Dear donor,
THANK YOU for supporting our FORWARD Puerto Rico Fund. During the past three years, contributions from you and other individuals, as well as foundations and corporations have helped us raise nearly $9M to support Puerto Rico’s recovery from Hurricanes Irma and Maria. We feel blessed to have received such an outpour of support that still lasts to this day, thanks to recurrent donations and strong relationships with many of our donors. We also feel very proud of the work the Fund has supported and its promising results. To date, we have committed $6,709,532 for 121 grants to 76 local nonprofit organizations. Of these, $982,000 were invested in emergency relief efforts, and the rest in projects that advance an equitable recovery process.
As we look ahead to 2021, we feel it’s time to start wrapping up our work under the FORWARD Puerto Rico Fund and concentrate on new ways of supporting our island as it takes on the new challenges brought on by 2020’s earthquakes and pandemic. We will now cease fundraising on GlobalGiving and commit what’s left of the FORWARD Fund throughout 2021, at the end of which we will publish an external evaluation of the grants awarded. In the meantime, we invite you to read below a summary of the key achievements to date by some of the supported projects.
Please sign up for our monthly newsletter to stay in touch with our ongoing philanthropic efforts in Puerto Rico. The past three years have been crucial for our organization, as we have evolved and asserted our role as a convener and voice amplifier for grantmakers working on the island. In the process we even rebranded from Red de Fundaciones de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico Funders Network) to Filantropía Puerto Rico to capture how the spirit of giving transcends foundations to encompass both collective and individual efforts. We hope you enjoy learning about our work, thank you again for your support, and hope we can work together again in the future!!
In gratitude,
The Filantropía Puerto Rico Team
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The FORWARD Puerto Rico Fund has received $8,976,346.85 in donations from foundations, corporations and individuals. To date, $6,709,532 have been committed for 121 grants to 76 local nonprofit organizations. Of these, $982,000 were invested in emergency relief efforts whose impact we reported in 2018. The rest have been invested in projects that advance equitable recovery processes within the many crises faced by the island. Below is a summary of key achievements of some of those projects, organized as per the Fund’s priorities.
PRIORITY #1: Promote social justice and transparency in the distribution of public resources, with particular emphasis on recovery funds provided by the federal government.
Grantees have designed fiscal and social observatories, as well as provided services to historically marginalized populations that advance transparency and social justice practices in the distribution and use of government recovery funds. Efforts include:
PRIORITY #2: Facilitate data analysis and informed public dialogue and debates on the actual and potential impact of new government policies, particularly on marginalized populations.
Grantees have used the results of their investigations or those undertaken by sister organizations to promote public dialogue on policies in priority areas such as childhood poverty, citizen participation, education, governance, renewable energy and the right to safe housing. They also actively participate in committees and working groups to negotiate and bring public attention to these issues.
A report of the first phase of the modelling process evaluated the capacity of PREPA’s current energy distribution resources and the wireless alternatives to avoid investments in proposed new and centralized natural gas plants. To date, over 50,000 people have read its content and it was referenced in recent public hearings held by the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau (PREB) on the Integrated Resources Plan, a roadmap for the development of the island’s energy system for the next 20 years.
In early 2021 Cambio will publish another report detailing findings of the second phase of the modelling which has centered around an in-depth analysis of the feasibility of rooftop solar power generation taking into account current PREPA data on generation and distribution systems.
In parallel, Cambio has successfully implemented two communication strategies reaching over 700,000 people to raise energy literacy levels among the general population and to promote civic engagement in the PREB hearings. All of these efforts have the common goal of advancing a renewable energy future for Puerto Rico based on citizen participation.
During the creation process, Espacios Abiertos succeded twice in judicial actions against the State Election Commission to obtain official photographs of elected officials and candidates running in the 2020 electoral race (for use on the platform), establishing a precedent on transparency and access to public information.
The platform was launched in March 2020 and during its first six months it received over 71,000 visitors. During that time, elected officials and candidates in the 2020 election race contacted Espacios Abiertos to update their profiles and include their public policy positions. Local news media and nonprofits also joined efforts to complement and disseminate the Espacios Abiertos platform, particularly in the months before the elections. Quién me representa will be an ongoing project, periodically updated and expanded by Espacios Abiertos.
These investigations have also laid the groundwork for other public policy efforts undertaken by IDJ. As part of a strategy to inform the 2020 election process, IDJ published a plan to guide the implementation of 10 public policies that, according to their investigation A Future of Child Poverty, could significantly reduce childhood poverty on the island in 3, 5, and 10-year terms. They also launched a digital platform to track the gubernatorial candidates' positions on these policies. Four of the six candidates provided answers to the 11 questions IDJ included in the platform.
IDJ also provided advocacy training for communities to build their knowledge on issues of child and youth poverty, and tools to help them advocate for solutions to the problems they face. Over 50 mothers, grandmothers and youth attended two of IDJ's Advocacy Academies, where they actively participated in workshops to build their personal narrative, and learn about community-based mobilization and how to promote causes on social networks. They also participated in data exhibitions that allowed them to interact with statistics that they can use for advocacy. Following this, a group of these mothers wrote a letter to local newspapers pleading to make "work pay” which allows low-income workers to improve their living standards through lower taxation.
Priority #3: Advance the resilience and sustainability of the nonprofit sector by enhancing leadership, building fiscal and programmatic health, augmenting collective influence and voice, and enabling collaborations among organizations.
In general, grantees have:
More specific achievements by some of our grantees were:
Filantropía Puerto Rico plans to commit remaining funds from the FORWARD Fund by the end of 2021. For more details on FORWARD Fund investments, including the full list of grantees and the funds awarded to each, please visit our website.
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Where is my money? Who is making decisions about my money? What is my money being used for?
These questions summarize the work being done by the nonprofit organization Espacios Abiertos, as described by its executive director, Cecille Blondet. The first question relates to government transparency, the second to government accountability, and the third to effective citizen participation.
"Espacios Abiertos's mission is to develop the civic capacities of Puerto Rico so that citizens can participate in the discussions and decision-making processes having to do with public assets, everything that the government manages in terms of money and resources," explains Blondet.
Espacios Abiertos is an untraditional nonprofit because beyond providing direct services to communities, their goal is to give people the tools to be informed, make decisions, and participate in the civic issues that affect them.
This effort begins with better access to information, particularly about the island's fiscal issues. In response to the fiscal crisis and the Fiscal Control Board imposed on Puerto Rico because of the government's $72 billion debt, Espacios Abiertos created a Digital Dictionary of the Debt. This tool translates the technical and legal language related to the debt in order to make the information more accessible. Additionally, Espacios Abiertos has taken cases to court, such as when the government published for public comment a plan for the use of the federal recovery funds after Hurricane Maria in English. The same plan states that 78% of people in Puerto Rico don't speak that language.
"This is another way of limiting access to information and citizen participation," points out Blondet. Espacios Abiertos took the government to court, forcing them to translate the 400-page document into Spanish and extend the time for citizens to comment. In addition, they held a workshop with 60 community leaders in which they had information tables covering the different topics in the plan, providing guidance on how to comment, and encouraging people to participate.
Espacios Abiertos has also served as an incubator for new organizations such as Ayuda Legal Puerto Rico, focused on social justice and access to justice, and Kilómetro 0, which promotes a reduction in the power gap that facilitates the excesses of the State against citizens, especially those exercised by the Puerto Rico Police.
They also seek to promote changes in public policy through different means, from introducing bills to the Legislative Assembly, conducting investigations such as entrusting independent economists with an analysis of Puerto Rico's debt, to empowering community groups to participate in the decision-making process.
Currently, Espacios Abiertos is working with 15 community leaders, providing them with a set of tools for them to strengthen their communities. The Community Empowerment Project for Recovery and Sustainability, subsidized by Filantropía Puerto Rico’s FORWARD Fund, aims to promote transparency and create greater access to information within these communities. The leaders attend monthly workshops where they cover modules on different topics, including: identifying needs and strengths within the community; creating a map and directory of resources inside and outside the community; developing a disaster prevention plan; and a session on how to address fiscal issues and seek recovery funds. The modules are not passive classes, rather the community leaders are active participants.
"These modules are being refined and polished with input from the 15 communities; they have become co-authors. Our role isn't 'we know so much about this and we will teach you,' instead we recognize the knowledge of the communities and we balance it with some experts, whether they are planners, communicators, engineers," describes Mabel Román Padró, who is in charge of Community Outreach for Espacios Abiertos.
The leaders are being trained to give these same workshops in their communities and in other neighborhoods, focusing on these important issues and mobilizing citizen participation.
"Our aim is for them to be able to call out the government, make claims, advocate for their needs. This isn't just physical sustainability; they are able to participate in the recovery process and they have a voice. And it doesn't just stop at hurricane recovery, it's from now on," Blondet adds.
The project lasts two years, with two module cycles lasting one year each. After the modules conclude, there will be follow-up visits and they will provide any additional support in order for the communities to continue implementing what they have learned.
"We want to change paradigms, we want to change the basis on which decisions are made in this country, isolating citizens, (by making decisions) in dark rooms without citizen participation. We want to change the public policies that affect people, but we want the people to participate in these public policy changes because they are the ones who know what they need," affirms Blondet.
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Since Hurricane Maria, the issue of energy has been one of the main areas of focus for the non-profit organization Cambio, founded in 2015 by engineer Ingrid M. Vila Biaggi and professor and lawyer Luis Enrique Rodríguez Rivera.
The storm left the island without a functioning electric grid for months, making it abundantly clear that the island needs a new system, preferably one based on renewable energy. Two years after the hurricane, Cambio has developed concrete alternatives to the current system that emphasize efficiency and conservation, proposing innovative solutions that apply not only to energy technology but also the public policy that governs the implementation of the island's energy system.
For this reason, Cambio is part of the multisectoral effort called Queremos Sol (We Want Sun), developed in 2018 by numerous environmental organizations, community groups, experts, academics and other sectors. Queremos Sol is a proposal to transform the current energy system into a distributed generation platform of rooftop photovoltaic systems. This means that the electrical system would cease to be centralized, energy sources would be close to the areas that receive the service, and by installing solar panels on their own roofs, individuals and private businesses would become active participants in the system.
According to Vila Biaggi, this model would increase citizen participation in the energy sector, so instead of seeking to increase profits, the system would be designed to generate energy efficiently. One of the goals of the proposal is for 50% of electricity generation to come from renewable sources by 2035 and 100% by 2050.
This goes hand in hand with the Integrated Resource Plan (PIR, in Spanish) of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) which is being evaluated by the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau since August 2019. This document must be approved in February 2020 and it outlines how PREPA will develop the energy system of Puerto Rico and where it will invest its capital over the next 20 years. Currently, PREPA favors changing the system from one based on oil to one based on natural gas. Cambio supports Queremos Sol's proposal and has been in legal disputes for several months with PREPA for it to disclose public documents both to justify Cambio’s position against changing the system to natural gas and to know the infrastructure of the current system. With the information on the electrical infrastructure, Cambio will be able to develop an alternative model based on distributed renewable energy, such as that proposed by Queremos Sol.
“This model will help us present and prove that the transformation of the system based on distributed renewable energy is possible. It will also serve to influence the various decision-making processes about the future of energy (in Puerto Rico), including the PIR," explains the engineer.
Along with the legal process that has led to document disclosure by PREPA, Cambio also launched a public education campaign for citizens to learn about PIR, why it's important that citizens participate in the hearings, and how the decisions made there will affect them. "For example, if the Authority decides to make substantial investments in natural gas infrastructure, this will have an impact on health due to emissions, as well as on the power bill," points out Vila Biaggi.
“We must continue to insist that renewable energy is a priority. It seems to me that both through the process of auditing (PREPA) before the Energy Bureau and through the process of citizen education, it is possible to move that compass so that what ends up in the PIR is what the public wants,” she says.
Thanks to a grant from Filantropía Puerto Rico, Cambio has been able to develop an effective public outreach campaign making documents and information publicly available, as well as launching the campaign "PIR Has to Do With You" which seeks to encourage citizens to be informed, analyze, and participate in the evaluation of this document.
“We know of people who have been using the public information that we have received from PREPA because they have written to us directly through our website. For example, people from Vieques who were not aware of the Authority's plans for energy infrastructure development for the island municipality, now with the documents have a better idea of what is being planned, ” she says.
Cambio has also reinforced its social media presence to more effectively spread information about the PIR that is sometimes inaccessible to the general public because it's written in very technical language or because it's in English. Through posts, tweets, and graphic media, Cambio clearly and concisely explains a highly technical document that traces the energy route and its repercussions.
"We have live-tweeted all the technical hearings and we have developed summaries that we have provided through email blasts and social media," she adds.
Another component of this educational effort is to create a series of modules illustrating how individuals and communities can begin to adopt the efficiency and conservation measures and implement the renewable technologies proposed in Queremos Sol. Thus, that initiative does not depend exclusively on the government.
“This transformation is from the bottom up. The purpose is for communities to become empowered, for the individual to be empowered, for small businesses to adopt (the model proposed in Queremos Sol). Although it would be convenient to have the endorsement of the government, implementing Queremos Sol does not depend on it to move forward. We continue moving towards the implementation of the proposal creating models that are accessible to people,” says Vila Biaggi.
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Since its founding eleven years ago, the Center for Investigative Journalism (CPI, in Spanish) operates differently from the rest of the local media. It uses journalistic research and litigation as tools to promote and defend the right to information access in Puerto Rico. Being a non-profit organization, CPI is free from corporate or political ties, allowing it to oversee the work of public and private entities, demanding greater transparency and open communication with citizens.
In the last two years, CPI established its reputation locally and internationally for two investigations in particular. CPI's reporters were the first to call attention to the actual death toll of Hurricane Maria, when the government still claimed an unrealistically low number of official deaths. This gave way to several independent investigations and forced the local government to revise the official numbers. More recently, CPI published the controversial Telegram chat which resulted in mass demonstrations leading to the resignation of former Governor Ricardo Rosselló and most of his cabinet.
Last month, CPI launched a new and important project, made possible thanks to a grant from Red de Fundaciones de Puerto Rico. On September 23rd, a symbolic date because of its proximity to the second anniversary of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, CPI launched the website LosChavosdeMaria.com, containing databases, news stories, and investigations about the disbursement and management of the hurricane recovery funds. In the months before the launch, CPI published some stories on their official website (http://periodismoinvestigativo.com/) under the tag Los Chavos de María.
"Some stories are more explanatory about how the recovery process works, others are more expository, such as the article exposing the deficiencies of the houses reconstructed by the (Department of Housing's) program Tu Hogar Renace which many non-profit organizations have had to fix, the lack of transparency involving contracts granted by the government to private contractors, the revolving door of FEMA officials, there's a bit of everything," explains CPI's executive director Carla Minet.
The idea for LosChavosdeMaria.com came about because the website where the government was supposed to publish information related to the use of recovery funds (recovery.pr) turned out to be very deficient and the information was difficult to understand. To address this issue, CPI created a team of journalists dedicated exclusively to covering topics related to hurricane recovery. For almost two years, this team conducted research and wrote stories that explain in a concise manner how the recovery process is taking place and the problems certain populations are facing. On the new website there is also a section where citizens can report any type of fraud.
In addition, there are stories related to vulnerable groups and specific topics not being covered in mainstream media outlets which are also being underserved by the government; for example, the transgender population, coastal communities and fishermen, and poor communities, particularly in terms of home reconstruction efforts.
The purpose of this project is to give citizens the tools and the knowledge that will empower them to make effective use of the recovery funds and play an active role in the recovery process. "There is a lot of information which, as I understand it, could result in a better quality of life for people, and above all participation, because if people don't know what's happening, they don't participate, and if they don't understand the recovery process, then it's also much harder to participate," points out Minet.
As they've proven before, information is power and can be a catalyst for major social change. "When we do these investigations, we expect changes in public policy, that things will change," concludes Minet.
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Dear donor,
Red de Fundaciones de Puerto Rico (La Red) would like to thank you for your recurring contributions to the FORWARD Puerto Rico Fund through GlobalGiving. Since we established the Fund in 2017, donors like you have given us the ability to continue working towards a fair and equitable reconstruction of Puerto Rico in the midst of a double crisis: an ongoing economic depression and the devastation caused by Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
How your donation helps Puerto Rico
Your contribution helps us promote government transparency and accountability regarding the use of recovery funds to ensure they target the most vulnerable populations. It also helps us strengthen local nonprofit organizations that day after day face innumerable challenges to achieve this goal.
To date we have:
Other efforts undertaken by La Red
La Red is the island’s first and only philanthropy serving organization (PSO). We bring together organizations that make grants in Puerto Rico for joint learning and action, including collaborative and aligned grant making. We also undertake research on issues relevant to philanthropy to better understand the impact of our collective effort and identify key areas to support. Finally, we advocate for the strengthening of the nonprofit sector in order to enhance its ability to improve the lives of vulnerable populations on the island by advancing equity and social and environmental justice.
Again, we are grateful for your continued support. You may find more info on our work in our website or by contacting us through our email or social media platforms.
We’d love to hear from you!
All the best,
La Red's Team: Anja, Annette, Glenisse, María Cristina and Rebeca
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