PHILANTHROPY PROJECTS
Funds supporting social justice in Latin America
An assessment commissioned by Hispanics in Philanthropy identified a total of 42 funds, including those created by institutional funders (mostly U.S. private foundations). Eight of these funds created by foundations focus exclusively on Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The rest don’t target specific geographies but instead focus on specific issues and support work across different regions, including LAC.
A total of 28 funds were the result of activists or groups of people working on the ground, addressing concrete social problems. Challenges faced by funds vary depending on their visibility, access to long-term funding sources, and the legal and fiscal contexts in which they operate.
Recent Shifts in Global Philanthropy
Support for social justice and humanitarian work was seemingly shaken by the COVID-19 pandemic. Grantmakers and donors, including private foundations in North America and Europe, communicated in the first months of 2020 that they would change the way they provide funding to civil society groups. But did those announcements amount to verifiable transformations in the sector's practices? Researching the changes and emerging trends between March 2020 and the second half of 2022 yielded some noteworthy findings. Spring commissioned the research, which included interviews with activists, foundation representatives, gender and social justice specialists, and leaders in the socio-environmental field in Brazil, the United States, Ghana, and India. Shaking Up Philanthropy, co-authored by INNO and Spring, is the product of this work.
