Category Archives: Resource Development

A father’s lesson on legacy

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By Pedro J. Rivera, Esq., Senior Director for Individual Giving, UnidosUS

Pedro Rivera’s father, a Korean War Veteran.

My father, a Korean War Veteran and a member of the 65th Infantry, a Puerto Rican regiment of the United States Army, was always grateful to organizations that helped veterans. He was born in Cayey, Puerto Rico, and was raised on a farm by his maternal grandfather. As a child, I remember him being involved in fundraisers for our parish or our sports team. He was blessed and reminded us that we must help those less fortunate than ourselves. Giving is an act of generosity. He would tell us, “en la vida hay que dar para recibir” (in life, you must give to receive). He was one of my earliest examples of donating to causes you care about. At the end of each year, I would see him make his donations to the Disabled American Veterans (DAV), an organization that helped many former soldiers just like him.

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Combating COVID-19: 30 UnidosUS Affiliates receive grants from the Esperanza/Hope Fund to fight the coronavirus’s effects in their communities

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The COVID-19 pandemic arrived to our lives without a warning, without a handbook to guide us on how to deal with this unprecedented situation. We soon saw our community being disproportionately affected by this crisis, making up 27% of all COVID-19 cases and 18.9% of the total unemployment rate.

However, just as quickly as that happened, our Affiliates were there to support our struggling families. They have stepped up and they need all the support they can get to continue responding to the disproportionate hardships the Latino community is facing from COVID-19. This is why at UnidosUS we have established our Esperanza/Hope Fund, and last week we announced the 30 Affiliates that will receive $25,000 each in our first round of grants.

By Beatriz Paniego-Béjar, Content Specialist, UnidosUS

UnidosUS grants $750,000 to 30 Affiliates from our network.

Our Affiliates are trusted sources for our community. In times of need, individuals and families across the country reach out to them for help. In response to the coronavirus crisis, these community-based organizations have set up rapid response funds, food drives, testing sites, hotlines, and more—whatever it is that our community needs in the time of COVID-19.

Through the Esperanza/Hope Fund, launched with a $1 million donation from PepsiCo, UnidosUS is providing emergency assistance to these families in communities that need it the most through our Affiliate Network. In this first round of grants we have selected 30 organizations in 14 states and Puerto Rico to strengthen our community directly.

“The exemplary work of these 30 organizations that are serving communities across the country decimated by this pandemic is heartening and inspiring, but they are doing much of this work without enough funding and resources. That is why we started the Esperanza/Hope Fund,” said UnidosUS President and CEO Janet Murguía. “Our hope is that the Fund and these initial grants will help Affiliates stabilize their operations, provide emergency support to their communities and strengthen their capacity to not only survive these trying times, but emerge ready to serve for the longer term.”

Meet these extraordinary partners below:

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The dream lives up there, in “El Norte”

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Thirty-five years have passed, but this story is as relevant as it was in 1984. In his film El Norte, Gregory Nava wanted to give a heart and soul to the undocumented immigrants and refugees that risk their lives coming to the North. El Norte tells the story of siblings Rosa and Enrique, who flee to the United States in search of a better life, and face challenges of both getting to “el norte,” as well as assimilating in this country. Start Hispanic Heritage Month viewing El Norte in a theatre close to you. All proceeds will go to the victims of the El Paso massacre.

El Norte

El Norte

“El Norte.” The north, that place looked up to, that country of prosperity, of opportunity. The north, those states where violence can be escaped, where education can be attained, where goals can be achieved, where wealth and well-being is available, where life is safe. The north, that place where the American Dream is lived, that place where human rights are protected. The north, the United States, the country of diversity and inclusion.

At least that’s the ideal.

In the last few years, our community has gone through attack after attack, with the current administration policies, from family separation to their criminalization for taking care of their families, and rippling into society, making our community the target of assaults such as the El Paso massacre.

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The American Dream is big enough for all of us

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UnidosUS Campaign for Equal Opportunity

We’re in the middle of a moment that will define the path our country takes. Despite a vocal minority that promotes hate and fear, more Americans than ever believe that we all deserve an equal opportunity to succeed.

There’s enough room for each one of us to achieve the American Dream, and that’s what we’re here to do.

Imagine a country where:

  • College dreams are realized, not dashed.
  • Owning a home is the rule, not the exception.
  • Health insurance is attainable, not taken away.
  • Career paths are chosen, not settled for.
  • We are all treated with dignity, not disdain.
  • We all live freely, not in fear.

The UnidosUS Campaign for Equal Opportunity is a call to action to ensure Latinos, and all Americans, have equal access to everything they need to succeed.

We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us to achieve that. We’ll need to:

  • Define the Latino narrative, telling the true story of who we are, and how equality will benefit every American.
  • Scale impact through technology and innovation, empowering families to define success on their own terms.
  • Lead in the 21st century, raising our profile as experts in the space, and lifting the voices of our Affiliates as trusted pillars of local communities.

Join us as we transform what we do to transform America. We couldn’t be more excited to share this vision with you, and we hope you’ll share it with those you love.

Red Nose Day: Helping UnidosUS keep children healthy and ready for the future

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Last year, we partnered with Red Nose Day USA, whose mission is to end child poverty, one nose at a time—by keeping children healthy, educated, and safe—to implement our Healthy and Ready for the Future program.

Red Nose Day 2018

The program seeks to provide a healthy start in oral health and early education for Latino children, especially those from migrant and seasonal farmworker families, across rural America. In partnership with six Affiliates in AZ, CA, FL, TX, and WA—local Federally-Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and community-based organizations with migrant and seasonal head start (MSHS) programs—UnidosUS improves access to timely and equitable oral and primary health care services for Latino children, especially migrant children, across 60 rural communities.

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Supporting Latinos by Investing at NCLR

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By Ivelisse Fairchild, Vice President of Resource Development, NCLR

Ivelisse Fairchild 2015_smallEven after twenty years in the business, I still get up each morning raring to go to work. I am blessed to have a job that allows me to interact with individuals who want to make difference in the lives of others. How cool is that?

Like many development officers in my age group, I fell into the field because I saw the need to find investments in programs in the community I lived and worked in. In the early 90s, Washington Heights was known as the “crack capital of the world.” It had the highest murder rate in the City of New York the year I entered the field, and lacked the educational, health, economic, and social services that the large immigrant community there needed.

Local community groups tried to address these problems, but many did not have the capacity or the resources to do so. I wanted to find the resources to create opportunities for these new community residents like the ones my mom created for me when she emigrated from the Dominican Republic. I stayed in the field because I realized that I was good at telling our stories, raising money, and building collaborative partnerships with community groups and funders. My whole life my mom had ingrained in me the importance of creating meaningful relationships with people, and fundraising gave me the opportunity to do that while making lasting changes in the community I loved.

I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be. As a Latina, I am proud of the work NCLR does to create opportunities for Hispanics. I am glad that I can share our work with others and find ways for them to invest in our programs.

This is a great time to invest in the Latino community. Latinos are entrepreneurial—the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States—and are already an economic force to reckon with. When you partner with us, you are not just checking off a “social responsibility” box; you are engaging in a movement to make the lives of Latinos more productive, more uplifting, and more successful. We commit to a meaningful partnership as good stewards of your investment, and commit to transparency. When you invest in our work, you join the NCLR familia, whose work has great impact not only on individuals, but also on community-based organizations throughout the country.

When I am not raising funds for NCLR, you can find me teaching Spinning or curled up on my couch or by the pool reading the latest fiction or nonfiction book or writing. My dog, Gracie, is usually by my side and we are disturbed multiple times by my ringing cell phone, mostly from my kids calling to tell me how much they love me. Not really…they’re usually calling because they need money—fundraisers in the making!

Ivelisse Fairchild is Vice President of Resource Development at NCLR. Under her leadership, NCLR is helping maximize the impact of donor investments in the organization. Follow NCLRamigos on Twitter and Facebook to learn more about the impact of our donor community.

From Theatre to Advocacy: Raising Funds for Causes That Matter

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By Stephanie Hagen, Prospect Researcher, NCLR

StephanieHiggins_RD

Stephanie Hagen at NCLR Headquarters in Washington

Being a fundraiser was something that never really crossed my mind. I always imagined myself being an editor at a publishing house or something similar, but halfway through graduate school I fell into a wonderful internship at New York Theatre Workshop. After four months with the marketing and development teams there, fundraising was something I knew I wanted to explore more. After finishing my graduate program, I worked in the development offices of theatre companies for a combined five years in New York and DC, mostly writing government, corporate, and foundation proposals and reports and stewarding donors when the occasion called for it.

The arts are an integral part of our society. Studies have proven that children who are exposed to the arts do better in school than their counterparts. Theatres have catalyzed the revitalization of entire neighborhoods. I very much enjoyed fundraising for the arts and I truly believe it is a worthy cause. After a while, though, I started questioning what I wanted to get out of my career: Why am I a fundraiser? When all is said and done, what difference will I have made?

That’s what led me to NCLR, where I research donors and help with our database. I’m really proud and excited to do what I do each day—not only because I have fantastic coworkers who are deeply committed to the cause, but because I feel I am making a tangible difference in people’s lives by connecting our front-line fundraisers with philanthropists who support our mission and have the financial capability to help NCLR continue its incredible work.

Though my path here was relatively unconventional and completely unplanned, I’m very grateful to be working at NCLR.