The Inland Empire Community Foundation has launched the 2024 Cultivating Inland Empire Latino Opportunity Fund (CIELO Fund) to uplift and invest in the Inland Empire’s Latino community.
Donor Name: Inland Empire Community Foundation (IECF)
State: California
County: Riverside County (CA), San Bernardino County (CA)
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 01/08/2024
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: 1 Year
Details:
The CIELO Fund supports organizations, initiatives, and innovations that are led by–and serve–Latinos in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
The CIELO Fund also invests in the next generation of leaders through the CIELO Fund Scholarship Program, commissions original research, and works on efforts that promote positive narratives for Latinos in the IE.
Objectives
- Seek local, regional, and state policy solutions;
- Address a high need impacting Latinos;
- Provide flexible, unrestricted support to carefully selected nonprofits that demonstrate the interest and ability to strengthen their organizational effectiveness and capacity.
- Support nonprofits providing quality, essential services in the areas of leadership development & capacity building, economic mobility, educational equity, health equity, housing security, environmental equity & climate change, racial equity and immigrant inclusion.
- Support small budget sizes, levels of capacity, and infrastructure.
- Benefit a large number of disadvantaged, vulnerable, marginalized, and/or underserved people.
- Shape and promote positive narratives about Latinos in the Inland Empire and beyond.
CIELO Fund – Funding Focus
The CIELO Fund Grantmaking Committee intends to fund Latino-led and Latino serving nonprofit organizations (NPO) headquartered, founded, and anchored in the Inland Empire as defined by the following identity criteria:
- Latino Led
- Latino leaders are in a position of influence within the organization meaning:
- A Majority of the Board is Latino, AND
- Executive Director is Latino, or the Executive Leadership and Organizational Lead is majority Latino
- Latino leaders are in a position of influence within the organization meaning:
- Latino Serving
- Organizations that are committed to serving and empowering Latinos as evidenced by:
- Programmatic services that prioritizes and target the needs of Latinos
- Has a history of serving Latinos.
- Organizations that are committed to serving and empowering Latinos as evidenced by:
Scopes
Organizations will be provided resources to strengthen operations, create a pipeline of leadership and implement programs or initiatives that advance key areas of focus.
- Leadership Development & Capacity Building
- Funding may support efforts that promote leadership development and capacity building for medium sized or small Latino led and serving organizations throughout the region. This may include board and staff development and recruitment.
- Economic Mobility
- Funding may support efforts that result in the creation of new policies, systems, sustainable structures and institutions for an inclusive economy and the upward economic mobility of the Latino community in the Inland Empire.
- Education Equity
- Funds may support efforts to put systems, structures, and resources in place to address the unique challenges and barriers to academic success as early as pre-K through college and university graduation.
- Health Equity
- Funds may support efforts to address systemic barriers that result in racial and ethnic disparities in health access, care and supports in a range of areas including but not limited to: birth equity, reproductive justice, mental health, social determinants of health, and factors contributing to COVID-disparities.
- Racial Equity and Immigrant Integration
- Funds may support efforts to empower the Inland Empire’s immigrant community through naturalization services, DACA services, voter registration services, legal services, and more.
- Media and Narrative Change
- Funds may be used to support local media outlets or projects led by nonprofits that uplift positive narratives about the Latino community with impact in the region or beyond, with a focus on one of the issue areas listed above.
Funding Information
The maximum request and award is $15,000 for one year. Requests over this amount will be disqualified. Please note that not all awards will be $15,000 – some may be smaller.
Eligibility Criteria
- Nonprofit, public benefit organizations with evidence of tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and not classified as a private foundation. Organizations with fiscal sponsors are also eligible to apply.
- Organizations that operate so that they do not discriminate in the hiring of staff or in providing services on the basis of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, national origin or disability.
- Organizations with operating budgets of $500k or less.
- For media and narrative grants, consideration will be given to media outlets and projects.
For more information, visit IECF.
