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Diana Campoamor uses philanthropy as catalyst for change
By Jan Sluizer
VoA
News
San Francisco - 11 May
2009 -
Diana Campoamor's family came to the United States from Cuba in the late
1950s, fleeing the repression of the Batista dictatorship. She was 11
years old and recalls how delighted she was to see the Nixon-Kennedy
presidential debates on television and hear her classmates talk
politics.
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Diana Campoamor has led HIP since 1990 |
"I had a sense of freedom, and I had a sense of being safe as a child
here," she says.
Trained as a journalist, Campoamor primarily wrote features and
editorials on issues relating to Hispanic communities in the United
States. She became increasingly aware that projects serving the needs of
Latino immigrants were receiving very little financial support. So in
the early 1980s, she joined forces with 13 other Latinos who were
familiar with charitable foundations and getting grant money from them.
In 1983, they launched
Hispanics in Philanthropy.
Campoamor became its president in 1990.
Directing dollars toward Latino communities
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Campoamor speaks to foundations around the country to solicit
their support for projects in Latino communities in the United
States and throughout the Americas |
"Our mission is to make bigger and better investments in Latino
communities," Campoamor says, explaining HIP does that by reaching out
to foundations, letting them know about needs in Latino communities, and
telling them how their grants can help.
To raise the most investment dollars possible, HIP pairs large donors
with small ones. Campoamor points to the group's flagship program, The
Funders' Collaborative for Strong Latino Communities, in which donations
from national foundations are matched by money from local organizations.
"Donors come together for two reasons," she points out. "Number one, so
that they can minimize the amount of work to themselves and [two,] to
maximize the impact of their dollars, hopefully, maximize the amount of
good that they do."
To date, The Funders' Collaborative has raised more than $37 million and
made grants to almost 500 non-profit Latino groups. Among HIP's success
stories are new affordable housing, mobile health clinics, small-stage
theater troupes and after-school programs in Latino communities.
Changing the image of Latino immigrants
Diana Campoamor says those results are improving the lives - and the
image - of Latino immigrants.
"The media portrays us as people who come across the border and take
other people's jobs, and our point is that Latinos are givers. We are
givers of economic prosperity. We are givers of culture and intellectual
capital in this country. We are givers of spiritual and family values.
We're givers. We're not takers," she stresses, adding, "and we are part
of the fabric of America as well as our countries of origin."
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Campoamor talks with farmers at an HIP-funded project in Mexico |
Campoamor's group is now focusing its attention on those countries of
origin. To tackle the root causes of illegal immigration, HIP has
started to fund economic projects in Mexico and other Latin American
countries. She says she doesn't believe immigrants, legal or illegal,
would come to America if they didn't have to.
Investments make staying more attractive than leaving
"Very few people really want to leave their home, their family, that
which is familiar to them. They do because they have to. Many of them
are refugees, whether they're economic or political refugees. And so, we
believe that by supporting projects that allow people to find jobs, to
develop small businesses, to farm their land in a more productive way
gives them a choice."
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During a visit to Guatemala in February, Campoamor met with
artesanas, women who received HIP grants to start their own
business |
Among those projects are a goat-cheese cooperative in Guanajuato,
Mexico, and an olive oil cooperative in Mendoza, Argentina. In the
Dominican Republic, a HIP grant has helped banana farmers form a
cooperative to fight soil erosion and export organic fruit to the U.S.
Campoamor says the best part of her work is visiting with the women at
HIP projects in Latin America. She learns a lot from what she calls
these "entrepreneur role models." And she says she's pleased that HIP
has made it possible for them to show their children, especially their
daughters, that they can make a living - and a difference - in their own
communities.
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