CIELO Fund at IECF Announces Inaugural Grants for Organizations Throughout the Inland Empire by Charee L. Gillins

The Inland Empire Neighborhood Basis (IECF) introduced awarding $280,000 to 25 recipients for its first-ever CIELO Fund grants. The Cultivating Inland Empire Latino Opportunity, or, CIELO Fund helps nonprofit organizations and initiatives which might be led by – and serve – Latinos in Riverside and San Bernardino counties and strengthen their core methods and operations. Particular person grants ranged from $5,000 to $20,000. 

“Our inaugural CIELO Fund grantees are a gaggle of actually inspiring organizations doing impactful work every day to uplift Latinos within the Inland Empire,” stated Jesse Melgar, CIELO Fund Founding Chair and IECF Board Member. “These organizations are working to create financial alternative, shut training and civic engagement gaps, assist immigrants, and enhance entry to well being look after Latinos in communities all through Riverside and San Bernardino counties. We’re proud to spend money on these two dozen innovators and stay impressed by the greater than 100 deserving organizations who submitted purposes this spherical. The overwhelming response and curiosity underscore the necessity for additional funding within the Latino organizations, leaders, and communities who name the Inland Empire dwelling.”

Latinos at the moment are nearly all of the Inland Empire, making up 51.5% of the inhabitants. With this progress comes elevated alternative but additionally areas the place disparities persist. The CIELO Fund’s Management and Grantmaking Committee commissioned a report in 2022 with UC Riverside to determine the place funding may carry the best impression. Utilizing the findings from the Aqui Estamos: A Data Profile of Latinos in the Inland Empire Report, the CIELO Fund centered their funding selections on nonprofits targeted on: financial mobility, academic fairness, civic engagement, well being fairness, and immigrant companies.

The inaugural CIELO Fund grantees are:

• Alianza Coachella
• Associacion de Emprendedores
• California Immigrant Youth Justice Coalition
• CARECEN – San Bernardino
• Casa Blanca House of Neighborly Service
• Centro Del Inmigrante
• CHIRLA – San Bernardino
• Desert Solar – Coachella Latino Voices Initiative
• East Coachella Valley for Change
• Escuela de la Raza
• Galilee Heart
• GANAS – Real. Animate. Navigate. Help. Succeed.
• Get in Movement Entrepreneurs
• Highlanders Boxing Membership
• Inland Empire Future Leaders Program
• Inland Empire Latino Legal professionals Affiliation (IELLA)
• Inland Empire Immigrant Youth Collective
• Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice
• KVCR/NPR – IE Latino Voices
• La Pink de Provedoras
• Ontario-Montclair Promise Students
• Learn with Me
• San Bernardino Neighborhood Providers
• TODEC Authorized Providers
• Unidos for La Causa

IECF obtained 110 submissions in the course of the preliminary software interval – lots of which symbolize first-time candidates to the muse. The CIELO Fund Management and Grantmaking Committee comprised of group leaders labored to pick out the recipients.

The CIELO Fund was launched in 2022 by IECF Board Member Jesse Melgar as one in every of eight signature funds commemorating IECF’s eightieth anniversary. The CIELO Fund hosted a kickoff occasion throughout Latino Heritage Month with greater than 200 group and nonprofit leaders in attendance. The Fund has raised practically half 1,000,000 {dollars} because of the foremost assist from foundations, native companies, and dozens of people who imagine that strengthening philanthropic infrastructure for the Latino group is important for the area’s success. This consists of main assist from the Weingart Basis, California Wellness Basis, and James Irvine Basis. The CIELO Fund can also be made attainable because of the beneficiant assist from founding donors: Jesse Melgar & Angel Rodriguez, Ofelia Valdez Yeager & Ley Yeager, Ronn Ruiz & Ramon Cordova, Violeta Aguilar, Paulette Brown Hinds, and greater than three dozen others. 

“CIELO is a terrific instance of what we will do within the IE after we resolve to make a change, in partnership with the communities who’re driving their very own options,” stated Michelle Decker, IECF President and CEO. “Our Latino group is in so some ways thriving and giving a lot to our financial, cultural, and group resilience, however CIELO stands to remind us of a lot extra work to be completed. It’s an honor to work alongside board members and volunteers, like Jesse and the CIELO Grants and Management Committee to construct and share this funding.”

“This group grant award from the CIELO Fund is important to our efforts as a grassroot group,” stated Juan Pedro Valencia, President of La Pink de Provedoras.  “It implies that we will set up knowledgeable web site and can permit us to assist promote enterprise success, management, and group collaboration for our members of La Pink Community of Household Youngster Care Suppliers.”

Added IE Immigrant Youth Collective Director Angel Fajardo, “This fellowship that CIELO is funding will permit IEIYC youth leaders to extend their capability and dedication to our regional points in environmental justice, labor, employment, and well being fairness. This work is a essential step in reworking the IE to a area with bigger alternatives that nurtures expertise and trailblazers.”

For extra info or to donate to the CIELO Fund, go to www.iegives.org/cielofund.