A Conversation With Jacqueline Martinez Garcel, Outgoing CEO of the Latino Community Foundation
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Image courtesy of jacqueline martinez garcel / latino community foundation.
Jacqueline Martinez Garcel served as the CEO of the Latino Community Foundation (LCF) from 2015 to 2023, where she helped the foundation raise more than $100 million to advance its mission of building power for Latinos and investing in their leadership. She ushered LCF through a critical period of growth and honed its focus on strengthening the civic and economic power of the Latino community.
Last year, Martinez Garcel announced she was stepping down from the position, and LCF later selected Julian Castro, former San Antonio mayor and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, to take over the position.
Prior to joining LCF, Martinez Garcel’s career was based in her hometown of New York City. She served as vice president of the New York State Health Foundation, where she helped establish the foundation as a resource for the state's policymakers and community leaders. She also served as the executive director of Community Voices in New York, a national initiative from the W.K. Kellogg's Foundation to improve access to quality healthcare for people who are underserved, uninsured or under-insured.
Martinez Garcel currently serves on the leadership council of California Forward and on the boards of Equis Institute, Aqui-Latino Accountability Movement and Philanthropy Together. Previous board appointments include the Institute for Civic Leadership, Grantmakers in Health and the Center for Effective Philanthropy. She also co-chaired the National Latino Funds Alliance.
We spoke with Martinez Garcel in December as she wrapped up her eight-year tenure as CEO. In our in-depth discussion, she reflected on her career in philanthropy, her work with LCF, and her hopes for the foundation's future. Here are excerpts from our conversation, which have been edited for clarity and length.
To start with, can you tell me a little bit about yourself and what brought you to the Latino Community Foundation?
The decision to come to California from New York to run this foundation stemmed from two things that were happening in the state of California: Latinos had become the plurality — they were 40% of the population, 15 million strong — and at the same time, it was the summer of 2015 when I was recruited to consider this opportunity.
And while I wasn't sure, because it's 3,000 miles away from home, it was at the same time that the former president was starting his campaign. And the campaign was so anti-immigrant, so anti-Latino that I had a choice to make: Either I stay in a very comfortable job in New York working at a foundation or I take a leap of faith and come to California and build an institution that would tell our stories, that would lift up our narrative, and that would invest in the grassroots leaders that really guard our democracy. And I said yes to the opportunity.
It was a big move, in part because it was so far removed from home. I was born and raised in Washington Heights in New York. But it was also a leap of faith in the organization. While there was a great vision with some incredible women, we didn't have resources. We had less than $900,000 in the balance sheet, and we owed half of that to the community and IOUs. It was a challenge, but at the same time, it was needed. It was needed in California, and we needed it for our country, too.
What led to your career in philanthropy?
I was actually on my way to medical school in 1998, and right before taking my MCATs, I did a fellowship with the National Institutes of Health in Yucatan, Mexico, and I had a chance to work with health workers in a very rural part of Yucatan. And there I learned the value of what I was brought up with — that our community and our leaders are the ones who make our places healthy and livable, and they're the ones whose voices matter when it comes to changing policy.
So when I came back to the states after that experience, I decided that I wanted to have an impact at a more macro level and really raise the voice of the community. I started working for an organization called Community Voices in New York, and that was about organizing nonprofit leaders to bring in federal dollars into the community to build health centers, to build Head Starts. And we did it. We raised $80 million and we opened the first Health Center north of Harlem and Head Start in Washington Heights.
A foundation in New York took note of that and they offered me a position as their vice president. It was a new foundation in New York state. It was a conversion of the Blue Cross Blue Shield, so it's equivalent to the California Endowment. It was called the New York Health Foundation at the time. The CEO had come from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and he was committed to really bringing in the voice of community to influence how we were going to use the $300 million that was part of the endowment.
And that was the attraction. I really wanted to help lift up our community and bring in federal dollars. I was interested in shaping the foundation and being very grounded in the community and remembering that these were tax dollars, basically, that they belong to the community. And so as a foundation, my philosophy has always been that we're stewards of that on behalf of the community. So that's what brought me in. And I spent nine years helping to build that institution in New York. The difference between LCF and the New York Health Foundation was that we had money in New York. It was very different to come out and, you know, fundraise and build an endowment for the Latino Community Foundation and really build it from the ground up.
And so building on that, how have your experiences, both professional and personal, influenced your work?
The first thing that comes to mind is that I, throughout my career, have remained grounded in what my parents have taught me. I've always been a faithful believer that our parents are the first ones who teach us, and Latino families, we embody the word philanthropy. We want to send money back home, whether our home is in another country or whether it's a family member, or to another state. We take care of the communities in which we live. It's not just about our own family. It's about our neighbors, and we build community wherever we go. And that's the idea of philanthropy. Technically, I was brought into the philanthropy world through the New York Health Foundation, but the roots of my concept of philanthropy were shaped and formed by my family, who they are, and how they gave back when they came into this country in the 1960s.
People may look at the Latino community and think, “Oh they need this.” No, we have so much to offer. We've been the backbone of our economy. We've been safeguarding our democracy. When we invest in the Latino community, the entire country benefits from that. So I feel like those values have really informed me as a leader and I'm proud that they've now become anchored in LCF as an institution.
It's attracted staff that believe in and understand that we don't need to lead from a place of scarcity, that we can lead from a place of abundance because we have one another and there is a sense of generosity that we can tap into in our community. And that's been important because I think in the philanthropic sector, it's this idea of, like, a zero-sum game. And yes, resources are important, and there may be limited resources, but we also live in California, where it's the fifth- or fourth-largest economy in the world. And yes, there's a deficit in our state, but there is plenty of wealth to go around if you do things right and we do it in a way that puts others first.
What were some of the changes LCF went through during your time there?
The first one was really building. In terms of our assets, they were less than a million. We had four staff members at the time that I started. So a lot of it was really building and raising money that we could reinvest back into the community. The second part was our North Star, so when I first got here, the concept was investing in Latino grassroots leaders. The question of the “why” needed to be much clearer. So in that first year and a half, it was really drilling down as to why this investment is important for our state and our country. And the answer was clear: our democracy depended on the strong Latino civic infrastructure of our community. So the idea of building civic power became really central and a focal point of LCF.
The second was the economy. So in those four years from 2016 to 2020, we were operating under the broader context of this anti-Latino rhetoric. Yet California is the perfect example that shows how critical the Latino workforce has been. So we know that by 2030, 70% of the workforce will be Latino in net new workers. But in California, we've been it, whether it's in agriculture or the service industry. We obviously need more in the tech industry and in the growing industries of the green economy, but the truth is that the whole economy has been built on the backs of Latinos. So how do we ensure that Latinos who have helped build the economy of California also prosper from it? And so the change at LCF became to focus on building civic and economic power for Latinos so that the state can continue to grow and grow more equitably and grow with a more inclusive economy that also belonged to the people who were making it prosper.
You've touched on this a bit, but what are some of the things that you're most proud of from your time at LCF?
Meeting incredible Latino leaders in the community. When I talked with our community leaders, it became so clear why we do what we do. They're so inspiring. They live to serve, and it's such a beautiful thing. They work nonstop and just want to do so much for our community that there's not enough hours in the day for them to do what they do. It's been the biggest privilege of my life to work alongside them and support them. As I look back, it's meeting these leaders that were invisible to a certain extent. And part of what we did was to lift up their stories and make sure that the New York Times was paying attention to the work that we were doing, that the Washington Post was telling our stories, and was doing it in a way that honored their voices and their strengths. And that's one of the things that I'm most proud of.
And I can talk about the numbers. I am proud that we raised $100 million for our Latino community. Two-thirds of that has been reinvested back in the community through grants, through our accelerator, and through our Giving Circle network. I am also incredibly proud of the staff that we've recruited, who matter to the community, and who lead from a place of our values of immigrant families.
What are your hopes for LCF's future?
Well, the exciting part is that we have the right leader coming in. Julian Castro's story is the story of LCF. One of the things that I admire so much about him is where he comes from. His grandmother was six years old, an orphan, when she came into this country, and became an invisible worker who cleaned homes. And then his mother was an organizer. Rosie Castro worked the streets to ensure that our young people were registered to vote. She did all that hard work so that her sons would have a seat at the table. And they've had that seat at the table at the highest level of power as former HUD secretary, former mayor of San Antonio, one of the largest cities in our country.
But the more important thing is that they're both grounded. Julian Castro is grounded in who he is, is grounded in the values that his mother and his grandmother have passed onto him. And there is a humility that comes with the power that they have owned and that they are committed to leveraging that power on behalf of our community. It's something really precious that we are inheriting at this moment. I am confident that this is exactly the right move for LCF. I had my eye on him for over a year because I thought he'd be the perfect leader for LCF to usher us into a new era. And that it's happening during an election year is also important. Lifting up the power of our voice and our vote in this moment also really matters.
I'm also excited about the possibilities of taking our models nationally. Our board is very committed, [Castro] is very committed to deepening our impact in California, but also recognizing that in states like Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Florida — there are a growing number of Latinos where we should exist, that our Giving Circle networks should exist, our nonprofit accelerator should exist. And so taking the models that we've built and incubated in California and using them as an example of what can exist in some of the other states where Latinos also make up a plurality.
What led to your decision to leave LCF?
I think it's healthy in any organization for a leader to have a five- to 10-year tenure, to build and bring in new leadership to envision a new future. I think that's a very healthy part of what's important in growing institutions to remain relevant and grounded in what's happening in the world. The second is what better time to do so when LCF is at its strongest. Like I mentioned, we've raised $100 million. We've invested into 400 Latino-led organizations across the Bay Area consistently over eight years. We have a staff that's ready to run into this next new era. So why not hand it over at this moment in time?
On a very personal level, these last couple of years have been especially hard. There has a be a time of stillness to be able to reflect on your destiny and what you're called to do in this moment, and I feel like I need that at this moment in time.
What's in store for you next?
The immediate next step is just a period of rest and restoration. That's definitely on the horizon right now. On a very practical level, Castro has asked me to stay on as a senior advisor, so I will be behind the scenes supporting him. This is really to ensure a smooth transition for the organization, because in terms of succeeding planning in the Latino-led organization, it is important for us to not just go away and disappear. It is important to ensure that there's a smooth transition into new leadership. The third thing is that there are a lot of great offers on the table right now, but I want to take a moment to just rest and weigh in with the right mindset, not an exhausted one.
At my farewell party, my message to everyone was to rest. Take the time to rest because this work that we're doing toward equity and toward building a more just society, it takes a toll on us. It's very personal and there's a real need for leaders to take a moment and sit back and rest and let others lead, too. It's important for the joy that this work should bring back. If we're operating out of exhaustion, we will not make the right decisions. And the other point is that when we operate from exhaustion, we forget to lead with love. We just want to get the work done, and we forget that it's really about people and being still and listening and learning. And that's not healthy.
The quote that comes to mind is from Martin Luther King, when he said that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. And when we are tired, power can be misused, because we don't remember to lead with love. And I think it's really important for leaders to reground themselves on why we do this work and rest so we can make sure that we build power with love at the center of it. And if there's a legacy that I want to leave behind, it's really that. I think Dr. King warned us in terms of how disruptive and reckless power can be left in and of itself, but if we lead with love and we center power-building movements in love and in joy, we're not going to recreate the same world that we're trying to change. We're going to recreate a new world that's necessary at this moment.
