Google.org , which works to support non-profits with funds and tools from Google, has invested $1 million to help launch the first-ever Latino Non-Profit Accelerator in California.
On Thursday, the tech giant gave the grant to Latino Community Foundation (LCF), which works to empower Latino philanthropists and invest in Latino-led organizations. The Latino Non-Profit Accelerator is intended to help existing organizations tackle “inequities in the midst of an anti-Latino and anti-immigrant political climate,” a Google statement reads.
“Our community has the intellectual and creative capital to drive social change,” Masha Chernyak, Vice President of Programs at the LCF, said in the statement. “The issues facing Latino nonprofits require a new set of bold solutions from funders. With the Accelerator we are redefining what it means to offer capacity building and unleashing the power of our communities.”
The Accelerator will work with 10 California-based organization in its first year, including the Chicana Latina Foundation, Homies Organizing the Mission to Empower Youth and the Services, Immigrant Rights, and Education Network.
“I am proud to see Google’s focus on building up Latino grassroots nonprofit organizations in the Bay Area,” Alex Padilla, Secretary of State of California, said in the statement. “The Latino Community Foundation’s Accelerator will help strengthen these organizations and multiply the benefits for the communities they serve.”
In 2013, Google for Entrepreneurs made a similar investment in Latino entrepreneurs when they partnered with San Jose-based Manos Accelerator to increase the number of Latinos in the start-up community. The Accelerator has worked with 22 Latino-led companies, both in the U.S. and Latin America, since then.
