Through our Civil Society program, Mott supports efforts to build and strengthen philanthropy and the nonprofit sector in the U.S., and on a limited basis, around the globe. The U.S.-Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership (BPP) is one example of a Mott grantee’s efforts in this area.
In this edited Q&A, BPP Executive Director Andy Carey discusses the organization’s overall work and some broader border-region issues with Mott Communication Officer Maggie Jaruzel Potter. Click here to read a Mott companion article about BPP’s work.
Mott: Funding for the U.S.-Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership (BPP) stems from the Mott Foundation’s interest in strengthening the civil society sector. How does BPP help do this?
 BPP Executive Director Andy Carey |
Carey (AC): BPP staff shares with our members — all along the border — important access to information and resources that are relevant to the region and provides professional and organizational developmental opportunities for individuals and their institutions.
We are helping our members strengthen their own capacity to deliver services. At our annual meeting this year, we brought in a fundraising school and later we brought in some top-notch presenters and consultants to help our members in resource and leadership development. We were able to provide important knowledge and resources to staff leaders, as well as board leaders, throughout the whole border region.
Mott: How have challenge grants been used at BPP? [A challenge grant is when an outside funder challenges an organization to raise a certain amount of money. If the organization meets the challenge, the money is then matched by the funder on a percentage basis, such as 1-to-1 or 2-to-1.]
AC: In BPP’s first seven years, there were direct grants that were channeled to community foundations, and many of them had challenge components. The critical impact of those grants was to encourage an impulse in local giving where we might not have seen too much local giving before.
I think this has been a powerful lesson — that challenge grants are an effective tool to increase the charitable impulse in a local community. Challenge grants should be considered in the future by funding agencies looking to invest in community foundations.
Mott: Why should issues affecting the U.S.-Mexico border region be of interest to people living in the interiors of both countries?
AC: There is some compelling information about migration patterns in the border region. For example, the typical immigrant to the U.S. is spending six months in the border region — coming across, living there while figuring out a plan and eventually either returning to Mexico or migrating to another area of the U.S.
The border region has had to try to figure out how to deal with the influx of people, as well as the challenges — and that is true on both sides. I don’t just mean somebody who comes across to live in San Diego. I mean somebody from deep in the interior of Mexico who comes up and spends time in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.
Take, for example, the community foundation in Indianapolis. It could learn a lot from the U.S-Mexico border region because the population of Mexican immigrants is growing throughout the U.S. Right now, many community foundations are not representing their whole community, so this gives them an opportunity to engage these Mexican communities living amongst them. A U.S. community foundation could develop a relationship with a sister community foundation in Mexico and start a relationship so new residents [to the U.S. from Mexico] could have a vehicle to support the local community foundation’s efforts and also have a relationship with a community foundation back home.
Mott: How well do elected officials and the general public located in the border region understand the role of philanthropy?
AC: We have an obligation to educate policymakers about the value that philanthropy brings to Mexico. We need to work to increase the government’s awareness, and also the public’s awareness, about the impact and the role that philanthropy and philanthropic institutions have in the community.
This is where an issue of trust is involved. In the border region, there inherently is a misunderstanding about whose role and responsibility it is to address problems, especially when there is so much that needs to be done. It is impossible for the government to resolve the social issues all on its own. They don’t have the manpower and they don’t have the resources. They simply can’t do it all. So there needs to be a continued campaign to raise the social consciousness and to provide new vehicles for these issues to be addressed, such as philanthropic institutions.
People like to support institutions they know, so part of our role is to educate the public about the role of civil society and help BPP members tell a better story about what they are doing so they can continue to build trust at the local level. We want to focus on creating a partnership between civil society and the government to address the huge needs that exist in the country. I think we are really going to see some growth in partnerships there.