Our 2024 Convening: Leading as a Collective was absolutely inspiring and enriching! We loved learning from each others’ philanthropic practices and initiatives. In this crucial election year, it was a true privilege to be able to pause, look at our field, and think about strategic ways in which we can collaborate to support the social sector moving forward. We were able to ground our time together in strengthening our relationships and thinking of how to amplify our impact when we embrace our diversity. Here’s a recap of the event and some highlights.

Our first day together was grounded in looking at our field in a panoramic way. This was a great opportunity to go into our conversations keeping in mind the many possible ways in which we can collaborate strategically moving forward. First, our opening session allowed us to reflect on our efforts as a sector and talk about some of the gaps in our field. This exchange inspired ideas on how we can work together as a sector. Following the opening session, Dr. Juan Lara’s captivating presentation “Economy and Philanthropy: The Path to Sustained Growth” shed light on how the future economic growth of Puerto Rico will impact philanthropic investment. Dr. Lara expanded on possible future scenarios for strategic philanthropic investment such as a philanthropy-supportive economy due to continued economic growth, inflation being under control, and improved government finances. As part of the Q&A of this session, our membership discussed the tension between a growing economy at a macro-level and the fact that this isn’t directly experienced by the communities that are most impacted by inequity on the island.

Close to the conversation between economy and philanthropy, our member Triple-S opened up a dialogue about the possibility of aligning corporate practices to community commitment. Executive Director Lydia F. Figueroa Cuevas presented the foundation’s philanthropic initiatives and how these are guided by the company’s broader goals. She pointed out that the foundation has been able to track key results of philanthropy and corporate social responsibility such as improved brand image, employee morale, and productivity. All of which also transforms the company, community, and the country.

We also had several of our members focus on speaking about their practices working with impact areas such as education, arts and culture. Fundación Colibrí’s Executive Director Baby Jaunarena spoke about how they integrate a systems change and field building approach to foster lasting impact on the K-12 education system. Through a systems change approach, they are able to support the scaling of models that have already proven successful for organizations. They ground their field building approach in four specific areas: effective teaching, leadership pipelines, system plurality, and data and evaluation. The Mellon Foundation spoke about their Puerto Rico initiative dedicated to supporting Puerto Rico’s vibrant artistic, cultural, knowledge, and memory ecosystems. Alexis Ortiz, Senior Program Associate in the Office of the President, spoke about the partnerships they have built and the lessons they have learned. Their work on the island has focused on creating sustainable cultural opportunities, building capacity, elevating voices, and fortifying networks.

During the second day of our convening, Maria Fund shared about their intersectional grantmaking model directly informed by the on the ground and every day realities of community based organizations. Some of the key aspects of their model include centering communities, collaborative decision making, leadership development, and catalyzing collective solutions. During the Q&A session, Xiomara Caro, founder and executive director of the Maria Fund, shared:

“Cuando nosotras nos arriesgamos en grande y valoramos el aprendizaje que puede surgir el arriesgar equivocarnos, le comunicamos a las organizaciones que también se pueden arriesgar en grande para lograr el impacto y poder que necesitamos en Puerto Rico.”

[“When we take big risks and value the learning that can come from taking the risk to make mistakes, we communicate to organizations that they too can take big risks to achieve the impact and power we need in Puerto Rico.”]

As our convening came to an end, we also engaged in a collective thinking exercise . We spent a part of our time looking at different archetypes of leadership and understanding what we each contribute to the collective through our individual strengths. Following this, we completed an exercise of imagining an equitable Puerto Rico through the design of fictional political party platforms.

We concluded both days with community building practices such as having an on-site cartoonist and taking a salsa dance class. We had a lot of fun during the salsa class and it allowed us to explore the different aspects of what it truly means to lead as a collective. The facilitator taught us the different ways in which salsa requires to lead, to be lead, to flow and have a good time through our ability to connect with our peers. As FiPR’s Executive Director Glenisse Pagán pointed out at the end, these are key elements in the process of leading as a collective. Our time together during the 2024 Convening showed us the many ways we can continue to build our community to increase the impact of the philanthropic sector.