San Juan , Thursday, February 20, 2024 | For the second consecutive year, the Puerto Rico Community Foundation (FCPR) and its program Institute for Building Racial Equity in the Americas (REBIA) are celebrating the meeting Racial Equity Builders Dialogue 2025, from today until February 23, in San Juan.
The event is a unique philanthropic space in the Americas that brings together leaders of foundations, non-profit organizations and associations from the United States, Central America, the Caribbean and South America, focused on building racial equity. The meeting is designed as an active conversation among those who participate, from their respective platforms, in the strengthening of inclusive democracies, in the face of the new political scenario in the Americas.
“The event invites us to think about how philanthropy embodies its core values-solidarity, generosity and cooperation-to advance racial equity in the Americas,” said FCPR president, the Dr. Nelson I. Colón Tarrats. “We want to create a space that serves as a pause to reflect, strengthen and, consequently, activate new alliances that increase the social capital of this community in the service of racial equity in the Americas,” he added.
Some of the topics to be addressed during the private conversation are: art as a catalyst for racial equity; the role of philanthropy in the current political scenario; legal strategies for equity in the philanthropic sector; and mechanisms for building racial equity.
The dialogue brings together equity builders, such as: the Hon. Dr. June Soomer, President of the Permanent Forum of Afrodescendants of the United Nations (UN); Dr. Epsy Campbell Barr, past vice-president of Costa Rica; Edgardo Miranda, creator of the graphic novel La Bonriqueña; Susan Taylor Batten, president and CEO of the Association of Black Foundation Executives (ABFE); and Ana Marie Argilagos, president of Hispanic in Philanthropy (HIP). In addition, Shawn Escoffery, executive director of Roy & Patricia Disney Foundation; Lcda. Annette Martinez, director of ACLU - Puerto Rico, and Leah Watson, Director of National Racial Equity for the ACLU; Lcda. Tanya Kitari Hernández, professor of law at Fordham University School of Law; and the Dr. Marta Moreno Vega, founder of Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute and the Afro Corridor.
During the 3rd day of the meeting, there will be the awarding of scholarships for the Benito Massó Scholarship Fund for Afrodescendants of Puerto Rico, This edition of the fund will be extended to the entire Puerto Rican archipelago. The Fund previously focused on supporting the professional aspirations of young people of African descent in Loíza. Benito Massó was a well-known writer and psychologist who collaborated with FCPR's equity efforts.
On Saturday, February 22nd, the launch of the new Ubuntu Fund for Racial Justice and Reparations, a project of the Global Coalition Against Systemic Racism and Reparations, a global anti-racist community. It will also report on the progress made with the first International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024) and the launch of the second Decade.
The event is sponsored by: Association of Black Foundation Executives (ABFE), Casey Family Programs, Hispanic in Philanthropy, MacArthur Foundation, Philanthropy Massachusetts, San Francisco Foundation y W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
In 2024, FCPR and REBIA held the first philanthropic meeting for the purpose of advancing racial equity in the Americas from the philanthropic sector, with the participation of leaders from 21 foundations in the United States and the Caribbean.