This New Donor Collaborative is Looking to Strengthen Latinos' Civic Power in the U.S.

Latino nonprofits, like most organizations led by people of color, aren't receiving their fair share of the philanthropic pie, and more funders are looking to make a difference. The Valiente Fund, a donor collaborative that launched last year, is one such example. Valiente is a project of Way to Win and will be housed under Way to Win's 501(c)(3) arm, Way to Rise. A separate 501(c)(4) organization named the Valiente Action Fund will be housed under Way to Win Action.

The Valiente Fund's goal is to strengthen the economic, civic and cultural power within Latino communities across the United States, in particular by educating and empowering Latinos to participate in the upcoming 2024 election and beyond. Its work will be primarily focused on the Southwest and Southeast.

"There were some funders — Latino funders, really — within broader institutions who were concerned about the asymmetries of support toward Latino organizations, and the deep underfunding of Latino leaders, organizations, and communities," said Maria Alegria Rodriguez, who has just been announced as the Valiente Fund's executive director. "We wanted to support and scaffold many of these leaders and organizations… because there's such potential to build the power, the influence and the reach of Latino leaders, communities and organizations."

Some of Valiente's major backers include the Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundations and Democracy Fund, which is part of the Omidyar Group. Prior to its launch, the Valiente Fund raised $19 million and distributed $15 million. According to Rodriguez, the fund has secured an additional $5 million in commitments. The first round of grants awarded as the rebranded Valiente Fund, which will be around $3 million, will go out in the fall.

For the Ford Foundation, this work is important to ensure that Latinos have a voice. "What we know is that our [Latino] organizations are there, but they're very small and they don't have a lot of funding. They have less power. They have less ability to share their agenda as part of a broader collection," said the Ford Foundation's Jose Garcia, who currently serves as the director of Ford's Future of Work(ers) program.

"So what we're trying to do with the Valiente Fund is accelerate the growth of those organizations that have Latino membership, that are actually helping our community to ensure that we're part of the decision-making of our lives… in the biggest, broadest sense of our democracy," Garcia said.

Supporting younger organizations

Prior to joining the Valiente Fund, Rodriguez served as the first executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition. She brings 30 years of experience, as well as a unique perspective to the effort.

"It's a little bit unusual for them to have hired an organizer, not an experienced grantmaker, but I think it reflects the emphasis that Valiente and the fund will have," Rodriguez said. "And what I bring to bear having been an organizer and a social movement builder is a keen understanding of what it takes to get an organization from A to B."

At the moment, Rodriguez’s focus is on kicking off Valiente’s grantmaking with an accelerator program, which is set to launch in the fall. The program's geographic focus will be Texas, Florida, Nevada and North Carolina.

"We want to take groups, leaders and organizers that are at that three-to-five-year mark, and help them stabilize so that they can grow because that's a very key moment for those organizations," Rodriguez said. "What we've seen is that a lot of the back-of-the-house capacities are the ones that need to be shored up so that the leaders can be freed up to take more proactive stances and to grow and go to scale."

The program will consist of both grants, as well as capacity support and technical assistance. Valiente will provide assistance with things like education on financing, budgeting, data communications, fundraising and HR.

With her experience as an organizer, Rodriguez understands how difficult things like inspiration and fatigue can be for newer organizations. She hopes that the accelerator program will provide these groups with "enough fuel and courage" to get them to the next level.

"I'm an organizer turned executive director turned grantmaker. So for me, I'm very committed to getting as much money out the door as quickly as I can."

Creating a democracy for everyone

The Ford Foundation's support for the Valiente Fund comes from its Social Justice Bond, a one-time allocation of $1 billion in resources over the course of two years, in collaboration with Ford's civic engagement team.

"We honestly want a stronger infrastructure for the Latino community," said Garcia. I think if we help fortify key organizations in key geographies where Latinos have predominant populations, like in the Southwest, for example, we'll be effective. We want to ensure that Latino organizations are building their institutions, are building membership, and actually can represent the Latino community."

For both Garcia and Rodriguez, a key part of Valiente's work is to shed light on the diversity of Latinos and the intersection of identities Latinos experience, including immigrant, queer, Black, Indigenous, as well as various nationalities and ethnicities.

"We know our Latino communities are diverse communities.… We want to make sure that our diversity is also seen as an asset," Garcia said. "It's actually kind of a great test of the building of a pluralistic democracy because in our one identity, we have many identities. And this is basically the project of the United States — a multiracial pluralistic democracy, which is part of our own identity."

For Ford, this goes beyond only supporting Latino communities. Rather, the work is ensuring Latinos are part of the broader coalition so that the nation can have a multiracial, economic justice and social justice agenda that will support everyone.

According to LatinxFunders, an initiative from Hispanics and Philanthropy and Candid that tracks giving to Latino organizations, Ford has been the top funder of Latino nonprofits from 2013 to 2021. Data from 2022 is not yet available.

But while Ford and other funders like the California Endowment, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation continue to support Latino organizations, there is still a long way to go to ensure Latino nonprofits have adequate funding. Rodriguez pointed to a lack of representation among philanthropic leadership as one of the big causes for the disproportionately small amount of funding Latino nonprofits receive.

"After 20-plus years of raising funds… I can count the number of Latino program officers on one hand," she said. "Even in the immigrant rights movement, there have been very few Latino program officers."

By funding Latino-serving organizations, Valiente hopes to encourage more Latinos to take on leadership roles, which may play a hand in moving the needle on the amount of support Latino organizations receive. More importantly, it would help Latinos have a bigger role in shaping their futures.

"What success would look like is that the funding to Latino organizations and communities is proportionate to our numbers and our potential impact. And then Latino organizations leaders, thinkers and doers can fully shape a more inclusive and sustainable future," Rodriguez said.

Featured