2023
Year In Review
Building a Sustainable Social Sector
“No hay equidad en Puerto Rico desde la filantropía porque la mayoría están en el área metro […] desde nuestra nueva visión queremos atacar las áreas de mayor pobreza que no están en el área metropolitana”
This year our network truly leveled up! From welcoming new members and strengthening our relationships as a collective to launching our first full podcast season and having the highest attendance in our annual convening, we made it all happen thanks to our member’s enthusiasm and dedication. After such an amazing year of building, convening and advancing in the philanthropic sector, we have an ambitious outlook for 2024. We are excited to look back at our year to see how bright the future of our collective looks!
Building Relationships to Strengthen our Collective Efforts
This year we spent a lot of time building trust among each other so that we can become a stronger network that pushes the boundaries of existing philanthropic practices. We met throughout the year in our Members Brunches and Meetups to discuss our individual practices, track our impact and remain accountable as the largest philanthropic network on the island. We also shared space outside of work that allowed us to connect on a more personal note.
We had Members Brunches at the headquarters of some of the philanthropic foundations with the longest track record on the island such as Fundación Ángel Ramos, Fundación Segarra Boerman, and Humanidades Puerto Rico. Some of the more emerging member foundations such as Fundación Mujeres de Puerto Rico also hosted Members Brunch. We discussed equity as it traverses multiple issue areas important to the philanthropic sector in Puerto Rico. As a result, we came to a better understanding of the need to find a balance between urban and rural initiatives, consider gender inequity, socialize knowledge, and engage in trust based philanthropy practices.
We didn’t stop there when it came to creating spaces to build trust since we also shared other joyful and leisurely spaces. We had four meetups throughout 2023. During these events, we met up in different locally owned venues to share and connect as a community. These spaces were deeply special because by getting to see each other as people first, we are able to build more trust that can have a positive impact in our relationships as colleagues. Additionally, these spaces were also key to spark conversations about how far we’ve come as philanthropic entities and how to remain accountable to advancing equity moving forward. Thanks for bringing your most authentic selves to these relationship building spaces!
Building Capacity to Invest Strategically
For the second year in a row, we delved into a deeper learning journey through the lens of community based organizations. We visited organizations in rural zones of the island to learn how philanthropic investment can impact peoples’ everyday lives. Our journey took us through different community initiatives working on elderly equity, LGBTQ+ cultural memory, and local tourism. You can find more details about our journeys main takeaways below:
Convening the Philanthropic Ecosystem
“Los espacios de FiPR son necesarios por que es importante que la filantropía alinee sus esfuerzos y entiendan exactamente donde esta la necesidad. De esta manera, juntas, en colectivo y alineadas, podemos tener un impacto mayor”
Verónica Colón, Fundación para Mujeres de PR
Our work together continued throughout the year in so many different spaces that it is truly impressive! All the time we spent building trust and our relationships was key to having successful spaces where we could strategize together, track the impact of our sector, and look at the future as a collective.
Annual Convening Expand to Align: Collective Action
Our 2023 Annual Convening Expand to Align: Collective Action was a complete success thanks to the engagement of our amazing network! This year we asked our members to come ready to imagine how we could build equity for Puerto Rico through collective action. Our main goals were to think through how to expand and align philanthropic efforts moving forward, and yes, we came out of our convening with so many inspiring possibilities for philanthropy on the island. We had many guest speakers from sectors ranging from Academia to public service agencies and also had the highest attendance from our network membership in the audience.
Among the new information we learned were different types of data sets that allow us to have a better understanding of Puerto Rico’s demographics, housing, solar energy federal funding, and the impact of philanthropic investment in education and agriculture. As our convening came to an end, we committed to continue the conversation next year in order to understand all this data better and use it strategically to take individual and collective action. We will also be working on developing different landscapes for these issue areas in order to continue expanding our understanding of the social ecosystem.
Action Dialogues
Our Action Dialogues were spaces that also allowed us to align strategically. Our members are very diverse and we recognize the value of each of their practices. During our Action Dialogues, many of our members shared their own philanthropic practices and how they impact equity through the work of their organizations. As Filantropía Puerto Rico, we held space to share the data collected through our grantmaking processes survey and other topics such as communities of practice, philanthropic practices that advance equity, and how sharing power can increase impact. Our meetings were very productive spaces to continue cultivating our collective strategy to engage with philanthropic practices that can truly have an impact to advance an equitable PR.
Advancing Intersectional Equity
“La equidad debería de estar presente en todo. Debe de estar presente en el espacio municipal, debe de estar presente en el gobierno central, debe de estar presente en nuestras relaciones personales.”
Robusteciendo la justicia social
During the second year of Robusteciendo la Justicia, participating organizations shared about the state of affairs when it comes to housing justice and recovery efforts on the island. They emphasized how important it has been to collect data through community based efforts, which is a great accomplishment, yet it only shows that much more work is needed to ensure equitable access to resources for communities across the island. Likewise, organizations engaged in the exercise of discussing what a fully recovered Puerto Rico might look like, sharing a wide array of perspectives from turning abandoned buildings into habitable homes to ensuring access to information for communities. The full collective of organizations includes Sembrando Sentido, Liga de Ciudades, Centro para la Reconstrucción del Hábitat, FURIA, UPR Resiliency Law Center, Ayuda Legal Puerto Rico, Fideicomiso del Caño Martín Peña y El Enjambre Colectivo. You can watch a presentation by the collective here to learn more about the recovery efforts held by community based organizations throughout the past six years.
Compromisos para una recuperación justa
Through our Compromisos para una Recuperación Justa initiative, we were able to convene public entities and non-profit organizations to collaborate on a pathway to ensure equitable access to recovery funds. We deepened our collaborative relationships and thought through some of the next steps to center the communities that most urgently need access to recovery funds. Some of the participants included representatives from Departamento de la Vivienda, HUD, FEMA, COR3 and members from our current Robusteciendo la Justicia collective. We identified areas of growth for 2024 and look forward to continuing holding this space to advance equity within recovery efforts on the island.
Collective Intelligence
This year we continued growing and developing our efforts to become the main resource hub for the philanthropic sector. As part of these efforts, we soft launched some components of our Collective Intelligence initiative, which is an effort dedicated to collecting data about philanthropic impact, investment, and areas of growth on the island. Our hope is that this initiative will amplify knowledge and perspectives about the philanthropic sector and promote collaborations. As part of this effort, we created an Impact Areas Standardization Tool for philanthropic funders and non-profits. This tool made it possible to simultaneously map the areas of impact with greater investment and those that remain as areas of opportunity. We also published a report about the active donors during the past two years to better understand patterns and trends in philanthropic investment on the island.
Also as part of our Collective Intelligence initiative, we culminated and published the Puerto Rico Solar + Renewable Landscape this past August. The landscape collects data about solar and renewable energy in both the non-profit and for profit sectors. Through this landscape, we were able to bring visibility to the areas of growth and gaps that should be kept in mind for philanthropic investment in this issue area.
And just as we wrap up 2023, we launched our Social Ecosystem’s Capital Tool, which has been designed to revolutionize the way crucial information flows within the social ecosystem. This tool provides a panoramic view of the sector’s abundant resources and empowers the ecosystem to tackle the unique challenges and opportunities in Puerto Rico. Stay tuned for more updates about our Collective Intelligence Initiative as we expect to publicly launch our full resource hub early next year!
Somos Filantropía
Finally, the launch of our first podcast series was an absolute success! This space allowed us to uplift the stories of members and on-the-ground organizations alike to expand our understanding of how to advance inclusive and sustainable philanthropic practices. We invite you to listen to some of the episodes if you haven’t check them out yet:
The year ahead
Last but not least, we also completed our strategic planning and redefined our goals as a network during this year. Additionally, we welcomed three new members, which brought our network from 19 to 21 members. The staff team at FiPR also actively participated in different conferences, panels, and professional development events across the US and Puerto Rico. Next year, in addition to continuing to work on our collective alliances, we hope to expand how Fondo Adelante works as a strategic investment tool so stay tuned!
This past year was undoubtedly filled with joyful and expansive experiences! We continue growing together and look forward to building, convening and advancing in the philanthropic sector with our network in 2024.
