Hispanic Fund Nears $1 Million

It wasn’t long ago that founders of the Destino Hispanic Legacy Fund worried whether they’d be able to meet their modest fundraising goals. But nine years after Latino leaders created the Ventura County endowment, it has easily exceeded expectations and is racing toward the $1-million mark.

That makes Destino a major player in the Ventura County philanthropic world, as evidenced last month when it handed out its largest grant awards to agencies serving the Latino community.

The charitable fund distributed 10 grants totaling nearly $103,000 to bolster hospice services, sharpen money management skills and curtail teen pregnancy, drug abuse and youth violence.

“We’ve come a long way,” said Hank Lacayo, a Destino founder and the board chairman. “It shows the true philanthropic streak that exists within the Latino community.”

It wasn’t always that way. In fact, Latino leaders said they set out in 1996 to establish Destino as a way of encouraging philanthropy in a culture with little tradition of charitable gift-giving. The idea was to counter views that Latinos received a significant share of charitable services but rarely opened their wallets to contribute to causes.

Led by businessman and former professional football player Danny Villanueva, community leaders began attending small house parties, spreading the word to prominent Latinos about the need to give back. The audience typically included doctors, grocers and elected officials, people who -- like Villanueva -- rose from humble beginnings and many of whose parents had worked the fields.

The fundraising bar initially was set low. With Villanueva as chairman and planting a $10,000 seed, Destino first worked toward a $100,000 goal, which it met in 1997. The fund had amassed $400,000 by 2001. Today, the endowment has more than $750,000 and is expected to reach $1 million by year’s end.

“We’ve cut a new path,” said Villanueva, a Camarillo resident and partner in a Los Angeles-based venture capital firm.

“It was about taking our destiny into our own hands,” he said. “I just think it’s wonderful to see how our community is evolving, how it’s maturing.”

The pace of gift-giving also has increased. Including this year’s grants, Destino has awarded 73 grants since 1997, totaling $458,549.

In the early years, annual grant awards totaled about $20,000. Three years ago, local agencies received about $60,000 from the endowment. Now, with more than $100,000 in grants, Destino dollars are having a significant effect.

“Our program is growing so much, this is great,” said B.B. Zamudio, director of the Breakthrough Youth for Success program run by El Concilio del Condado de Ventura. The Oxnard-based program serves more than 100 youngsters annually and received $10,000 toward its efforts to curb youth violence, teen pregnancy, and drug and alcohol abuse.

“It’s pretty expensive to maintain a program like this,” she said. “Whatever money we get helps us tremendously.”

The Oxnard-based Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project received money from Destino for the first time this year. A $5,000 grant will allow the project to expand infant care classes to the growing number of Mexican Indians who arrive in this country poor and unable to access social services.

“We’re now going to be able to take these classes directly to where people live,” said nurse Sandy Young, who helped launch the Mixteco program. “It may not seem like a lot of money, but it will go a long way.”