HIP was founded in 1983 by a visionary trio of Bay Area Latinos. The founders, Herman Gallegos, Luz Vega-Marquis, and Elisa Arévalo, saw in organized philanthropy a vehicle for promoting social justice and for tackling the challenges facing Latino communities.
The founders also recognized that in order to capitalize on the potential of philanthropy, they needed to increase the representation of Latinos—as well as other underrepresented groups—on staff and boards of philanthropic institutions.
From its inception, HIP has been an organization rooted in the Latino tradition of giving and aimed at addressing the needs of Latino communities by creating a network of philanthropists representative of and sensitive to those needs.
Early programs focused on recruiting and convening members, surveying philanthropy’s investment in Latinos, and articulating a research agenda to identify gaps in knowledge about the needs of the Latino civil sector.
In 1990, Aida Rodriguez, chair of the HIP Board, hired Diana Campoamor as President. At that time, HIP’s annual budget was approximately 50 thousand dollars.
Throughout the 1990s, as the U.S. Latino population continued to grow, so did HIP. Our influence within the world of philanthropy expanded, and we began to take a leadership role among affinity groups, helping to convene the first meeting of the Joint Affinity Groups.
As we entered the new millennium it became clear that our traditional role as an affinity group was to bridge the gap bearing the dynamic and transformative effect that we had envisioned. Latinos were still underrepresented in the field of philanthropy, the quantity of philanthropic dollars funneling into Latino nonprofits was paltry, and the challenges facing the Latino population were mounting.
As a response to these realities, in 2000 HIP launched the Funders’ Collaborative for Strong Latino Communities after a three-year planning process. The Collaborative was designed to strengthen funders’ knowledge of Latino communities and to build the capacity of Latino nonprofits through grantmaking and technical assistance. Since its inception, the Collaborative has raised nearly $35 million from 160 donors and has made grants to 427 Latino-led nonprofits across the Americas.
Today HIP continues to offer an array of funder-driven, value-added programs and services, including the Funders’ Collaborative, membership activities, professional development and networking, and transnational work. We continue to evolve in response to the changing reality of our communities and the field of philanthropy, while remaining true to the vision and mission that have guided us for more than twenty years.