Together for Puerto Rico

TOGETHER for Puerto Rico

Co-Chairs of Massachusetts United for Puerto Rico (from left) Vanessa Calderón-Rosado, Juan Carlos Morales and Aixa Beauchamp photographed at Villa Victoria in the South End. Beauchamp and Morales also co-founded the Latino Legacy Fund.

After disaster strikes in the United States, it can take weeks for well-meaning people to plan and mount a large-scale, organized response. When Hurricane Maria devastated the island of Puerto Rico on September 21st, 2018, it took Massachusetts just eight days.

On September 29th, Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and the Boston Foundation—in partnership with the Latino Legacy Fund—announced the creation of Massachusetts United for Puerto Rico/Massachusetts Unido por Puerto Rico. The fund is dedicated to the relief and recovery of people living on the island as well as the support of evacuees in Massachusetts.

The remarkable speed and organization were made possible by a strong confluence of relationships. First, the Boston Foundation has a close relationship with Boston’s Latino community, especially through its Latino Legacy Fund, the first Latino-focused fund in Greater Boston. Second, the Fund’s leaders and members have deep ties to Boston’s Puerto Rican community. Third, the Foundation had experience: It had mounted similar funds for relief in Haiti, Japan and Nepal after earthquakes struck those countries. Finally, the Foundation has strong relationships with city and state government.

In the weeks immediately following the hurricane, Massachusetts United for Puerto Rico made more than $100,000 in grants to community-based organizations providing direct relief and funded Latino-led nonprofits to assist the thousands of Puerto Rican evacuees who poured into our state.

Since then, the Fund has raised close to $4 million and distributed more than half of those funds in grants with more funds flowing every month.

We now know that Hurricane Maria was one of the deadliest disasters in American history. Massachusetts United for Puerto Rico continues to accept donations from generous individuals and companies who understand that the crisis in Puerto Rico continues to have a profound impact on the well-being of its people and institutions—and will for many years to come.

MASSACHUSETTS UNITED FOR PUERTO RICO AND THE LATINO LEGACY FUND

$3.8 Million

Funds raised

$2.1 Million

Grants made to date

68

Nonprofits supported