Since launching 11 years ago, the Latino Equity Fund has been working to increase awareness and support of the local Latino community, which continues to grow in Greater Boston and across Massachusetts.
It’s a mission that’s personal for Javier Juarez, a first generation immigrant from Peru who now leads the fund as its executive director.
“I saw my family struggle through being incorporated to the American system,’’ Juarez said. “So I have that personal experience to some of the issues that we’re trying to solve.’’
Since 2013, the fund has distributed more than $2.3 million in grants to Latino-serving organizations. In early December, the fund said it doled out $450,000 in grants to 13 organizations in Massachusetts.
Juarez said they are focused largely on boosting economic opportunities for Latinos across the state and addressing health care disparities in the community. The fund has also released a number of studies examining a number of issues in the Latino community.
Among the data from the reports is that Latina workers are the “lowest paid worker in the state at $.42 for every dollar that their white male counterpart.’’
“Those are big red flags that we have to better understand and better support these communities,’’ he said, “because without their contributions, we won’t be able fulfill the need that is out there.’’
The composition of the Massachusetts community has been steadily changing for some time, especially in Boston where about 56 percent of residents identify as Black, Latino, Asian, Native American, or a combination of those groups. Some of the most rapid growth has come from the state’s Latino and Hispanic communities, which has grown by one-third since 2013.
Latinos are also a very complex group, Juarez said. In Boston alone, there are Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Salvadorians, Colombians, and Mexicans. So helping people in those various communities is more than tending to basic necessities, he said.
“It’s more than just a transactional relationship with us,’’ Juarez said. “We want to contribute and distribute as much resources as we can so the ecosystem of nonprofit organizations can be sustainable for a long time.’’
Since Juarez became the fund’s executive director in 2023, it has distributed more than $1.2 million in grants to local organizations. In addition to yearly grants, the fund also has so-called rapid response grants, in which they give money toward local aid in times of crisis.
Juarez said the fund has used rapid response grants at least three times — during the pandemic, in 2017 when Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico and people were displaced, and recently with the influx of migrants.
But there’s a need to step up for Latinos in Massachusetts in difficult times, and it’s imperative the fund help fill it, he said.
“We know that nationally around only one percent of philanthropy gets to these Latino serving organizations,’’ Juarez said. “And being the only dedicated Latinx serving community fund in the state puts a lot of pressure on us to continue or at least take the lead on increasing that philanthropy to these organizations.’’
Lauren Booker can be reached at lauren.booker@globe.com.
