Latino Community Fund Georgia (LCF Georgia) is a philanthropic and membership organization that works to fill service and program gaps for Georgia’s Latinx communities, advance knowledge of who we are as a community through research, data aggregation and narratives, advance a representative and participatory democracy, and strengthen Latinx-serving organizations across the state.
We are both a philanthropic intermediary and a direct service provider working with and within Georgia’s diverse communities.
Our members are Latinx-led, Latinx-governed, and Latinx-serving community organizations. Together, our efforts are focused on growing our community’s rights, awareness, education, and access to opportunities across three pillars.
Our Mission
To be a catalyst for investment, collaborative work, and positive narrative for the Latinx/Hispanic Community in Georgia.
Our Vision
Be the most trusted connector between funders, nonprofits, individuals, and businesses working with and within the Latinx community in Georgia.
Our Promise
We commit to investing in Latinx organizations and leaders so that together, we can accelerate positive and equitable change for our diverse communities in Georgia.
View our 2023-2025 Strategic Plan
Our Model
LCF Georgia is a 501(c)(3) membership organization that works as both a direct service provider and philanthropic intermediary.
Our Impact
We are the only nonprofit in the state dedicated to providing funding to the Latinx community and capacity building to strengthen its member organizations. Learn more about the impact of our work.
Team
LCF Georgia is proud to be 100% Latinx. Our team of 14 professionals is diverse, compassionate, qualified, bilingual, and bicultural – all characteristics that are essential for working with our Latinx and nonprofit constituents. Our staff contributes expertise across health and wellness, nonprofit management, education, and civic engagement. In addition, LCF staff share the lived experience of being newcomers in a country: navigating the immigration system, struggling to learn a new language, raising children in a new country, being separated from friends and family in their homelands, being stereotyped, and in some cases, dealing with trauma. Many LCF staff and board members have worked in industries that Latinxs often work in, including hospitality, construction, and farm work.
Impact/Strengthening the Latinx Community
LCF Georgia is the only organization in the state committed and dedicated to investing in Latinos through our community leaders, organizations, students, and entrepreneurs.
Through the Years
Highlights of what LCF Georgia has accomplished since it was first imagined in 2015.
- Currently administering over 11,000 vaccines in the arms of community members through Latinx and immigrant-centered efforts to ensure equitable vaccine access and distribution
- Co-chairing the Georgia Latinx Redistricting Caucus with GALEO to advocate for fair districts and a transparent redistricting process
- Re-granted over $100,000 to encourage civic participation and advocacy through our Latinos for Democracy local Latinx-led nonpartisan table.
- Launched the K-12 English Learners Advocacy Table to ensure quality and equitable public education for English Learners across the state
- Announced the South Georgia Navigation Program after a landscape analysis identified a lack of services, programs and information to agricultural workers and neighbors. Over 600 families received emergency assistance, Know Your Rights materials, civic education and navigation.
- Convened and organized the Unidos Georgia coalition to respond, mitigate and reduce the harm created by the COVID-19 pandemic in the Latinx and immigrant communities
- As part of our COVID relief and mitigation services in coordination with member organizations, over 152,000 families received food, 13,4000 families received rental assistance, over 7,000 received utilities assistance, and close to 5,000 COVID-19 tests were provided.
- UnidosGeorgia.com website providing resources and education in Spanish in the context of COVID-19 consistently reaches 1,000 unique monthly visits
- The Capacity Building Program provided over 399 educational sessions to nonprofit professionals and volunteers working with the Latinx community.
- The Latinos for Democracy Coalition touched every single Latinx voter TWICE to educate and mobilize the community for Presidential elections and Senate run-off elections.
- Over $2,000,000 invested in grants, direct financial assistance and scholarships
- Membership rises to 40 organizations and community groups
- Co-Chaired the “Georgia Latino Complete Count Committee” aiming for a full count of all individuals of Latin American descent in Georgia for the decennial census. Over $90,000 granted to members of the committee to advance outreach and educational efforts.
- Published the 2018 Latino Entrepreneurship Report, the first research study done on barriers affecting small Latinx-owned businesses in Georgia. This study was done in collaboration with professors from the Emory Goizueta Business School, University of Georgia Terry College of Business, and various member organizations.
- Revealed the Asset Map & Resources for Spanish Speakers, which documents organizations that have at least one consistent Spanish-speaking volunteer or staff and therefore able to provide language appropriate services to English-learners. Over 380 programs and services were featured in this state-wide map.
- The Capacity Building Program provided over 260 educational sessions to nonprofit professionals and volunteers working with the Latinx community.
- 42 entrepreneurs graduated from our Entrepreneurship 101 Program with UGA SBDC certification in Dekalb and Whitfield counties.
- Graduated 19 Spanish-speaking promotoras on recognizing sexual harassment at work and Know Workers’ Rights in partnership with TimesUp Legal Defense Fund
- Invested over $350,000 in grants and scholarships
- Launched the Latinos for Democracy (L4D) coalition. L4D is the first nonpartisan alliance of Latinx-led groups to advance civic education and participation in Georgia.
- The “Delivering on the Dream-Georgia” table is launched to advance immigrant leadership and support organizing and legal protections in the state, joining 20 other states with that program since 2013.
- Over $ 280,000 invested in grants and scholarships in Georgia
- The Capacity Building program provided over 150 sessions to professionals, students and volunteers working to provide more effective and coordinated services to the Latinx and immigrant community in Georgia.
- 10 entrepreneurs graduated from our Youth Entrepreneurship Pilot with UGA SBDC certification, aiming to provide critical business education to those individuals whose parents have been in commercial activity for years as a self-sufficiency strategy.
- Membership grows to 28 groups
- Latino Community Fund (LCF Georgia) is born, following a federated model with a membership of Latinx-led, Latinx-serving and Latinx-governed organizations. The Giving Circle is consolidated with 11 people that commit $1,000 a year dedicated to support educational scholarships, DACA and naturalization financial assistance and seed capital for micro-entrepreneurs.
- Membership begins for 15 inaugural member organizations
- $36,768 is invested in grants, scholarships and disaster relief after hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico
- A group of community leaders considers the idea of a giving circle or a philanthropic mechanism to bring dollars from the community, for the community to those groups that were doing critical work across the state, yet had no access to networks with power or money. A period of researching effective and successful models nationwide begins.
Have a question about who we are, what we do, or how it helps? Please reach out to us through our contact form.