ACTION SUMMARY
[Action Dialogues]
Arts & Culture
Carmen Graciela Díaz visited us to discuss the 2021 Grantmakers in the Arts Conference that will take place in November in Puerto Rico. To move from dialogue to action, we identified the arts and culture recommendations on the Voices and Data Collection that can help us develop a common agenda.
Environment + Education + Gender
Carlos Velazquez y Loraima Jaramillo of the Interstate Renewable Energy Council talked about the challenges and the path towards developing a workforce for Puerto Rico’s solar industry. We will explore philanthropic opportunities to support technical and occupational education for installing, maintaining, and operating community solar systems.
Education
We spoke with Enid Reyes from the Puerto Rico Education Foundation about strategies to support the effective implementation of the Plan for Academic Recovery. We will use our relationships with local and federal education departments to advance these efforts within the complex educational system.
Activities
Annual Convening
Registration for our Annual Convening ‘Exploring diversity through social change’ is now open for all members and grantmakers. We’ll continually update the agenda as details become available.
Public Policy
On August 25, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) held the ‘Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands Virtual Philanthropic Roundtable’ to engage with foundations working on the islands. HUD aimed to advise and gain insights about the foundations’ engagements and their assessment of the recovery efforts thus far, as well as to identify challenges and opportunities. The following foundations offered updates:
- Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands – Dee Baecher-Brown, President
- Hispanic Federation – Charlotte Gossett Navarro, Puerto Rico Chief Director
- Hispanics in Philanthropy – Ana Marie Argilagos, President
- Puerto Rico Community Foundation – Dr. Nelson Colon, President
- St. Croix Foundation for Community Development – Deanna J. James, President
- St. John Community Foundation – Ian Samuel, Board Member
SpecialProjects
Learning to Listen + Forward Fund
Freshen up on the ongoing Learning to Listen project for the three thematic groups finished phase one on August 20. Collectively, the 36 participants devised a participatory grantmaking structure to award the last batch of funds available from FORWARD Fund Puerto Rico (created in 2017 after Hurricane María.) These groups made a call for proposals and selected the organizations for three focus areas: transparency + governance, education and environment. Read the objectives for each of these grants.
The selected organizations will be announced soon.
