Laura Donnelly, Founder, CEO Latinitas
The Glimmer Foundation was born about the same time as Latinitas and maybe that was kismet for the two to have such a long relationship. Glimmer was known for funding startup nonprofit projects and has acquired a reputation since then as somewhat of an incubator for the philanthropic sector.
Glimmer was Latinitas’ first foundation grant. We were a fresh five years old in 2007 and still 100% volunteer-run. Despite that fact, Latinitas was operating multiple after school programs at Austin, Del Valle, and Round Rock school campuses, teaching everything from filmmaking to web design, hosting free Saturday workshops at the St. John’s, Carver and Terraza’s branches of the libraries and became the first youth program offering at the newly constructed Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center. That said, Latinitas had not received a foundation grant yet.
Foundation grant distribution can be like a school dance scenario. If no one asks you to dance, you may never get asked. If someone does ask you to dance others are naturally intrigued, curious about your charms and more trusting. With other funders, we heard a lot of comparisons to other girl groups, even though we were reaching 100% of an audience others were having trouble serving, young Latinas facing huge socio-economic challenges. Few other agencies had that hyper-focus. We were also bilingual from the get-go so families were bringing their daughters to Latinitas programs who had never engaged in an enrichment program before. Something else was going on, too, which is, at last, getting some attention as diversity and inclusion becomes a stronger priority across all industries. Only 10% of philanthropic foundation dollars go to organizations of color and communities of color-led nonprofits — and Latinitas was starting to feel that impact. We were pre- “times up” and no attention to which “lives mattered” was public dialogue yet. Interestingly, Glimmer’s leadership has always reflected the communities it served — Black and Brown — and “interestingly” Glimmer was the first foundation that believed in Latinitas’ mission which was empowering young Latinas through media and technology. We’ve updated the mission to empowering all girls to innovate through media and technology since then, but as our name suggests — we are prioritizing Austin’s largest and most underestimated youth community.
At Latinitas, every program, every lesson is written with cultural identity as priority, whether it’s filmmaking or coding. And, Glimmer celebrated this. They never asked us why. They never lumped us in with other girl groups because they recognized the distinction of cultural competency and focus. Flash forward to this past year, Latinitas was one of a handful awarded Glimmer’s growth grant. The funding will help Latinitas meet the demand for culturally competent programming further out along the city’s outer Eastern crescent. They are giving us, yet, another boost to the next level.
I am personally grateful for the investment of Glimmer founders Phillip and Deborah Berber in Latinitas, that they communicated that gift through the stewardship of Executive Director David Porter and past team members such as Brian Cooper and Royce Dennis, all of which who prioritized Latinitas like our organization was prioritizing Latina girls in Austin. It felt very personal, very validating. The power of that single gesture has moved Latinitas from a grassroots startup to agency in multiple states, where alumni serving in our city government, tech sector and catapulted Latinitas vision is manifesting in over 35,000 girls and teens. The gift opened doors for Latinitas to other funders. It made others take us seriously. Upon our recent award from Glimmer I felt a rush of love similar to the start they gave us back in 2007 but also with the accumulation of years of David’s ongoing acknowledgment or Salwa’s communications or that they have the only annual event I know of where a funder thanks a fundee for giving them a grant! Thank you to a one of a kind funder whose values speak through the people that work there and the deliberate inclusive patronage they demonstrate!