Julián Castro’s New Philanthropic Mission at the Latino Community Foundation: Helping Latinos Help Themselves

SAN ANTONIO — Julián Castro, who helped build Hispanic presence on the national political stage with his 2020 presidential bid, is now focused on building the power of Latinos to help themselves.

Just four months after taking over as CEO of the California-based Latino Community Foundation, Castro has plunged the philanthropic activist group into the high-stakes 2024 elections with donations to Latino groups in Arizona, Nevada, other key states and California, where some congressional races could decide control of the House.

“The desire to go and do this work outside of California is a reflection of the urgency to improve the economic prospects of our community and ensure that people exercise their right to vote,” Castro said in an interview at a Mexican restaurant in his hometown of Castro. remained in San Antonio but travels back and forth in the new position.

He also signed the foundation to take the lead in ensuring that Latinos, who are the overwhelming majority in the Imperial Valley, California, are not left out of any boom resulting from lithium mining frenzy unfolding in the region.

“In the Imperial Valley a huge amount of wealth will be created and we want to do our part to ensure that it is not just an extractive economy, but that the people who live there also benefit, and not just economically, but in terms of health, education, of greater opportunities in every sense, quality of life”, he stated.

The Latino Community Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan philanthropic organization that invests in Latino-led organizations. He has worked primarily in California and is proud to have the largest network of Latino philanthropists in the country, investing more than $25 million in more than 375 grassroots, predominantly Latino-led organizations.

Its work ranges from directly investing in Latino groups to creating and running what it calls “giving circles”: 17 Latino groups whose members each donate $1,000 a year and then choose which community groups will receive the money they raise. . invested US$2.9 million, it says on its website.

Castro said the foundation’s donations to Take the Snowy Road and the Arizona Center for Empowerment are a start to extending their work beyond California and helping groups get more attention for the Latino vote in those states. Both are progressive groups focused on registering and attracting Latino voters.

The foundation also commissioned BSP Research to survey 1,200 registered Latino voters – 400 in each state – to gauge their opinions on candidates and issues and their likelihood to vote.

“I want all candidates and all parties to pay attention to the needs of the Latino community,” said Castro, a Democrat who served as San Antonio Mayor and Housing Secretary in the Obama administration. He is also a political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC.

A clear majority of Latinos surveyed in each state said they planned to vote, but significant shares also said they were not well informed about the political agendas of President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump.

“What I want to tell political candidates is that no matter what their ideology is, if they want to win, they need to address the concerns of the Latino community,” he said.

In an interview with NBC News in 2018, Castro said that the subtitle of his memoir, “An Unlikely Journey: Waking From My American Dream,” released in the run-up to his presidential bid, refers to the understanding among many Latinos that It’s not enough to just work hard for your family and achieve your own American dream.

“Often, you also need to improve your community and society,” he said then.

That belief explains his enthusiasm for his new role overseeing a foundation that he says is helping community groups so they can advocate for their neighborhoods, towns, cities and themselves before city councils and other government bodies on different issues. or, for example, where to direct federal money that is granted to its municipalities.

Castro cited examples of the foundation’s mission, such as his Work with ALAS, a group that provides services to farmworkers and their families (the acronym is the Spanish word for “wings”; it stands for Ayudando Latinos a Soñar, or Helping Latinos Dream). The foundation also worked with the Community Water Centerwhich focuses on ensuring safe, affordable water for communities in California’s San Joaquin Valley.

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“There is much more room to organize Latino communities in states across the country and invest in Latino- and Latina-led nonprofits across the country,” he said.

“Traveling around the country, I found that you have – both in areas that have huge Latino communities and also in small pockets – this dearth of representation… on school boards, on city councils, on boards and commissions, and often you There is also a lack of capacity among non-profit organizations to serve the Latino community. Ultimately, we want to be part of building that capability,” he said.

Harnessing Latino Philanthropy – Both Formal and Informal

Castro entered the philanthropic arena at a challenging time. According to Hispanics in Philanthropy, less than 1% of philanthropic funding supports causes that benefit Latino communities. Hispanics in Philanthropywhich bills itself as the largest transnational donor network, is also dedicated to uplifting Latinos economically and strengthening their leadership and influence.

A report this released last year found that Hispanic contributions to charities fell in 2018, the last year for which information was available, as did all other groups. But the decline was greater for Hispanics, going from 44% of Latino households donating to charitable organizations to 26% in 2018.

However, Castro expressed optimism regarding the growth of what he said is an existing, formal and informal, unrecognized Latino philanthropy.

Latinos, he said, are often incorrectly viewed as less philanthropic than other communities. But Latinos donate at church, in neighborhoods, to family members and in traditional ways. The Latino Community Foundation is trying to promote philanthropy at the grassroots level and among professionals who have achieved their dreams and feel they want to give back to their communities, he said.

“We have long been part of the story of American progress,” Castro said. “This means that our community is fully invested in the future of our country and the destiny of America is intertwined with the destiny of the Latino community like never before.”