275. Increasing Latinx Representation in Philanthropy + Making Good Famous - Carolina García Jayaram
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Overview
Meet Carolina. She's the founding CEO of The Elevate Prize Foundation, a global purpose-driven nonprofit that serves to amplify social impact and empower passionate problem solvers, leaders, and innovators. Latinos hold just 1% of foundation and not-for-profit CEO positions and less than 10% of program officer positions, yet Hispanics represent 20% of the U.S. population. Join us to make good famous🎧
💡Learn:
Overview of The Elevate Prize Foundation
Why Latinx Representation must increase in Philanthropy
The challenges facing young Hispanic nonprofit leaders & the cost of exclusion
The importance of investing in nonprofit leaders
Today’s Guest
Carolina García Jayaram, CEO, The Elevate Prize Foundation
“The mission of the organization is largely to give uniquely impactful support to these leaders, and then also use them in a way to inspire legions of others to do good themselves. And like Becky said, inspire the hero in all of us.”
Episode Transcript
Download Full Episode Transcript Here
Episode highlights
Carolina’s story and journey to where she is today (3:50)
Overview of The Elevate Prize Foundation (5:00)
How the Elevate Prize Foundation is leveraging Giving Circles to create a deeper impact (7:30)
Making Good Famous: using fame to power impact (11:00)
Why Latinx representation must increase in philanthropy (16:00)
Championing young Latinx nonprofit leaders (21:00)
Latinx thought leaders to follow (26:00)
Investing in nonprofit leaders and the power of professional development (29:00)
How people can get involved with The Elevate Prize Foundation (35:00)
A powerful moment of philanthropy in Carolina’s life (39:00)
Carolina’s One Good Thing: Have an abundance mindset. (41:00)
powerful quotes
“Our mission is to define and amplify the work of some of the world's most promising social impact leaders.” -Carolina
“We're bringing a much needed and potentially transformative visibility to the social impact leaders.” -Carolina
“The mission of the organization is largely to give uniquely impactful support to these leaders, and then also use them in a way to inspire legions of others to do good themselves. And like Becky said, inspire the hero in all of us.” -Carolina
“We're all talking to ourselves in the sector. And there's so many reasons for that. But to get to know what turns inspiration to action, and how visibility can transform impact all the things that we're really doing very deeply in the work with the Elevate prize and those winners.” -Carolina
“We launched elevate giving last year to help demystify philanthropy through this very accessible model of giving circles.” -Carolina
“It seems like that very much accelerated our theory of change and this hunger that people are ready to step up right and use their voice like never before.” -Carolina
“We've learned that there's just really a great opportunity to connect people, obviously, who otherwise wouldn't cross paths and give them space to learn and create impact together.” -Carolina
“There's nothing more energizing than learning the stories and solutions that these people are coming across in their worlds, but then taking that to the next level and getting access to an opportunity to be a part of it.” -Carolina
“To have that representation at the top takes a generation, investment and intentional planning.” -Carolina
“From education, to mentorship, to pathways to higher education and learning to paid internships, not free internships, things that really do open doors for folks who may not have traditionally the access that some people with greater privilege do.” -Carolina
“Just if you think about the nearly $2 trillion of consumer purchasing power that the Latino community now represents the United States, and the brands who are benefiting from that $2 trillion, that's not then translating to even those corporate foundations, giving practices, and it should be.” -Carolina
“It doesn't mean I can't be part of that community of giving. But I need folks from that community to teach me how to do that with the greatest impact and authenticity and authority.” -Carolina
“I just think we have to start with the base understanding that we all can be part of the solution, no matter what seat we're at.” -Jon
“I spent 20 years of my career in the art world, and there was not enough Latino representation in major museums and collections.” -Carolina
“I find, it's much easier, especially when you're young, to reach out to leaders in these communities, they're far more accessible than we think they are get on LinkedIn and direct message to them get on Instagram and direct message them, you'd be shocked with how many people want to be part of this conversation and want to lift up the voices of other people.” -Carolina
“With the incredible democratization of content, that I can make a movie on the phone that I'm holding in my hand, means that we can self publish our own blogs, we can start our own podcasts. This content driven economy, this individualized, kind of gig economy, all of these these things are complementary to each other and giving folks like Latinos a voice that they've never had before.” -Carolina
“There's so much diversity within the Latino community. And that also needs to be understood. If you're coming from Central America, it's very different than other parts of the Caribbean. These countries are very unique and different in and of themselves as well.” -Carolina
“So if we're doing our job of shining a light and giving greater visibility to these leaders who are so brave, and coming from the real, true lived experience of the issues that they're representing, then that will then connect with that many more people who feel empowered to do the same, because they understand them.“ -Carolina
“Even though nonprofits have provided this incredibly rich soil within which to plan all these experimental ideas, and tackling all these huge issues in the world, they're given so little with which to actually experiment.” -Carolina
“We're a puzzle piece to a much larger puzzle, that's not the silver bullet, but we think that's a wide open space of potential that just hasn't been really tapped.” -Carolina
“One of my growth principles has always been deep observation of others.” -Carolina
connect with carolina
connect with the Elevate prize foundation
Website / Instagram / Twitter / LinkedIn / Facebook
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Episode Sponsored by
Studio Selfie
Julie Confer, Jonathan McCoy, Becky Endicott & Carolina García Jayaram
