GIVING BACK

Hispanic giving increases while corporations, with their eye on market and talent, fund more Hispanic causes

By Karen-Janine Cohen

Merlinda Gallegos worked on her first political campaign when she was 5. And, growing up in New Mexico, she imbibed her pharmacist father’s “giving back” philosophy.

She also took to heart his four rules for professional satisfaction: Whatever you do in life must benefit society; you must have a passion for it; be the best at it that you can be; if you follow the first three rules, the rest will come naturally.
Gallegos, 35, did follow those rules and now, as director of corporate philanthropy for MGM Mirage in Las Vegas, she has the chance to guide the company’s corporate charitable giving and its employee giving programs. In 2005, the employee-driven Voice Foundation raised $5.7 million for programs aimed at helping young people and strengthening neighborhoods.
Gallegos decided to pursue a career in philanthropy after volunteering at Camp Anytown, a program that prepares young people to assume leadership roles in communities made up of people from different ethnic, religious and racial backgrounds. The program is run by the National Conference for Community and Justice.
“It was a life-changing experience,” she says. Now, at MGM and in her many volunteer roles, she can address the subtleties that may determine whether a program will help the people it’s intended for.
“If we are going to have culturally competent services provided to our growing community, it is important to get Latinos and Latinas working in the nonprofit sector, whether in paid positions, as volunteers, or on boards of directors,” she says.
What she means by “culturally competent” can be as simple as an awareness of what makes people comfortable and likely to access the offered services—making sure child care training programs include bilingual instructors, for instance. Anyone can have a positive impact on their community through volunteering and philanthropy, she says. And it’s rewarding. “At the end of the day you are going to be a happier person,” she says.
More and more Hispanics, as they rise in Corporate America or succeed in their own businesses, are getting involved in giving and non-profit work, either as a philanthropy professional like Gallegos, by starting a foundation, or by joining established groups. Many donate time or money out of gratitude for their own success, or because they saw friends, neighbors and family members struggle to grasp a scrap of the American Dream. What’s more, there is a realization that philanthropy is a milestone of the American experience—a role assumed by leaders from all fields and a way to help shape a community.
For David Hernandez, 36, chief executive and chairman of Fort Lauderdale-based Liberty Power Corp., giving back is one of the gifts of success. The retail electricity provider’s revenues reached $100 million in 2005, Hernandez says, and are on track to surpass that this year. He started the Liberty Power Foundation to fund programs in math and science—areas crucial to U.S. competitiveness.
“The minority communities are under-represented when it comes to education. The Hispanic dropout rate is incredibly high,” Hernandez says.
His parents, immigrants from Cuba, instilled in their children the need to both get an education, and then give back, he says.
Yet opening doors needn’t always mean giving money away. Daniel L. Villanueva and his father Daniel D. Villaneuva are partners in the Pasadena, Calif.-based private equity firm RC Fontis that invests in lower-and-middle market companies. The elder Villanueva is best known for his pro-football career and as a co-founder of Univision.
While Fontis is not a charity—“Our investors are retirees and first and foremost, our obligation is to them, to make good returns,” says the younger Villanueva—the firm does target companies involved with the Hispanic market.
“The very sector we’ve carved out for ourselves is getting capital into companies that are engaging the Hispanic consumer,” says Villanueva, who is 47. He added that the firm doesn’t limit itself to Latino-owned companies, but looks to the highest growth segments that are Latino, Asian, and African American.
The Villanuevas’ philanthropy covers a wide spectrum that touches many segments of society. However, they are committed to helping Hispanics find economic opportunities. The elder Villanueva is a founder of the New America Alliance, a Dallas-based group that helps Hispanic companies access capital and that promotes Hispanic participation on corporate boards and in government institutions.
“Latinos generally are culturally quite generous,” the younger Villanueva says. “But if you look abroad, there is not a tremendous tradition of philanthropy. That is one of the aspects of the larger American culture that we value and want to inculcate into Latino leadership that is emerging in this country.”
Meanwhile, corporations are increasingly interested in fostering those leaders as well, says Lourdes Hassler, chief executive of the Dallas-based National Society of Hispanic MBAs that this year is awarding more than $1 million in scholarships to 256 students working toward their master’s degree in business administration. It’s not unusual for the large corporations that fund the group to keep in touch with students and offer jobs after graduation, she says.
“You are seeing Corporate America tap into this talent,” Hassler says. And with good reason. “The Hispanic community has become a marketing and constituent base you can’t ignore.”
In fact, there is an increase in corporate giving to Hispanic organizations while at the same time, more Hispanics are engaging in philanthropy, says Ana Gloria Rivas-Vázquez, vice president of philanthropic services at San Francisco-based Hispanics in Philanthropy.
In 2000, the group launched a collaborative seeking local, national and transnational support for small-to-medium-sized Latino nonprofit organizations in the U.S. and Latin America. As of March 2006, the collaborative had leveraged more than $29 million from 149 local, national and transnational funders in support of 349 Latino nonprofits. The preliminary goal of the next phase is to raise $50 million over the next five years.
Rivas-Vázquez, who works from a South Florida office, notes that while Hispanic participation in traditional charities may be seen as low, a lot of giving never gets counted, such as neighbors helping neighbors, and money sent to communities outside the United States.
“Philanthropy is very personal,” she says. In research for a chapter she contributed to the book Nuevos Senderos: Reflections on Hispanics and Philanthropy, Rivas-Vázquez found that charities that evoked a personal connection attracted more donations than did traditional large institutions or endowments.
Still, that could change as more Hispanics land in boardrooms and executive suites.
“We are just barely beginning to penetrate major corporations,” says David Lizarraga, president and CEO of Los Angeles-based TELACU, a nonprofit community development organization that is sustained by its for-profit branch, TELACU Industries. Lizarraga, who is also incoming president of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, says that when more Hispanics reach those positions and join traditional nonprofits, be it charities, hospitals or arts groups, they will help shape the discussion of what philanthropy is and can be in their communities.
Meanwhile, MGM’s Gallegos wants the youth she works with to realize that you can do well by doing good—and that there is no better way to meet interesting, and often important people, than through philanthropic organizations and events.
Her advice: work the registration tables. “The networking is incredible.”

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The ABC’s of Giving

While many corporations give to Hispanic causes, some firms seek a niche.
For Verizon Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Verizon Communications, that niche is in fostering literacy.
Together with Scholastic Corp., the publisher and distributor of children’s books, and the National Council of La Raza, Verizon is promoting a program called Lee y serás to help young Hispanic children gain the skills they need to succeed in school and beyond.
The program, which translates into Read and You Will Be, is aimed at giving parents, child-care workers, and communities the tools to build reading into the lives of Hispanic children at the earliest possible age.
Verizon—which in the last four years has donated $43 million to Hispanic-related philanthropic causes—has historically supported literacy efforts because of their long-term impact, explains Nancy Williams, national director of the foundation’s literacy programs.
The program revolves around a set of culturally relevant and bilingual literature, software, resource materials, and workshops. It was rolled out this fall in six cities: Miami, Los Angeles, Dallas, New York, Chicago and Washington. A companion website is set to launch this month.
“It’s very unique,” Williams says. “We don’t know of any materials like this, focused specifically on the early childhood areas, targeted at parents and childcare givers, to develop the discipline of reading in the Hispanic home and community.”