Q2 Impact Summary
This first half of the year has been full of changes and challenges that have led us to rethink how we do philanthropy. Luckily, this is at the core of our organizational mission and something we have consistently dedicated efforts to over the course of the past few years. As we begin the year, we continue creating spaces and promoting conversations that allow us to think and strategize the most effective ways to do philanthropy as a collective.
Thanks to all our members who renewed their membership one more year and have stayed committed to being a part of the on-going conversation about how to improve philanthropic practices in Puerto Rico.
Below we share some highlights of the first quarter of the year with you!
Serving Philanthropy
Building Relationships
We had our first 2025 Members Meetup on Thursday, June 12. We dedicated this space to a data walk featuring results from our four most recent polls—and a preview of one still in progress. Members asked important questions and shared fresh insights sparked by the findings. Members had an in-depth discussion about the importance of transparency when it comes to the fiscal health of the sector, highlighting how collecting data can help us develop more impactful strategies. This meetup shed light on how collective data is a living tool, not just numbers, but a real-time snapshot of our sector’s pulse. This meeting was a very productive one to continue strengthening relationships among colleagues and to discuss future possibilities regarding the value of data in our collaborations.
Collective Capacity
To keep expanding our collective capacity, we updated our Philanthropic Resources page. As an entity, we aim to consolidate resources that support our members and the philanthropic sector when it comes to strategic investment. We just added 8 new useful resources that increase access to useful and valuable information for philanthropic work.
Reserve funds are vital for the sustainability of nonprofit organizations. More than just savings, they represent resilience, agility, and the ability to care for the people behind the mission. In times of crisis or uncertainty, these funds allow nonprofit organizations to continue operations, support their teams, and protect their impact in communities. This blog highlights why it’s time to normalize conversations around reserves and recognize them as a strategic act of institutional dignity.
Building Strategies
We launched a newly formatted Action Dialogue this quarter. The working group meetings focused on monitoring public policy and served as a space for our membership to stay consistently informed about all the changes that continue to occur with the new administrations. Some of the topics covered were federal public policy changes related to education and diversity, equity and inclusion. We also devoted a session to discussing the various bills currently being mobilized in Puerto Rico that seek to align with the new administration’s initiatives at the federal level. In addition to the productive discussions we held to analyze the current situation, we also reviewed the results of our most recent survey, focused on the impact of federal funding cuts. Finally, we shared and collected different resources useful for navigating the rapid changes of the last few months. In this sense, we were able to meet all the objectives set by the membership related to having a reliable source of information, learning about the changes, and collectively thinking about how to respond to them.
Expanding Philanthropy
Raising Awareness
We had a busy quarter when it came to advancing our goal to raise awareness. We expanded The Data Observatory’s resources with the publication of new reports and polls that strengthen our collective understanding of the social sector in Puerto Rico.
We published the “Active Donor Entities in Puerto Rico: 2024” report, with participation from over 90 nonprofit organizations. This wide engagement allowed us to build a comprehensive and representative picture of the donor landscape supporting social change in Puerto Rico. We published the results for our first four polls in 2025: “Efecto de Congelación de Fondos Federales”, “Fase 2: Efecto de Congelación de Fondos Federales en las OSFL”, “Avalúo y Plan de Acción ante el Actual Contexto Político y Financiero”, and “Uso de Fondo de Reserva en las OSFL”. Our first poll had two phases. The first one focused on understanding the broad impact of federal funding freezes on nonprofit organizations and a total of 114 organizations participated. The second phase looked at specific impacts in more detail. Results for these polls were accessed more than 140 times within the first days of publication, reflecting strong interest and relevance. Our second and third polls focused on the fiscal health of organizations across the sector. We collected data that generated a snapshot of the current needs in the sector and the management of reserve funds within nonprofits in Puerto Rico. Altogether, the results for these two polls were accessed over 300 times during the first few days of publication.
We also improved other features of the Data Observatory to increase its impact, including the discussion forums and your data bestie, FiPi. Our data reports now include direct access to related discussion forums. This new feature supports ongoing conversations and knowledge sharing within the Observatory. Each report page now links to its corresponding discussion topic for seamless engagement. These forums invite nonprofit organizations and funders to exchange challenges, strategies, tools, and perspectives to collectively build shared strategies that can positively impact the sector.
Finally, drum roll please… FiPi, your data bestie, just got smarter—and can now live inside your ChatGPT! FiPi V2 now helps you get better answers — because it’s powered by one of the most advanced language models in the world. Unlike a typical chatbot that follows rigid scripts or struggles with open-ended inputs, FiPi understands complex, layered prompts. You can explore nuanced ideas, make comparisons, or ask multi-step questions — and FiPi will follow your reasoning, keep track of context, and respond with thoughtful, grounded insights based on the available data and research developed by Filantropía Puerto Rico. And now, FiPi V2 can pick up right where you left off.
If you already use ChatGPT, FiPi is now part of your daily toolkit — no extra setup, no separate login. It’s seamlessly integrated into the tool you already rely on, making data exploration and insight gathering easier, faster, and more natural than ever. You can continue to access FiPi by going into our Data Observatory and clicking on the “Find Answers Fast: Ask FiPi” button and it will take you to the feature. After you have used our new FiPi for the first time you can continue accessing it directly from your ChatGPT account. FiPi also received a knowledge boost: it now includes the latest poll results and data from the 2024 Active Donor Entities Report.
Finally, our Executive Director participated in a podcast to discuss the Data Observatory, highlighting its significance, and the value of data in shaping strategies and strengthening the social sector.
Executive Director participated in a podcast to discuss the Data Observatory, highlighting its significance, and the value of data.
Attracting Resources
This spring, we held our first conference focused on evidence-based practices that impact Puerto Rico’s youth and families in partnership with Causa Strategies. Under the theme “Promoting effective social investments for Puerto Rico’s youth and families,” we gathered philanthropic leaders from Puerto Rico and the U.S. to explore how evidence can inform more effective investments. The three-day event opened with visits to three schools—a public elementary, a charter school, and a public high school—highlighting how nonprofit partnerships are advancing success factors such as accessibility and social mobility. Day two focused on defining and grounding the concept of evidence.
Participants discussed philanthropy’s role in fostering a culture of evidence—through strategic funding, collaboration, and capacity-building. One of the main takeaways was that integrating evaluation into programming requires time, trust, and the right support systems, underscoring the importance of creating a plan for strengthening the ecosystem in the areas of research and evaluation. The final day we focused on discussing policy, showcasing how nonprofits are already using evidence to shape real change in Puerto Rico. Speakers emphasized that creating and sharing evidence isn’t enough—it must be made meaningful through collaboration and shared ownership. This convening strengthened our commitment to building Puerto Rico’s evidence ecosystem and shaping future strategies to advance this goal.
Transparency
Operations work involves an efficient management of one of our greatest assets, our human resources, and all the procedures related to their recruitment and retention. Recent changes in public policy, in addition to administrative orders and current labor legislation, have led us to focus on the review of personnel files to ensure these are in full compliance with new law requirements.
The periodic review of employee files is essential to ensure the veracity and integrity of the information contained in them. At the fiscal and operational level, we use it as a reference tool to evaluate and identify personnel’s professional development needs and promote their growth through training, and coaching that benefits the organization by improving the personnel’s capacities and skills. Efficient management of these aspects ensures legality, transparency and productivity within the organization.
Having these procedures in place as part of our operations fosters the professional growth of our staff. Our team plays a very important role in the services we offer and the impact of our mission. For this reason, we strive to develop and maintain practices that encourage them to develop and reach their full potential on a personal and professional level, which in turn results in a team that is committed and dedicated to serving our mission.