By Eugenia Vivanco, Director of Community Impact & Funding Did you know, Latinos make up 40% of the total population in the Dallas /Fortworth (DFW) area of Texas (according to the 2021 U.S. Census)? In other words, one in every four people in the area is Latino. Last week, I had the honor of representing Raza Development Fund at the Power of Latinos DFW Summit, a six power-packed days filled with the latest in-depth analysis of the Latino community and their role in shaping the future of North Texas. This event was hosted by The Concilio, a Dallas-based nonprofit that …

The Raza Development Fund listens to our small business clients and strives to continue to support them. Last May, RDF hosted a series of Focus Groups with COVID-19 Hope Fund grantees and PPP loan recipients where we took the time to listen to their needs and learned from them. In 2020, we realized early on that we had a responsibility to support immigrant and minority business owners overcome the challenges of the pandemic. To meet the need, our Small Business Initiative (SBI) went from a two-person team to a seven-person team in the matter of less than twelve months. After …

This last year, 2020, spoke a story about an ever-changing world that can never be taken for granted. RDF’s swift reaction to the worldwide health, economic, and social crisis proved not to be an exception. Last year RDF went through dynamic organization-wide innovations that allowed our team to better pursue our mission of creating financing solutions to create opportunities for low-income and Latino communities around the country. Innovations fit to face the needs of this ever-changing world. One amazing example of these innovations I reference was the COVID-19 Hope Fund, a continuation of our Small Business Initiative that focuses on …