San Juan | Friday | February 21, 2025 | A selected group of international, national, and regional philanthropic leaders has been meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico since yesterday and throughout the weekend. These seasoned leaders come from foundations nonprofits, academic, and cultural sectors. The convening Equity Builders Dialogue 2025 is organized by the Puerto Rico Community Foundation (FCPR by its acronym in Spanish) and its program REBIA (Racial Equity Building Institute for the Americas), for a second consecutive year.
“This dialogue invites us to consider how philanthropy embodies its values of solidarity, generosity, and cooperation”, said PRCF’s President and CEO, Dr. Nelson Colón Tarrats. “We’re creating a space for dialogue and reflection to activate and strengthen the platforms of inclusive democracies, especially in the new political scenarios in the Americas”, added.
Among the topics to be discussed are the role of philanthropy in the current political climate, legal strategies and other mechanisms for building racial equity, and narrative, art, and culture as a catalyst for social change.
A wide cross-section of important leaders will speak at the forum, including Dr. June Soomer, the President of the United Nations Forum on Afro descents; the former Vice President of Costa Rica, Dr. Epsy Campbell; Susan Taylor-Batten, President and CEO of ABFE (the Association of Black Foundation Executives); Ana Marie Argilagos, President and CEO of HIP (Hispanics in Philanthropy); Shawn Escoffery, Executive Director of the Roy and Patricia Disney Foundation; Tanya Kitary Hernandez, Professor of Law at Fordham University; Leah Watson and Annette Martínez from ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union); Edgardo Miranda, author of La Borinqueña, a graphic novel; and Dr. Marta Moreno Vega, founder of the Caribbean Cultural Center- African Diaspora Corridor.
During the convening, the Puerto Rico Community Foundation will honor Benito Masso, an Afro-descendent leader from Loíza, Puerto Rico, by awarding scholarships to promising students through the Benito Masso Scholarship Fund for Afro descendent Puerto Ricans.
The Dialogue will formally launch the Ubuntu Fund for Racial Justice and Reparations, a project of the Global Coalition Against Systemic Racism and for Reparations. The UN Forum will also give a progress report on the first decade of its work and present strategies for the upcoming decade.
For the second year in a row, this Dialogue is sponsored by the W K Kellogg Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, Casey Family Programs, the Association of Black Foundation Executives, Hispanics in Philanthropy, and Philanthropy Massachusetts.
Photo: From the left, Dra. Marta Moreno Vega, founder of the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute; Jorge Díaz Ortiz, co-director of AgitArte; Edgardo Miranda, graphic novelist of La Borinqueña; and Shawn Escoffery, CEO of Roy and Patricia Disney Foundation. (David Díaz)