Sometimes hope pays off
Even as he applied for the cash, Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal assumed that his was too wild a dream to come true.
The head of the Lawyers for Civil Rights was one of 6,000 nonprofit chiefs around the country hoping to strike gold in MacKenzie Scott’s next planned round of philanthropic giving.
Gladys Vega was going through the same process, and she wasn’t holding her breath, either. Sure, her landmark Chelsea nonprofit, La Colaborativa, had been doing great work in its community for years. But she had to believe there were plenty of other places the money might go.
As they filed their applications to Yield Giving, Scott’s philanthropic organization, all either of them could do was cross their fingers.
“I don’t know anyone in MacKenzie Scott’s orbit,” Espinoza-Madrigal told me. “There wasn’t anyone to call, or to ask to make a call on our behalf. All we could do was hope.”
But sometimes hopes pan out. Earlier this week, the Lawyers for Civil Rights and La Colaborativa were both announced as recipients of unrestricted $2 million grants from Yield Giving, the foundation Scott set up after her divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to help give away her sudden fortune, currently estimated as somewhere in the neighborhood of $36 billion.
Maybe the craziest part? Both the Lawyers for Civil Rights and La Colaborativa had asked for $1 million — and then received double that amount. In keeping with Scott’s standard practice, the grants were announced with minimal explanation.
Understand that these are both relatively small community organizations, albeit ones that punch well above their weight in terms of civic impact. LCR has an annual budget of around $3 million, while La Colaborativa’s stands at $7 million. For groups of that size, these gifts are nothing short of transformative.
I’ve written frequently about both groups, especially about Gladys Vega and La Colaborativa. Her organization is a one-stop social service agency in Chelsea. It operates a food panty, provides job training and other assistance in finding work, and locates shelter for people who have been burned out of their homes.
During the pandemic, it was an especially critical lifeline for thousands of people who were struggling. It’s latest project has been launching a welcome center for incoming Haitian refugees.
As for LCR, it can be found in courtrooms and in the streets, going to bat for people and organizations who need civil rights lawyers but can’t afford them. For instance, the group got nationwide attention for its staunch advocacy for migrants delivered — illegally in LCR’s view — to Martha’s Vineyard by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Because this is a small town and their missions overlap, these organizations have stood shoulder-to-shoulder many times. As one example, Madrigal-Espinoza represented the Chelsea group when it sued the federal government to stop federal agents from arresting undocumented immigrants in Massachusetts courthouses.
When they say this money will be transformative, what does that mean? For Vega, it means her group will be able to expand its job training and other services. It means that a budget that is perpetually stretched thin will suddenly have some breathing room. It means that just a few years after struggling to make payroll, she can think in terms of expansion, rather than making do.
“When I saw that money in our bank account, I had never seen so many zeroes,” Vega told me. “A few years ago, we applied for a $10,000 line of credit and got turned down. But, you know, I always believe we will find the money to do the things we need to do.”
Espinoza-Madrigal said his group will go through a process with its community stakeholders to determine where the money goes. But he has one pretty solid guess already: It will allow LCR to greatly expand its efforts to help small entrepreneurs — especially entrepreneurs of color — seeking to launch businesses.
Economic equality, he reasons, is a fundamental part of a civil rights organization’s mission, no less than filing lawsuits.
He’s the first to say he is still shellshocked by his group’s sudden great fortune. But he was amused when friends said he must be too busy celebrating this week to get much work done.
“We celebrated for a hot minute,” he said. “And then it was right back into the trenches.”