PRESS

U.S.-Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership
Announces Phase II of its Successful Bi-national Program

By Silvia Siller and Javier Valdes
August 15, 2005
San Diego, CA. — U.S.-Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership has launched Phase II of its bi-national program, estimated to continue through July 2008. Originally designed as a three-year project, the success and impact of the initiative resulted in an expansion into a second phase with original and promising new partners.

Phase I of the Border Philanthropy Partnership began in 2001 with the mission to establish and sustain community philanthropy along the 2,000-mile border. The Ford Foundation, along with The Houston Endowment, McCune Charitable Foundation, Meadows Foundation, Fundación Gonzalo Río-Arronte, Annie E. Casey Foundation, The Mott Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Inter American Foundation, disbursed a total of US $13 million.

This support enabled 21 border community foundations (14 in the U.S. and seven in Mexico) to diversify their leadership, tackle new and vital issues such as housing, environmental justice and poverty alleviation and assemble a broader range of community assets. “The creation of community foundations around the world is really quite an extraordinary movement” said Barry Gaberman, Ford Foundation Senior Vice President, at the Sixth Learning Community of the Border Philanthropy Partnership.

Phase I marked outstanding achievements including a $3 million in local funds raised by participating border community foundations, many of which had been new to institutionalized community philanthropy. Communities, families, and the overall environment across the border saw marked improvement, especially with a new wealth of social capital.

Associate Director of the Border Philanthropy Partnership, Judy Harper, adds, “When we started this project three years ago, most of the community foundations were just barely getting off the ground. Now almost all of them have some staff in place, and all of them are at the point that they can begin to make a real difference in their communities. The exciting part is that in the second phase we can begin doing some work collectively.”

Phase II will invigorate the existing partnership and expand upon its current successes by improving the organizational capacity of border community foundations; consolidating a Peer Learning, Advocacy and Communications Network; expanding the network of international, national, and regional funders; and ensuring the sustainability of the Partnership’s results in order to improve the quality of life in the border region.