The first day of our Convening was filled with stimulating and inspiring presentations about the diverse philanthropic practices our members lead on the island! We kicked off our day with a field wide view of philanthropy in Puerto Rico. This presentation was informed by the conversations and data generated by our members throughout the year. We were able to present areas of growth for the field and look at our data to ground our conversation for the day on the areas of opportunity within the field and how to explore collective leadership.

Following this more general opening to our day, we delved into our members’ presentations focused on diverse philanthropic practices. During the morning sessions, we were joined by Alexandra Hertell, Executive Director of the Fundación Segarra Boerman. Alexandra shared about the different ways in which trust based philanthropy has shifted their relationship with grantees. This presentation highlighted the importance of open communication, flexibility through unrestricted funds, and supporting organizations beyond grants. Another key aspect of trust-based philanthropy presented was asking organizations for feedback to determine the kind of support and services the foundation should offer. Ultimately, this presentation showed how shifting philanthropic practices can lead to more impactful grantmaking when countering the traditional top-down power dynamics in philanthropy.

Fundación Angel Ramos’ team spoke about how their long trajectory on the island led to their current initiative Inversión 360°. They offered an overview of how this initiative sees supporting the development, strengthening, and sustainability of organizations at the center of impactful philanthropic practices. Some ways in which the initiative advances these efforts include combining their Grants Program and Organizational Development support grants. This model was informed by over 20 years of experience closely working with the organizational development of grantees. Moving forward, Inversión 360° will be focusing on strengthening organizational capacities such as strategic leadership, governance and evaluation, among others.

Finally, we wrapped up the day with two presentations focused on collaborative and evidence based philanthropy practices. The CEO of Magic Cabinet, Christina Engel, shared about how a community centered approach to philanthropy can shift the ways in which we do grantmaking. Sharing about their collaborative cohort building processes, she explained the importance of centering communities in determining how we do grantmaking. To this end, Magic Cabinet uses a cohort based model where the grantees are the ones who decide how to distribute funding to the different organizations.

Finally, Fundación Banco Popular focused their presentation on educational models for impactful long-term investments. After decades at the forefront of innovative and evidence based practices, the foundation decided to prioritize an ecosystem approach which changes the work of funders, influencing strategy development, implementation, learning, and evaluation in collaboration with grantees and partners. Finally, as part of their current practices they plan to continue using the impact ecosystems model in their initiative Desarrollo de Talento Musical, which supports musicians from early educational phases through their formation as professional musicians by ensuring the distribution of funding to community-based organizations that support these different phases.

Our first day of the convening was an absolute success thanks to the engaged participation of our members! We are thrilled to have held the space to learn about the diversity of philanthropic practices creating change in Puerto Rico. We are looking forward to hearing about the issues impacting Puerto Rico tomorrow and how we can come together to pursue impactful investment opportunities as a collective.