Former housing secretary Julián Castro said the Latino Community Foundation is planning a major expansion that would increase its long-term resources for Latino-led and Latino-serving organizations. In a Wednesday announcement, the California-based nonprofit pledged to build a $250 million endowment and expand grantmaking across the U.S. Southwest, with Castro describing the effort as urgent in the face of tightening conditions for Latino communities.
Castro, who has led the foundation since January 2024, linked the push to what he called the need for durable philanthropic support for U.S. Latinos, whom he described as among the country’s fastest-growing racial or ethnic groups. He told The Associated Press that he sees “a ‘five-alarm fire’ with rollbacks to education, business and immigration opportunities,” and he said the foundation’s work is meant to help sustain organizations on the ground.
The foundation’s expansion builds on its prior national efforts. Castro said the organization responded last month with its first national fund, an initial $500,000 effort that supported five grantees in Minnesota, California and Nevada, with aims that included holding federal immigration officers accountable and protecting families from harm.
Castro also pointed to what he said is a persistent funding gap. He told AP that philanthropic support for organizations serving people of Latin American descent routinely falls below 1% of all funding, citing Hispanics in Philanthropy, despite U.S. Census data indicating nearly 20% of the U.S. population identifies as Hispanic or Latino.
He said the foundation’s case is shaped by the way nonprofits have worked with immigrant communities as enforcement policies expand under President Donald Trump. Castro described the expansion of detention centers and said crackdowns in cities such as Minneapolis and Chicago have chilled some Latino neighborhoods, where some residents—regardless of immigration status—are afraid to leave their homes, while also prompting neighbors to step up for one another.
In discussing how the endowment would help organizations, Castro said the fund would serve as an investment source for nonprofits that often do not receive dollars from mainstream philanthropy. He said the Latino Community Foundation was born in part because “a very small percentage of mainstream philanthropic dollars go to Latino-led or Latina-led organizations,” and he characterized the endowment as a way for qualified grassroots groups to have a reliable place to look for support.
Castro said mainstream philanthropy has been hesitant about identifying the communities it intends to serve, and he said some large funders have scaled back their investments in organizations that serve people of particular backgrounds. He said those retreats are “unfortunate,” and he added that investments made by the foundation are consistent with current law, while the organization remains committed to its mission.
The announcement also reflects the foundation’s funding goals. Castro described the foundation’s roughly $35 million endowment as “modest,” and he said he aspires to provide at least $10 million annually, including in periods when other crises boost overall grantmaking—he cited last year’s Los Angeles-area wildfires as a moment when grantmaking for the broader philanthropic sector rose above the norm.
Castro framed the endowment as part of a push to “go bigger” under circumstances he described as unique, saying that the moment calls for a “real, lasting impression on philanthropy.” He told AP, “The destiny of the United States is intertwined with the destiny of the Latino community like never before,” adding: “We’re confident that by helping to ensure that the Latino community does well, we’re helping to ensure that the United States does well in the years to come.”