A Love Letter to our LGCN
Jacqueline Martinez Garcel
CEO, Latino Community Foundation
Dear LGCN Familia,
These past two years have tested our resolve, yet one thing remained unchanged: your love for one another, and your commitment to strengthening our communities. As civic leaders, you gave your time, talents, and treasures to those who needed it most: our frontline community leaders that never stopped serving our families, youth, and our essential workers.
You organized to support street vendors in LA, you came out to honor our farmworkers in the Central Coast, and celebrated our community heroes in the Central Valley. Across the Bay Area, you organized food drives at your local schools and showed up to volunteer at vaccination clinics. And every Giving Circle raised their voices to ensure Latinos were counted in the 2020 Census and the 2021 redistricting efforts.
I am so proud and honored to stand alongside you as we redefine civic leadership and philanthropy. You have embodied our values of joy, family, and social change—not charity.
As we embark on the 10th year anniversary of the LGCN, we are thrilled to officially welcome Raaida Mannaa, our Program Director for the LGCN. She is a visionary leader who has had breadth of experience in building national and international networks. Raaida has developed a myriad of initiatives in over 60 countries. Among them, she co-founded socialBaq, the first social enterprise in Barranquilla, Colombia. Raaida is also the Founding Curator of the Barranquilla Hub of the Global Shapers Community and served as the Director of CLAVE.
Raaida’s wisdom and experience, coupled with her intuitiveness and passion, have already fueled the LGCN and the LCF team with renewed energy, joy, and vision.
Thank you for being part of this historic movement of civic leaders leading with love and joy—the true definition of a philanthropist!
I can’t wait to see what we accomplish together this year!
See you on Thursday, March 3rd as we welcome visionary Latino leaders to help guide our funding priorities for 2022.
With love and gratitude,
Jacqueline Martinez Garcel
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