Congress created the IAF with a vision of supporting self-help efforts in Latin America and the Caribbean, but it was up to the IAF staff to figure out how best to do so. “Roads are made by walking” they often said in the early years, referring to a Spanish saying. With that spirit, the IAF pioneered its approach of listening and responding to the needs of emerging grassroots organizations. The publication of They Know How in 1977 articulated the IAF’s philosophy that “people whose lives will be directly affected by development efforts know best what they need and want and how to do it.” 

Early grants reflected the diversity of organizations that would look to the IAF over the years—village and neighborhood associations, production cooperatives, workers’ associations, and ethnic-based coalitions such as indigenous and Afro-descendant organizations, among others. In common, they aspired to collectively resolve shared problems.  

The Peruvian Island of Taquile in the region of Lake Titicaca had for centuries been rich in cultural resources—including their distinctive woven textiles—yet poor in land, livestock, living conditions, and cash. A grant from the IAF in the late 1970s enabled the islanders to purchase boat motors for tourist transport to the island, open their homes for tourist accommodations, and market their textiles. A Peruvian model of community tourism was thus born, inspiring national tourism policy and other communities. Today, Taquile is visited by tens of thousands of tourists every year, boosting livelihoods and ethnic pride among islanders.

In 1968 a group of Uruguayan women created a small cooperative, Manos del Uruguay, to promote the production and marketing of hand-crafted yarn, making the most of the abundant local wool to help women become economically independent. IAF supported Manos as it expanded its model, training artisans and cooperative members. With time, Manos grew from a loosely knit cooperative to a highly proficient production and retail operation, benefiting hundreds of women in the process.

Community members in the interior of the state of Bahia founded the Movimento de Organização Comunitária in 1967 to provide local organizations with the technical and management skills they need to thrive. MOC was IAF’s first grantee in Brazil and, among other efforts, the IAF supported MOC’s training on agricultural practices, cooperative management, and basic health.

In 2017, MOC celebrated 50 years of expanding opportunities for sustainable agriculture and civic engagement among marginalized communities. Over the years it has helped boost other organizations that would eventually become IAF grantees, including the Associação dos Pequenos Agricultores do Estado da Bahia, key in developing the state’s sisal fiber industry.

A global spike in oil prices, controversial macroeconomic changes, and authoritarian governments pushed the region into a “lost decade.” But for many grassroots organizations, it was a “década ganada,” a moment of growth and consolidation. Cooperatives, indigenous movements, and human rights groups flourished. Farmers who didn’t benefit from Green Revolution technologies embraced environmentally sound practices. Countless small business owners accessed microcredit and financial services for the first time, boosting private investment and household incomes. And traditionally marginalized groups turned to cultural identity for pride and inspiration.

A small group of educators, clergy, and community workers established the Centro al Servicio de la Acción Popular (CESAP) to support organizations dedicated to improving the opportunities for low-income populations in the slums of Caracas. Its technical assistance helped countless other organizations that, in turn, boosted agricultural production, small enterprise development, adult education, access to housing, and other efforts in low-income communities. Its approach was so impactful, that with time CESAP grew into one of the largest grassroots support organizations in Latin America.

The El Ceibo federation of cooperatives formed to support the livelihoods of indigenous communities in the tropical rainforest in Bolivia’s Alto Beni region. These farmers moved beyond subsistence agriculture by adopting cacao. The IAF was an early and constant supporter of El Ceibo, with grants that supported cacao transport and marketing and processing of cocoa and artisanal chocolate. 

El Ceibo grew over the years into a federation of nearly 50 cooperatives representing some 1,200 indigenous Aymara, Quechua, and Moseten cacao growers. It was the world’s first organization to export organic cacao to high-end markets in Europe, the United States, and Japan, making it a widely admired grassroots development success story at home and abroad.

The National Confederation of Campesino Cooperativas (CAMPOCOOP) was formed in the late 1960s in Chile to support small farmer cooperatives more effectively produce and market their crops. In the late 1980s, CAMPOCOOP turned its attention to generating local opportunities for youth, with an eye to developing the next generation of cooperative leaders and local entrepreneurs. With support from the IAF, CAMPOCOOP implemented employment and leadership programs for youth and established a rotating loan fund to provide start-up capital for young adults.

The 1990s were a decade of expanding democratic governance and economic reforms in the region. Though this journey varied by country, grassroots organizations could now generally engage more constructively with governments. Entrepreneurial households, meanwhile, had greater opportunities for investing in small businesses as a way of life. Two other emerging trends shaped our portfolio. Growing corporate social responsibility provided the IAF with valuable private sector partners. And rising environmental awareness inspired more grantees to promote sustainable agriculture, access new markets through organic production, and champion community-led recycling.

Indigenous communities in Chiapas, Mexico’s southernmost state, formed the Unión of Ejidos de la Selva (La Selva) in the late 1970s as an umbrella organization to represent their interests. By the early 1990s, they saw the potential of a growing demand for organic coffee. That’s when the IAF backed La Selva’s vision of introducing organic methods, promoting sustainable farming practices, and developing new markets. Despite the tensions of the Zapatista movement in Chiapas in the 1990s, La Selva eventually grew to represent the interests of about 1,300 smallholder families, paving the way for more profitable and sustainable coffee farming.

The Contra War took its toll along the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, displacing poor populations, destroying infrastructure and housing, and decimating agricultural production. Following the war, indigenous leaders formed the Asociación para el Desarrollo de la Costa Atlántica (PANA PANA) to help communities resettle and rebuild. PANA PANA has broadened its support of local communities over time, innovating to keep up with emerging needs. With funding from the IAF, they enabled communities to better access and manage financial services, while also learning to more effectively manage water and sanitation services.

In a country afflicted with poverty and natural disasters, hundreds of artisans in Haiti have relied on Comite Artisanal Haitien (CAH) to secure a fair price and a market for their crafts, an important source of income for their families. When CAH was first founded in the early 1970s, it connected rural artisans to buyers  through a small store in Port-au-Prince. With time, CAH began connecting artisans to global markets, such as the Ten Thousand Villages store chain in the United States. A grant from the IAF in the 1980s supported a revolving fund and working capital for its members. Another grant in the 1990s brought CAH to exhibit their products at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., part of a broader exhibit connecting cultural identity to economic development. To this day, CAH continues sharing the creativity of Haitian artisans with world markets, while allowing these artisan households to thrive.

The new millennium opened with a decade of relative stability, democracy now the norm in most countries. Grantees increasingly engaged with their local governments, voicing their needs and promoting accountability—thereby “building democracy from the grassroots,” as we put it. Others focused on generating opportunities for marginalized groups, including Afro-descendants, indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, youth, and women. Meanwhile, the IAF was able to expand its reach by establishing a network of corporate foundations committed to grassroots development and joined with the Ford Foundation and the C.S. Mott Foundation to strengthen Mexico’s community foundations, an effort that continues to this day.

Launched in 2002, the Inter-American Network of Corporate Foundations and Actions for Grassroots Development (RedEAmérica) is a hemisphere-wide network of corporate foundations dedicated to reducing poverty and inequality in Latin America. The network coordinates the efforts of its members to finance programs and enterprises proposed and undertaken by community-based organizations. In 2011, the IAF dived into uncharted waters to fund a project with RedEAmérica that encouraged the application of grassroots development principles to core business functions.

On the shores of Guatemala’s beautiful Lake Atitlán, a group of Indigenous women is leading an effort to provide community health services in local Mayan languages. Founded in 1975, Rxiin Tnamet (RXIIN) has trained local volunteers in health and nutrition practices to tackle alarming rates of infant mortality and communicable disease. After the devastation wrought by Hurricane Stan in 2005, RXIIN expanded its mission to development and education. First supported by the IAF in 1998, today RXIIN has grown to provide affordable health care, clinics, a pharmacy, and dental services using culturally appropriate approaches.

Across Latin America, people of African descent are often marginalized and excluded from social programs. In 1995, Organizaciones Mundo Afro (Mundo Afro) formed to change that by strengthening the capacity of Afro-Uruguayans to participate in civil society and articulating public policies aimed at improving their economic status. With an IAF grant in 2003, Mundo Afro further developed a regional network among Afro-descendant communities in neighboring countries. That network pioneered social development programs focused on education, microenterprise development, and cultural preservation. It was one of the first IAF grants to truly focus on racial exclusion from public policies. Mundo Afro remains a strong organization and many of its original members currently occupy leading positions within the Uruguayan national government.

The 2010s have been a reminder that we cannot take improvements in development for granted. Across the region, once promising democracies have swung towards autocracies and violence has escalated. Local organizations have more than stepped up, including by promoting partnerships across borders, creating opportunities for youth, and investing in inclusive development. Beyond supporting individual communities, the IAF has leveraged networks to address challenges with far-reaching consequences. In Colombia, we have connected organizations embracing the possibilities embedded in the 2016 Peace Accords. With other foundations, we launched Building Broader Communities in the Americas, a transnational collaboration among organizations working with diaspora groups from Latin America to increase their investments in their communities of origin.

Some 2 million Salvadorans have left El Salvador, often staying connected with their communities of origin. Fundación para la Educación Social, Económico y Cultural (FUPEC) helps hometown associations of migrants in the United States pool resources and invest in development with residents of their respective communities of origin. FUPEC used a 2011 IAF grant to match the contributions of Salvadorans in Virginia, D.C., Maryland, and California with agricultural and business projects undertaken by community organizations across El Salvador. Since then, FUPEC has increased its impact in the communities it serves and established partnerships with the United States Agency for International Development and Banco Agrícola.

El Progreso is one of the most dangerous cities in the world, where gangs and drug trafficking thrive. At the root of violence and crime is income inequality. Sixty percent of Hondurans struggle to get by on less than $2 a day, and more than 80,000 young people classify as “NiNi,” a colloquialism for youth who neither attend school nor hold a job. Organización para el Empoderamiento de la Juventud (OYE Adelante Jóvenes) works in El Progreso to offer young Hondurans a safe space to develop job skills and engage in arts, sports, and community service. OYE also offers scholarships that allow promising youth to stay in school and go on to college, raising the likelihood that they will live up to their potential in being agents of change in their communities.

Paraguayans with disabilities, as elsewhere, generally do not have the same opportunities as the rest of the population for education, arts, jobs, or civic engagement. Here enters the Fundación Saraki (Saraki), a Paraguayan non-profit organization dedicated to expanding opportunities for people with disabilities. Saraki started with arts education and over the years has expanded its work to advocating for the rights of Paraguayans with disabilities. With support from the IAF, Saraki helped train census takers in internationally recommended guidelines for accurately measuring the population living with disabilities and led a nation-wide campaign to raise public awareness. Its efforts were instrumental in shaping lasting policy reforms, including those guaranteeing equal employment opportunities.