Support for Earthquake Victims
September 20, 2017
Monterrey, Nuevo León, September 15, 2017.— With the goal of strengthening the capacity of community foundations in Mexico as grantmaking organizations to promote the development of their communities, Comunalia, under the leadership of Fundación Merced, implemented the “Investing in Community Foundations in Mexico” program from June 2013 to September 2017.
By mobilizing national and international resources, and through collaboration with the Kellogg Foundation, the Mott Foundation, and the Inter-American Foundation, we have achieved sustainable change in communities in the states of Jalisco, Morelos, Guanajuato, Quintana Roo, Chihuahua, the State of Mexico, Tamaulipas, Oaxaca, Puebla, Sonora, and Nayarit.
The “Investing in Community Foundations in Mexico” initiative facilitated the generation of matching funds by mobilizing national and local resources to provide training and technical assistance aimed at promoting more effective participation by community foundations in granting funds at the grassroots level.
Another achievement of the program was the transfer of resources from sub-grant funds to community foundations, as well as the sharing of lessons learned, achievements, and challenges related to the partnership between the Merced Foundation, Comunalia, the network’s community foundations, and local philanthropy to support projects by grassroots organizations.
The program consisted of two calls for proposals, in which, in addition to funding from international agencies, financial support was also secured from the ADO Foundation, the Soriana Foundation, Monex, and Citibanamex, and the participating community foundations, which together contributed 1,449,930.34 Mexican pesos, providing support to 188 projects focused on sustainable, equitable, and participatory development and positively impacting 25,124 people in the country.
By the end of the project, the grant portfolio had been strengthened and expanded to include 14 community foundations located in 14 states across the country; 350 members of 152 grassroots organizations received training and technical assistance; and funding was provided for local development projects.
The following organizations participated in the program: Corporativa de Fundaciones, Fundación Comunidad, Fundación Comunidar, Fundación Comunitaria del Bajío, Cozumel Community Foundation, Northern Border Community Foundation, Malinalco Community Foundation, Matamoros Community Foundation, Merced Coahuila Foundation, Punta Mita Foundation, Oaxaca Community Foundation, Puebla Community Foundation, Chihuahua Business Foundation, Yucatán Business Foundation, and Sonora Business Foundation.
The Merced Foundation was established in 1962 and is a nonprofit organization with a strong philanthropic mission, thanks to the charitable work of its founders: the Munguía family. Since then, the organization has shifted from welfare assistance to shared social development through social investment programs, the creation of partnerships with major donors, and a refocusing of resource allocation toward social organizations.
*Photo: Fundación Merced Querétaro.
