La Lucha Sigue! Three Key Steps for Latinx Equity, Justice and Growth

As a Chicano who is a third-generation American, I have seen movement in racial justice and equity in this nation. But nowhere near enough. You can quote statistic after statistic around poverty, college admission, pay gaps for women, racial violence, police brutality and more. Again, and again Latinx in the US find themselves fighting poverty, pushing back against prevalent racism and implicit bias. When you see racism normalized in American politics today. Politicians were made famous on hatred of our brown skin. Wow. We have a long way to go.

You will hear people talking about decolonizing philanthropy or the nonprofit world. Or decolonizing wealth. Their solution generally ends up being “well white people need to give up power and wealth”. And somehow everyone accepts that as a viable solution? As a student of history, I know that power is gained and taken, rarely given. It needs to be earned. To make this country a better place for everyone. Latinx need to take their place and gain the resources and representation that comes with 20% of the population, that comes with being a massive driving force in the American economy, that comes with hard work.

But how do we get there? Here are the basic three steps I see:

1.      Organize: When the system is stacked against you the best thing to do is organize. The good news is we have lots of great nonprofits organizing us on a range of issues nationally. Many are well-led. We have organizations working on voting rights, public health, scholarships, STEM education, Women’s rights, and much more. There is no count of Latinx-focused nonprofits nationwide, but I would estimate they are over 1300 in the US. We even have proven models to effect change on a wide range of issues.

2.      Unity: We need to hold hands and help our hermanas and hermano’s across this land. The most terrifying thing to those who want to oppress us is our potential for unity. When a Chicano in Fresno sees a common cause with a Boricua in Jackson Heights then you have a powerful movement. People who argue over what we call ourselves, Latinx, Hispanic, Latino………. this topic is trivial. What we need to call ourselves is one.

Because we share a lot, certainly common cause against racism and poverty. The people working to take away you’re voting right today aren’t saying they will make it harder to Mexican Americans to vote but Salvadoran’s are OK. No, they hate us all. There will always be those that think small and see only their block or family. We need to see the great potential for all our families and only in unity, in numbers is true power. The good news is I have seen this happening nationally in small and large organizations. Guatemaltecas and Chicana’s marching side by side, Dominicans and Mexicans giving money to the same organizations. We can do it, we are doing it.

3.      Marshalling Resources- By this I mean fundraising! I love fundraising. How often have you heard that?

Fundraising is the essential activity of nonprofits that too many try to avoid. Did you know that Latinx in the US have an annual giving potential to nonprofits of $24.7 billion dollars? That’s a massive and significant number. Most Latinx-focused nonprofits have small, small budgets, small staffs, and guess what. Small programs, small impact.

Fundraising is the essential missing piece in Latinx power today.

Our nonprofits overwhelmingly under-invest in fundraising. Their resources are dependent on foundation grants, some government money. And that’s about it. The myth that “Latinos don’t give” is prevalent in nonprofit circles, even amongst Latinx themselves. Studies and live examples of successful Latinx philanthropy overturn this myth.

This needs to change and now there is a new agent on the field. I have helped start along with other national Latinx leaders the first Latinx fundraising institute in the US.  Somos El Poder, www.somoselpoder.org It has that name because we believe that we have the solutions, leaders, and resources amongst our own people to solve our own problems and defend our rights. Right now.

Our leadership share one thing. All are Latinx fundraisers. We all have shared the experience of the power of fundraising. We have seen it transform organizations from weak to strong. Seen the self-empowerment that successful fundraising brings with it.

Listen to our 137 years of experience in this area. Powerful Latinx fundraising for our own nonprofits in the billions is possible. What happens when we raise hundreds of millions for scholarships? What happens when our voting rights organizations triple their budgets? What happens when we have the money to challenge Latina pay inequity in court? What happens when our STEM education is well funded?

All of this means our lives, the lives of our familia’s will get better. This is what our struggle is about. Here is the first line in our mission statement:

 “Our mission is the advancement of Latinx in the US today”

If you believe in that then donate to Somos El Poder online, have your Latinx nonprofit join Somos El Poder, or if you know a Latinx fundraiser, tell them about us. Please don’t be on the sidelines. Join us!

¡Juntas somos fuertes!

www.somoselpoder.org