Lack of corporate and institutional support

The Hispanic population in the U.S. has grown steadily in recent decades. Latinos account for a significant portion of the workforce and create new jobs and businesses. They also provide a major consumer market for businesses. Therefore, Hispanics should have fair representation in corporations and charitable foundations—one that leads to increased private support of Latino community organizations.

However, that’s not currently the case. Several recent reports confirm what we’ve known for a while: Hispanic organizations only receive a tiny amount of private and charitable spending.

In its most recent survey of 55 large corporations, the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR) found that 15% of respondents spend less than 1% with Hispanic suppliers, while 13% give less than 1% of their charitable donations to Latino organizations. This extremely low percentage has remained the same since 1999.

This clear disadvantage can be attributed in part to the absence of Hispanics in decision-making positions. The same survey shows that less than 1% of employees positioned to attain upper level executive jobs are Hispanic, while only 5% of board seats were held by Latinos.

This disparity is also present in the charitable sector. “State of the Work,” a report by D5 (a coalition of philanthropy leaders) published in May, highlights the trouble foundations are having adapting to the country’s demographic changes. In order to distribute charitable resources fairly, the reports recommends that information about boards, staff and grantees be collected, analyzed and shared.

That’s particularly urgent for minority arts and culture organizations, whose operations increasingly depend on private funding. Only 11% of resources from institutional foundations—which totaled $2.3 billion in 2009—are allocated to nonprofit arts and culture organizations. Most of this is given to large organizations that serve dominant ethnic groups, as the 2011 A Philanthropy at Its Best report “Fusing Arts, Culture and Social Change” points out.

Private support for community organizations and minority-owned companies is crucial to maintain and develop Hispanic communities, especially in this time of public cuts. These organizations have the cultural knowledge that can often be the best weapon to create programs and business models to satisfy the needs of the communities.

Corporations and charitable organizations should distribute the money where it’s needed most, to growing communities that need improved social services and education. Now is the time to look for ways to distribute resources equitably and responsibly. As the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy recently said: “Unless grantmakers intentionally prioritize or ‘target’ vulnerable communities, they risk undermining their own efforts, reinforcing disparities instead of mitigating them.”