During the week of August 10th , part of the FiPR membership in Puerto Rico met with the new leadership of the Civic Engagment and Goverments Group (CEG) of Ford Foundation, Manuela Arciniegas and Javier Valdés. Filantropía Puerto Rico held this space to align strategies, agendas and continue to lean in and listen to each other.

Ford’s new leadership visited the island to learn more about Puerto Rico’s current situation and explore how they can commit to the island with their CEG initiatives. Some of Ford’s goals include investing in long-term approaches to build bridges between grassroots organizations as well as policy and legal advocates. This will develop the next generation of civic leaders and strengthen the power of grassroots organizations and organizing networks.

The goal of FiPR during this meeting was to educate and involve the Ford Foundation as much as possible in the issues affecting our island, as well as what the social sector is doing and how they can contribute to ongoing and existing projects.