No, We Are Not A Scam

It sounds funny but many of the member organizations we reach out to are skeptical about Somos El Poder because they think we are a scam. As you might recall Somos El Poder, which I am privileged to lead is the first Latinx fundraising institute in the US. www.somoselpoder.org

We reach out to Latinx-focused nonprofits nationwide to ask them to join, participate in, and attend our signature Fundraising Con Ganas trainings across the US. We tell them about our services and what they get for a membership of $100 a year and they think there is a catch, a trick.

We hear over and over, "I thought you were a scam!" and "Why do you want to help us?" It's generally assumed we are selling something and that there is always some sort of grift. Unfortunately, this is our reality. While it's funny, it's not, because the reality of thousands of Latinx-focused nonprofits is that very few organizations actually want to help them, let alone see them. Furthermore, nonprofit supports are expensive and are generally designed to be sold to large wealthy nonprofits. Sure they are wrapped in social good but there is always a big bill to pay.

This phenomenon is unique to Latinx-focused nonprofits and is hard to see unless you have worked with many of them, as we have. Latinx-focused nonprofits working to support 20% of the population and 62 million people (and growing) are generally under-resourced and ignored. There are very few efforts nationally, at local community foundations working to strengthen or even fund these organizations. Outsiders assume that Latinx organizations work on immigration.

I hear this all the time. Funders think that's all we work on, immigration. Latinx-focused nonprofits work on every issue you fund and you can think of. Check out our almost 200 membership list https://www.somoselpoder.org/members.html

If you fund climate change, LGBTQ+ rights, domestic violence, entrepreneurship...there is a Latinx organization working on that. And yes we proudly work on immigration.

Here is the big message. Whatever issue you are giving to, please engage the Latinx organizations working on those issues. Look past "diversity or DEI" and see us Latinx. We are not a box to check. Engage our communities by working on the causes you care about.

See us, fund us.

Maybe in the future our nonprofit leaders won't be shocked when we offer them help. So that they can have the resources other nonprofit leaders have to advance our community and country!

As we say at Somos..."Juntos Nos Levantamos"!