“With support from The Oregon Community Foundation, we have grown from an organization with one employee to an organization with seven employees,” said Eduardo Angulo, founder of the Salem/Kaiser Coalition for Equality (SKCE). The SKCE is a multi-ethnic community organization promoting equity for children and families through education.
SKCE participates in OCF’s Latino Partnership Project, a project created in 2001 to promote the development of leaders and organizations in the Latino community.
“In the Latino community, we had a vision but were lacking professional development,” Angulo said. “We didn’t have the skills in grant writing, fundraising, board development or financial management.”
Through the Latino Partnership Project, OCF funds professional training for nonprofits, provide the community with education and services that enable people to become more fully integrated and influential in the community at large, and strengthen ties between Latino and non-Latino community leaders.
SKCE received Latino Partnership Project support for board training and financial management. In addition, OCF has helped SKCE gain credibility and leverage funding support with other foundations in Oregon and around the nation.
OCF has given similar help to other organizations, providing grants to train volunteer tutors to teach English, offer workshops in leadership development and funding strategies, and give advice on goal setting.
“We were cautious at first because we thought OCF was more conservative,” Angulo said. “But once we started working with them, we began to see a different picture — that there was genuine interest in supporting Latino organizations working in the community. My experience working with OCF has been fabulous.”