Three Nonprofits Accelerating Impact in the Latinx Community

September 15th kicked off Hispanic Heritage Month, a month focused on “recognizing the contributions made and the important presence of Hispanic and Latino Americans to the United States and celebrate their heritage and culture.”

Salesforce.org is grateful to partner with nonprofits around the world help celebrate the latinx community. Take a look at three nonprofits leveraging Salesforce technology to accelerate impact in the latinx community.

Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA)

The Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) has been serving low- and moderate-income families in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco for over 40 years. Now one of the most unaffordable neighborhoods in the country, since the year 2000 the Mission has seen over 8,000 Latinos forced from their homes — that’s over 25 percent of this community. MEDA is working to keep Latinos and working families
in the Mission and help them thrive.

MEDA creates opportunity for habitually underresourced families throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, and is also committed to maintaining the cultural identity and enhancing the resources of the Mission. The nonprofit help every student achieve and every family succeed as the lead agency of the Mission Promise Neighborhood, which is a citywide community partnership that was created to support kids and families living, working and attending school in the Mission. It brings together schools, colleges, community organizations and community leaders to help kids graduate and families achieve financial stability.

To move its mission forward, MEDA uses the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) complemented by the Exponent Case Management app to manage its clients and programs. Prior to using Salesforce, MEDA found it a challenge to manage client participation across various programs or get a clear perspective on each client’s progress toward their goals.

Shortly after implementing the case management platform, MEDA onboarded its development team to track grants, funders and individual donations. Next, they added Salesforce Communities when it launched the Mission Promise Neighborhood education initiative, a collective of community-based organizations working together to serve families in local schools. Altogether, 15 different nonprofit agencies log their services and referrals into MEDA’s shared Salesforce org. They can see within one household what programs family members have accessed, how that is supporting their family and how well their kids are doing because of a service they received.

By using NPSP, MEDA is able to access all of its information in one place and use their data to take quick action, and for further analysis and learning. NPSP also provides a virtual collaboration space — internally and with partner agencies – thereby allowing staff to know which families, partners and community members they are serving together.

Learn more about MEDA.

Mission Asset Fund (MAF)

The Mission Asset Fund (MAF) is also located in San Francisco’s vibrant Mission District, a neighborhood known for its street festivals, colorful murals, and super burritos. It’s home to cooks, house cleaners, and small business owners who dream of someday sending their kids to college or owning a home. But without bank accounts or credit histories, everyday activities like paying bills or renting an apartment can be a daunting challenge.

Enter, MAF. MAF is an award-winning nonprofit organization that integrates financially excluded low-income and immigrant communities into the financial mainstream by offering innovative and culturally relevant financial programs, products, and services. Through their social lending model, Lending Circles, they provide needed financial education and social loans to those most in need. MAF built its Lending Circles Platform on Salesforce, and received a Salesforce.org Force for Change grant to help scale Lending Circles to make social loans widely available. Earlier this month, MAF was able to quickly pivot and use the Salesforce system they built for loan processing to provide 2,000+ Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) renewal scholarships to immigrant youth and young adults in a week’s time.

MAF was founded in 2007 by Jose Quiñonez, a 2016 MacArthur Genius Fellow, when the Levi Strauss Foundation and a dynamic group of community leaders came together and imagined a different future for Mission residents. Since then, MAF has grown exponentially, and now manages a national network of over 51 Lending Circles providers in 17 states and Washington, D.C. This community has joined forces to help low-income and immigrant populations build brighter and more resilient futures. Their impact is profound, providing over 8,200 life-changing, 0% interest loans totaling $7.5 million.

Learn more about Mission Asset Fund.

Latino Community Foundation (LCF)

Latinos are a Force. The Latino Community Foundation (LCF) exists to unleash the power of Latinos in California. As the only statewide Foundation solely focused on Latinos, LCF unites leaders in philanthropy, advocacy, nonprofits, and public service to accelerate progress in our communities.

LCF is committed to fulfill this mission by building a movement of civically engaged philanthropic leaders, investing in Latino-led organizations, and increasing political participation of Latinos in California. To date, LCF has created the largest network of Latino philanthropists in the country with their Latino Giving Circle Network®; invested over $4.5 million in 75 organizations across California; and launched one of the largest campaigns to mobilize the Latino vote, reaching 8 million people and registering 6,500 Latinos. Wow!

LCF started using Salesforce after transitioning from Raiser’s Edge. It uses Salesforce to manage inflow of cash and resources, to track donors and grants and to track all community partners.

Find more information and join the Latino Community Foundation.