• Who We Are
• Vision & Mission
• History
• Our Community
• Board of Trustees
• Staff
• Annual Report & Financials
• Contact Us

History

Building a Community Foundation

In 1989, a group of civic-minded Latino leaders set out to create a vehicle for Latino philanthropy by which Bay Area Latinos could help themselves. The concept was simple; encourage Latinos to invest in the community's future. The desired outcome was bold; through civic engagement Latinos were able to invest and share their prosperity and those in need received a path to a brighter future. Many changes have occurred over the years however our vision remains - empowering Bay Area Latinos.

LCF took a critical step toward building a sustainable infrastructure for our work in 2002 when we became a supporting organization of The San Francisco Foundation. This structure, unique to community foundations, enables us to benefit from the investment and endowment expertise of The San Francisco Foundation while maintaining our independent non-profit tax status. It also enables LCF to focus on our core competency of carefully selecting regional organizations providing direct service to Bay Area Latino families as our grantees and growing their capacity. This intimate cycle of investment - financial support, service, and return on investment - is key to achieving our legacy of Latinos helping Latinos.

Investing in Families

Throughout our history LCF has funded initiatives that build the skills necessary for Latinos to be successful and thriving members of society. Past grant programs have addressed reading, math, and science among young Latinos. LCF invests in small to mid-size nonprofits serving communities with the largest concentration of Latinos in need. Our target geographic funding areas include, but are not limited to, the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara.

In 2008-2009 LCF will primarily focus on supporting community-based programs centered on early childhood development, teen pregnancy prevention, and parental engagement in order to provide optimal outcomes for Latino children and families. The primary vehicle for this work will be our multi-year, million-dollar Children and Youth Initiative.

Moving Forward

Today LCF has developed a strong network of supporters and continues to provide important programs and investment to Bay Area Latinos including:

• Strategic Grants-through the LCF Children & Youth Initiative will grant at least $1,000,000 over four years to organizations supporting Latino families in the Bay Area
• Learning Communities - LCF grantees participate in learning communities that facilitate organizational development and offer shared resources and opportunities for growth.
• CommunityConversaciones, LCF's speaker series brings subject matter experts and thought leaders together to discuss community change.
• Community and Donor Resources - LCF strives to keep the media and supporters informed of our work and continually publicizes publicly available resources and opportunities available to the Bay Area community at large.

LCF is rapidly positioning itself to be a leader in Latino community foundation work - immersed in local knowledge, intimate scale, with highly targeted and effective programs that produce measurable results.

Our strategies have proven to be successful. Over the past two years we have increased our revenues by 210%. Our corporate partners increased from 3 to 23 and our foundation partners from 1 to 10. We have added several more corporate and foundation partners this fiscal year. LCF received three challenge grants beginning in September 2007. The challenge grants have added momentum to our fundraising strategies, especially among individual donors. We will continue to increase our individual donor base through giving circles and other strategies.

LCF raises every dollar we invest in the Latino community. With your support we can leverage funds to strengthen families.

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