they serve, and the role they play in civil society
3. Building bridges between the

U.S.

sites and immigrants’ countries of origin to enrich the work
4. Continuing to support, connect, and promote new Latino leaders
5. Maximizing the power and potential of the grantee network of Latino nonprofits (411) and funders (159) who care about Latino communities
6. Using enhanced HIP capacity in database management, communications, and staffing
7. Building on the new knowledge created in Phase 1
8. Continuing with most existing sites and developing new sites

Grantmaking rounds are the schedule in which the local site committees decide to do their grantmaking. These decisions are determined by the committees preferences and availability of grantmaking dollars.