Philanthropy Pours More Money Into Latino Wealth Creation

credit: via AZ Foundation

The US Hispanic unemployment rate was more than three percentage points higher than the white unemployment rate in December, and the Hispanic or Latino unemployment rate was more than four percentage points higher than the overall US rate.

But the good news is that private foundations and nonprofit organizations are stepping up their efforts to help Latino- and immigrant-led businesses grow.

"It was important for us to make sure that, as we moved into this crisis mode of COVID, that Latino- and immigrant-led businesses weren't an afterthought," says Jacqueline Martinez Garcel, CEO of California's Latino Community Foundation.

The foundation started the Latino Entrepreneurship Fund in 2020 with $4 million from the James Irvine Foundation to help Latino entrepreneurs and community financial lenders assist Latino businesses.

Since then, it has provided $1 million to help start three new community-development financial institutions.

Such financial institutions, which have charity status, typically provide loans of up to $75,000 to low-income entrepreneurs or small businesses owned by people of color.

Hispanics in Philanthropy, an organization that works to attract charitable funds to serve Hispanics, launched the PowerUp Fund to help Latino-owned small businesses in California, New York, and Texas.

Google.org, the tech giant's philanthropic arm, gave $3 million toward that effort.

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