LatinoJustice Receives $3 Million Grant from Ms. Mackenzie Scott
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 28, 2020
Contact:
Elianne Ramos, Chief Communications Officer, [email protected], 212.739.7513
LatinoJustice Receives $3 Million Grant from Ms. Mackenzie Scott
The Organization is one of 116 Social Justice Organizations Receiving the Grant
New York, NY – Today, LatinoJustice, a public interest law organization working to create a more just society by using and challenging the rule of law, is proud to announce that Ms. Mackenzie Scott has awarded the organization a $3 million grant. As an author and philanthropist, Ms. Scott signed the Giving Pledge charitable giving campaign, with a commitment to give away most of her wealth to charity over her lifetime.
Ms. Scott’s investment will provide the organization with an opportunity to expand its work at a time when Latinos are under enormous pressure from the economic crisis, threats to our democratic systems and ongoing policing and criminal justice system abuses. Additionally, funds obtained through the grant will help the organization to strengthen its infrastructure, to address several areas of activity within the organization’s areas of focus, as well as to weather the economic downturn resulting from the current global recession.
“We are exceedingly grateful to Ms. Scott for this generous gift, which is a testament not just to the importance of our work but to the impact Latinos have on the economic, civic and social fabric of this country,” said Juan Cartagena, LatinoJustice’s President and General Counsel. “It’s a recognition that LatinoJustice’s work to promote social justice through a racial justice lens has not only yielded crucial outcomes on issues such as voting rights, policing and immigrant rights but that these efforts are just as important today as the nation deals with the boiling over of long-simmering racial tensions amidst an unprecedented global health crisis,” he added.
“Ms. Scott’s gift, the largest we’ve ever received from an individual donor, builds on the investments of the community and of our perennial donors, such as the Ford Foundation,” said Diana DeJesus Medina, Chief Development Officer at LatinoJustice. “It is thanks to our institutional donors that we became the first national Latinx organization to formally take on criminal justice reform from a Latinx perspective. We will now be able to continue to go where the need takes us rather than retrench as a result of economic uncertainties. For the millions of Latinos who count on human and civil rights champions like LatinoJustice, this is tremendously good news.” she concluded.
Awarded as one-time charitable donation, the $3 million grant was disbursed on June 2020.
ABOUT LATINOJUSTICE
LatinoJustice PRLDEF works to create a more just society by using and challenging the rule of law to secure transformative, equitable and accessible justice, by empowering our community and by fostering leadership through advocacy and education. For more than 40 years, LatinoJustice PRLDEF has acted as an advocate against injustices throughout New York and beyond. To learn more about LatinoJustice, visit www.latinojustice.org.