On the 35th episode of Immigration Today!, Angeline Chen welcomes Eliza Brennan, Senior Program Officer for Education and Migration at International Community Foundation (ICF). ICF is the nonprofit foundation of choice for U.S. donors who are passionate about protecting the environment and improving the quality of life in Baja California, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
Eliza has been passionate about international work from a young age as her parents always fostered a life of community work. She has been involved in community driven work for many years, from her time spent at Georgetown University, to her time spent in Nicaragua. ICF’s historical main focus prior has been environment and conservation work. Eliza leads ICF’s nearly $3M education portfolio with the goal of expanding educational opportunities for vulnerable children in Latin America to succeed in school, careers and life. Since 2018, Eliza has steered ICF’s programmatic work related to immigrants, refugees, and deportees in the San Diego-Tijuana Border. She also oversees ICF’s growing portfolio of grants in Central America. She has 30 years of experience living and working in Latin America, and academic experiences in China and South Africa.
Around the time Eliza joined ICF, the foundation began to become involved in immigration work after a major influx of Haitians started arriving to the U.S.-Mexican border in 2016. ICF eventually launched a Border Fund which has helped provide food, shelter, basic preventative healthcare and legal services for many at the border. They are heavily involved with border work now and partner with amazing orgs such as the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, This is About Humanity and many others. With ICF’s in-depth knowledge of the issues and long-standing relationships with local nonprofit organizations and community leaders, they help donors connect with the regions and causes they care about. From one-time tax-deductible donations to ongoing grants, ICF offers a variety of international grantmaking tools and advisory services to help orgs achieve their philanthropic goals.
You can learn more about ICF via their website. If you are a donor that is interested in getting connected with ICF, you can contact Eliza here or you can make a direct donation to one of the issues you care about here. If you are interested in donating to ICF’s Border Fund please click here. Immigration Today! is always releasing new content. Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes.
DISCLAIMER – No information contained in this Podcast or on this Website shall constitute financial, investment, legal and/or other professional advice and that no professional relationship of any kind is created between you and podcast host, the guests or Clark Hill PLC. You are urged to speak with your financial, investment, or legal advisors before making any investment or legal decisions.
On the 35th episode of Immigration Today!, Angeline Chen welcomes Eliza Brennan, Senior Program Officer for Education and Migration at International Community Foundation (ICF). ICF is the nonprofit foundation of choice for U.S. donors who are passionate about protecting the environment and improving the quality of life in Baja California, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
Eliza has been passionate about international work from a young age as her parents always fostered a life of community work. She has been involved in community driven work for many years, from her time spent at Georgetown University, to her time spent in Nicaragua. ICF’s historical main focus prior has been environment and conservation work. Eliza leads ICF’s nearly $3M education portfolio with the goal of expanding educational opportunities for vulnerable children in Latin America to succeed in school, careers and life. Since 2018, Eliza has steered ICF’s programmatic work related to immigrants, refugees, and deportees in the San Diego-Tijuana Border. She also oversees ICF’s growing portfolio of grants in Central America. She has 30 years of experience living and working in Latin America, and academic experiences in China and South Africa.
Around the time Eliza joined ICF, the foundation began to become involved in immigration work after a major influx of Haitians started arriving to the U.S.-Mexican border in 2016. ICF eventually launched a Border Fund which has helped provide food, shelter, basic preventative healthcare and legal services for many at the border. They are heavily involved with border work now and partner with amazing orgs such as the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, This is About Humanity and many others. With ICF’s in-depth knowledge of the issues and long-standing relationships with local nonprofit organizations and community leaders, they help donors connect with the regions and causes they care about. From one-time tax-deductible donations to ongoing grants, ICF offers a variety of international grantmaking tools and advisory services to help orgs achieve their philanthropic goals.
You can learn more about ICF via their website. If you are a donor that is interested in getting connected with ICF, you can contact Eliza here or you can make a direct donation to one of the issues you care about here. If you are interested in donating to ICF’s Border Fund please click here. Immigration Today! is always releasing new content. Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes.
DISCLAIMER – No information contained in this Podcast or on this Website shall constitute financial, investment, legal and/or other professional advice and that no professional relationship of any kind is created between you and podcast host, the guests or Clark Hill PLC. You are urged to speak with your financial, investment, or legal advisors before making any investment or legal decisions.
Hello, everyone. It's Angeline Chen. Welcome to Immigration Today, where I interview leaders, advocates, experts, and volunteers in immigration and immigrant rights on the issues, their experiences, and how you can make a difference. Today, we have Eliza Brennan. Eliza Brennan is a senior program officer for education and migration at the International Community Foundation, ICF.
ICF is a non profit foundation where U. S. donors who are passionate about protecting the environment and improving the quality of life in Baja, California and Latin America. Eliza leads ICF's nearly 3 million Education portfolio with the goal of expanding educational opportunities for vulnerable Children in Mexico and other regions of Latin America to succeed in school, careers and life.
Since 2018, Eliza has also steered ICF's programmatic work related to immigrants, refugees and deportees in the San Diego Tijuana border. She also oversees ICF's growing portfolio of grants in Central America. Eliza joined ICF in August 2015 and has served in several roles. Eliza's prior experience include being the development associate and volunteer manager at the Fabretto Children's Foundation in Nicaragua.
She also interned at the Millennium Challenge Corporation, Agora Partnerships, and the United States Agency for International Development USAID. She holds a Master of Public Affairs from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and a BS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.
She has 30 years of experience living and working in Latin America and academic experiences in China and South Africa. Eliza, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much, Angeline. Thank you. This is an amazing, uh, resume of yours. Um, you've done a lot. Thank you so much. Is it okay if we get into some questions to get to learn more about you and your work?
Of course. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you. So can you tell us a little bit about your background and how it happened or why you're interested in helping people in Baja, California and Latin America? Sure. So, um, I always say I really, uh, had the privilege of growing up. Um, as sort of a global nomad, my father was in the foreign service, the United States foreign service, and we moved every three or four years.
So, um, he, at, at the time it was, uh, more possible or more encouraged for his career to stay in one geography. And that happened to be Latin America. Um, and you know, for our family, that was a really good fit. And, um, I just really. Learned to, to embrace being kind of the new kid all the time, but all the, um, wonderful benefits of, of getting to explore the world and meeting new cultures and, um, and engaging with people who might have come from really different backgrounds.
And so that really. Um, sparked my, you know, seeded my interest in staying in this international field and continue to, to work with different cultures. Mm hmm. No, that's awesome. And I mean, you know, you could have done anything you wanted basically, um, looks like an amazing background and upbringing, but what kind of drew you to, you know, helping with these specific people, um, and, and just doing nonprofit work even.
Okay. Um, so my, I think my parents always sort of fostered a culture of, you know, community service within our home. Uh, I would say probably the most formative experiences for me were when my parents were in Nicaragua and I was actually at Georgetown. Um, so I'd already decided that I wanted to study international relations or follow in the footsteps, as I mentioned, uh, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with that.
And I, you know, I reflected on my experiences in high school in Costa Rica, where I would, you know, do Habitat for Humanity builds or, you know, even just like Christmas drives and sort of your standard, like, uh, kind of more charity and nonprofit volunteer work. Um, and, and so when my parents were in Nicaragua, honestly, I was really struck by the stark.
Disparities between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, these are 2 countries similar to the U. S. and Mexico that share a border and yet the socioeconomic realities are so different. Um, and so my parents being based in Nicaragua while I was in university really gave me that opportunity to see that, um. The, the level of poverty and the level of systemic challenges that people can face to, um, improving their lives and providing, you know, food and shelter for their families.
Uh, and so while I was in, you know, visiting them over my summer breaks from Georgetown, I was, um, really compelled to do something beyond, you know, a, a one day habitat for humanity builder or. Things of that nature. Um, and Georgetown didn't yet have an, uh, international development focus, but there were several courses, uh, that I was able to take related to the topic.
And of course, USAID, United States Agency for International Development, um, is a pretty prominent, uh, player in Central America. And so I had the opportunity to learn about how, you know, Bilateral assistance in the U. S. foreign assistance model works. Um, but then truthfully, it was just through the, the networks, the relationships that, that you can build being in country, you know, having your feet on the ground, that I was able to connect with the Fabretto Children's Foundation.
And, um, I mean, that truly changed my life. Meeting, uh, Kevin Marinacci, the founder and president of, uh, Fabretto. Uh, he invited me pretty much immediately to join one of their, not just join, but sort of co host help him, you know, sort of just tag along and be a, be a helper for whatever one of his donor trips needed.
And so, you know, within a matter of a couple of days, I was up in the very northern, um, Northern mountainous region of Nicaragua, the border of Honduras in a small town called San Jose de Cusmapa. And, you know, it's a whole other reality from the capital cities of most countries and, and it was, um, it was, you know, it, it's a beautiful region, the people, and this is, this is true across the board in Nicaragua, the people are really beautiful people, uh, hardworking.
And so that really inspired me. To, you know, continue to pursue opportunities to get more kind of, um, field work, I would say, then, then kind of going with the development model through USAID or, you know, some of the other agencies that I had had done internships with. Um, and, and yeah, ultimately Nicaragua and Fabretto became a really big part of my story and my career.
My career trajectory, because it was there that I later moved back, my parents were no longer signed there, but I moved back after university for the development position with them and met my now husband, who was also working in the nonprofit sector. So, um, Nicaragua and, and that nonprofit experience in living there was really, uh.
Formative part of my my experience or my story. Wow. That's awesome. I mean, you, you mentioned it changed your life. You meaning going there, change your life because it opened your eyes to seeing how you can help people in, in a different way or, or basically, um, just determining what you wanted to do for the rest of your life.
Like, how did it really, uh, change your life? So, I mean, I think 1 thing about getting experience within a nonprofit and especially a nonprofit of, um, a certain size or a certain, um, uh, yeah, like a nonprofit that has has infrastructure. I should I would say is that you really see that, um. You know, doing volunteer service is amazing and I will never discount that, uh, both as a personal experience and, and, you know, like the, the impact that you can have by going on a habitat build or stuffing backpacks for a school drive like that manual labor is, is so rewarding and important in many ways, but being part of an organization that's a community.
You know, writing curriculum or hiring and training teachers or identifying new technologies, um, you really are part of a more like systemic and longer term solution, uh, which is, you know, similar, I think, to a lot of careers. It's, it's really rewarding. You get to be part of a, of a long term project and, um, And the, the impact I would say is generally on people's lives.
Right. So, um, now being at ICF, which is a foundation, I'm, I'm definitely a little bit more at arm's length from that type of impact. You know, I'm not sitting in the room. Right at the teacher training that I helped coordinate, you know, or, or bringing donors to visit, you know, their sponsored children or, or, you know, coordinating a, a build of a new kitchen or something, but I am still getting the rewarding, um.
Feeling, I guess, of empowering those types of organizations who are providing longer term solutions. Um, and you didn't ask this, but I feel like this, I'm just going to jump on this topic of sort of, uh, institutional capacity and how important that is. And I've. Being at Fabretto and then now at ICF, it's something that we, um, we really prioritize as one of our main objectives is empowering and uplifting civil society to ensure that civil society as a whole, you know, the, the diversity of nonprofits, the small ones, the big ones.
A thriving civil society is really critical to, um, a healthy and resilient society. And we've seen that over and over again, uh, in the border region, we've seen it throughout Mexico and Latin America. And, um, I think that's one of the. The things that continues to drive me in my current role is even though I'm a little bit more arm's length away from the human impact that I used to get in Nicaragua, I'm getting to see how how organizations are strengthening and therefore better able to do their work.
You know, we're really uplifting and supporting some incredible community leaders and activists who are doing. Really doing the important work and we're just doing what we can to make sure that they have the resources they need to continue that work. So, um, yeah, no, it's, it's, it's no, it's not. It's great.
It's fantastic. This, you know, this is all about you today. So you get to say, however, whatever you want, however, you feel. Um, no, I do think that it's really important being on the foundation site to have the hands on experience. Transcribed You know, with you doing actually building a house and then going from there to doing more, you know, uh, sustainable programming and then going into the foundation.
I think that's really important. Is that very common for people at ICF to have come from, um, kind of more, uh, more hands on experience? Is that pretty common? Yes. Yes, absolutely. And you know, we're a small team. Um, when I joined ICF in 2015, I think we were six or seven staff and now we are, I want to say 14 or 15.
But we are a pretty diverse group of people. A lot of we're based in San Diego. So a lot of my colleagues, um, are, you know, Border kids, or as we say, you know, really cross border cross, uh, by national, um, and, uh, and everyone I think comes with some element of experience either in, you know, working directly in a nonprofit or in some sort of community leadership position.
So we really value that experience. Um, we think it, you know, it makes us stronger as a, as you know, we, we try to practice trust based philanthropy. I don't know. I don't know if that's too jargony for this audience, but the principles of, you know, like, we trust that our partners are doing are are doing the best work that they can.
And we try to, um, give them as. As limited obstacles as legally possible for us to to them doing that work. And so as a sort of general practice, we often do general operating grants. Um, and, you know, we try to make sure that our funding is as flexible and nimble as possible. We also do a. Biweekly sorry, not biweekly a weekly board vote, which means that every week we process grants, which is very uncommon.
I think in the world, because it's time consuming and it requires a lot of moving pieces. It requires our board being active and engaged. Um, and so, but we believe it's important because we're often responding for urgent needs. We're often the. You know, largest or more significant funder of really, really small grassroots organizations where, you know, even a thousand dollars is paying their salaries and making their, their work continue.
So, um, I think there, there's a lot of, a lot of these practices that ICF embodies are, um. Due to our experience as a team from having worked on the nonprofit side and seeing, you know, a delay of two months to get your money from a foundation is can be really challenging to keeping, keeping the work moving.
So, Oh, totally. Totally. Um, yeah. So let's talk a little bit about ICF. Like, give me a little background on, um, I know you joined in 2015. What, what does the organization do? So the International Community Foundation is a community foundation model, which means we're, we're a public charity, but we, um, we operate as a community foundation, which means we have a specific geographic area of interest and we, um, administer funds or manage funds, um, that include donor advised funds and, uh, what are typically called agency funds.
We call them our friends of funds. Uh, and those funds are essentially fiscal sponsorship for nonprofits in Mexico, um, that have legal status in Mexico, where we do a due diligence process to ensure that they are equivalent to a U S nonprofit. And so they can access, um, funding from U S donors or U S assets.
Um, And those donors can receive or are eligible for all of their tax benefits in the United States, but the funding is going to support initiatives in, uh, usually in Mexico or Central America. So we have about 100 of those agency funds. I think all except 1 are actually in Mexico, but that is changing as our Central America portfolio grows and, um.
And then our donor advised funds, of course, have, uh, different donors. And so our geographic area of interest is, as I said, Latin America and the Caribbean, um, but our programmatic area of interest is really as diverse as our donors and the communities where we're working. Um, so we have, um, uh, we have program officers and sort of, uh, um, uh, Strategic pillars for our environment work, our education work and are what we call migration and human rights work.
Um, but we also have a robust cohort of organizations and partners doing health work. Um, and we have several strategic initiatives that are more cross cutting, for example, um, food systems or, um, anything related to lgbtq rights or, um. You know, so, so there's, we recognize there's a lot of intersectionality between the programs that we sure that we administer, um, but we also, you know, in total, we have about 300 funds.
So it's really hard to articulate every type of program in a nutshell. When people ask, what does ICF do? I often say we're sort of a matchmaker between, um, donors and the charitable causes or issues that they, that they care about in Latin America. And where is your funding coming from or where are these donors coming from?
So again, they're pretty diverse. I would say, um, most of them are individuals and they, you know, everyone has their own unique and amazing story of how they came to us or why, you know, they are, um, Why they're, uh, part of this community of charitable giving, but, uh, a lot of our donors, especially historically are bi national or, you know, Mexican Americans who live in the U S and have assets in the U S, but, you know, want to give back to the communities of their origins.
Um, likewise, uh, we have people who are Americans who have chosen to retire or spend significant amounts of time in, in Mexico, so, um, the Baja peninsula, there's a large expat community from the U. S. and Canada and, um, you know, those, those individuals likewise have their assets in the U. S., but have become very close to organizations and communities and want to give back to those communities.
And for example, Los Cabos or La Paz. A lot of our funding historically has gone to environment and conservation work, and that work, um, has also been funded by institutional donors. So larger players in the environmental philanthropy ecosystem who don't necessarily have the, um, relationships and, uh.
Capacity to be giving in Baja or in Mexico, um, we've become their kind of programmatic administrators for, for programs that are supporting, um, you know, sustainable fishing initiatives or, um, the creation of marine protected areas like Cabo Pulmo near, near Los Cabos, um, those types of. Of big environmental issues that really require grassroots activism and grassroots funding.
Those types of initiatives have been funded, um, through us and and in partnership with our environment team, um, some. Oh, yeah, that's great. I mean, I'm always wondering. I'm sure it's not easy, right? It, uh, um, and you've grown. So it's, it's great. People know who you are coming to you to, to, to want to help the community.
Um, it's fantastic. Uh, so you've spearheaded some programming for immigrants, refugees and deportees in the San Diego Tijuana area. Tell me, tell me a little bit about that. I found, I found you from a, I was telling earlier social media post, um, where. Immigrant defenders, and this is about humanity and Tijuana sin hombre, all this, these organizations are doing amazing work for migrants in Tijuana, San Diego, and I said, who's ICF?
I'm going to look them up. So tell me a little bit about the programming. Yeah. Tell me a little about the programming for that. Yeah, sure. So as I mentioned, we are based in, in National City in San Diego County. Uh, and so, you know, historically we've been, ICF was founded in 1990, which I would say not so coincidentally, it is the same year that NAFTA passed and, uh, there was just generally a little You know, influx of cross border, um, you know, resources to the border and then cross border, um, trade and collaboration.
Uh, and so a lot of our donors and our and our former board members, uh, we're, we're very focused on the border region, but interestingly. ICF didn't necessarily have any sort of fund that was, you know, dedicated to the migrant or immigrant community. And I think that speaks to the nature of how immigration has changed so much in our country since the nineties.
How policies have changed the flow of people and the way, you know, the demographic of people. Uh, and so even though we, you know, had certainly made. Grants before perhaps more sort of like one off or what we call it transactional grants to to the small network of shelters that that was operating in Tijuana.
We weren't, we weren't necessarily engaging with the migrant asylum seeker community and, um. Until about 2015, which was when there was 2016. I'm sorry. There was a large influx of, um, Haitian migrants to the border, uh, largely in response to change in us policy to their status. And so, and of course, you know, in advance of that policy, people were choosing to come to the border.
In order to access that status, I think it was temporary protected status, um, before it was revoked. And so that is a perfect example of how U. S. policy has always and continues to impact the flows of people in the demographic of people at our border. Um, but so the, the arrival of that approximately 15, 000 Haitian migrants in Tijuana, you know, captured headlines and captured, you know, people's interests.
And so, um, we had several. Donors both individuals and institutional approach us and ask, what are we doing? How can we support? And that's exactly, you know, where I say we're a matchmaker. People come to us with a question like that, and we're like, we'll get on it. Even if we're not necessarily working in that space.
If it's a, if it's a geography that we know, well, we can do that. Um, do that work to assess, you know, assess who the, who the players are and figure out how to best respond. Um, and we came across a smaller organization called the special meet on there, which actually at the time was more just a movement.
It was, it was a very volunteer run movement as opposed to an actual legal organization. Um, but they were doing know your rights workshops. They had engaged with the, with a handful of the Haitian. You know, immigrants that they, um, and they were hiring people to do the Creole translation interpretation of those know your rights workshops.
Um, and so we were able to facilitate the funding of those workshops and then kind of out of that experience, um, You know, we were like, we, we should really have a fund that's focused on, you know, this is not an issue that's new to the region, nor is an issue that's ever going to go away. And so, um, this is, this is a kind of core group of organizations that, um.
Exists in this geography that we work in and we haven't engaged with and so we launched what we call our border fund. Um, and it's funny because at the time it felt almost like a political statement to, uh, to be launching the border fund and now it sounds so silly. It's of course, you know, it's almost, it's too vague and it's too, uh.
All encompassing, but our border fund is intentionally, um, broad because we, we never know what the exact needs are going to be. So the objectives of that fund are to support people on the move in the U. S. Mexico border region. Up to now, we have primarily focused on the California, Baja California region, mostly because of, uh, funding ability and, and, you know, we've, there's an ever and never ending demand for services and resources in Tijuana.
And so, and this is the region that we know best, but we have also facilitated some grants to shelters along the Texas and New Mexico border. But anyway, so, so the Border Fund has, um, has funded basic needs such as, you know, shelter, food, basic preventative health care. Um, we've also funded legal services.
We've funded, um, um, cultural and sort of, um, like integration awareness raising. Uh, events. So again, referring to Espacio Migrante, they, they do an annual festival called Miradas Fronterizas, which the objective is to grow understanding and, and, um, compassion and strengthen trust between immigrant communities and the communities where they're arriving.
So events like that. Oh, that's beautiful. Yeah, so through the border fund, we've been able to support, you know, the whole sort of a range of of wraparound services that that might be needed for community that is always going to be welcoming, um, new new people from all over the world. Um. That this is about humanity relationship is an amazing relationship with, um, that they're actually, uh, a group of donors who have come together and, and continue to leverage and raise awareness about the needs of people at the border.
Um, and, uh, through both the border fund and the, this is about humanity fund ICF. We've been able to fund, um, immigration defenders. We, there's a lot of overlap in the, in the. The nonprofit partners that we support and, um, ultimately overall, I think ICF has funded, uh, has, has provided more than 2 million in funding since 2016 specifically for the immigrant refugee community at, uh, in Tijuana.
So we're really proud and grateful for that partnership with this is about humanity. And, um, That's amazing. Yeah. Thank you so much for that, for that help because it's so needed. I actually do go to the border quite a bit with, um, a volunteer group I co founded called Rise to Reunite. And we bring volunteers, uh, to the shelters in Tijuana.
And sometimes we do a little bit of legal advice with, um, El Otro Lado, which is another, yeah, legal services organization. And then, but most of the time, it's a little bit of. Just, you know, a little bit of humanitarian aid. And, uh, then most recently we went to San Diego. When they were with the migrants were being released from customs and border protection with hearing notices, and then they're being bused to this, um, this school and nonprofits are helping in deaf as well as well in terms of.
Trying to figure out where they need to go. Yeah. And, and see if their families are separated, see where their families are. And it was, that was just a few weeks ago. And, uh, yeah, I, I, yeah. And I, and I've worked a lot with, um, Haitian migrants as well, but it just, it's, it's. There really is a need. I mean, you know, people, the news is always talking about how all this influx we have.
There's all these people coming in. It's a horrible thing, but really, it's been this backlog for a while because of title 42 and and people just have Been trying to come in and so they're, they're, they're finally letting them in now, but the media is always kind of turning it into this, this horrible issue.
And that's, I always have problems with that. Um, so how do organizations kind of apply for funding through you? So that's an interesting question, because, like I said, we manage about 300 funds, and each fund has sort of a different way of operating. So there's sort of a steep learning curve, I always say, for people who are new to our staff.
Because every program sort of has their different. Way of working, but our border fund, um, is a sort of open call for proposals. We, we try to stay abreast of everyone who's, who's working in this space. And, um, you know, through word of mouth, I think we've, we've granted to over 40 organs. We've, we've identified and granted to more than 40 organizations, um, you know, covering.
The gamut of needs, um, but we, we try not to just keep the funds, you know, the ideas for this fund to be responsive as much as possible. And, you know, as, as you mentioned, there's never. There's never an end to the kind of changes and policies and how that is impacting the border. And so there's always new needs and new kind of programs that.
That come across our plate, um, but it's a fund that we also have to fundraise for. And so the, the, you know, we're always, we're, we're funny because people think of us as a funder, but we all are also wearing a fundraising hat. And so we're often looking for new partners and trying to raise awareness about the needs, um, in the communities where we work.
Um, and so to your point, you know, storytelling and the narrative about the border is certainly something we really. Think a lot about and we try to work with our local partners to speak about their work and the importance of their work and, and, you know, sort of negate the, the media narrative about this being like a crisis and, you know, we're really proud of how the organizations that we work with, that we, that we've really built relationships with over the past.
Five, six years, they've gone from being these really grassroots organizations that maybe didn't even have a paid, uh, paid staff member to now having, you know, a functioning board and paid staff and, um, and I think. That for us is a metric of success. Um, and, and that allows them to be more effective and efficient in responding to this quote unquote crisis, right?
Like the, what you saw San Diego side of the border with the street releases, I mean, the organizations working in San Diego, Jewish family services, and, um, la familia and all of them, they're. Their level of infrastructure has become a model for other parts of the border because they are triaging and, and they, they learned by doing, they were building the plane while they were flying it in response, you know, to, um, remain in Mexico and title 42 being implemented.
Um, and that's what we kind of that's the vision we have for the. The civil society on the Tijuana side of the border that there will be a, and I think they're getting there, you know, and then shelter network of 30 some plus shelters of diverse, you know, types and focuses they're, they're working together in a way that they weren't pre 2016.
Um, and so it's no longer always crisis mode, but there is more stable infrastructure. Um, And so, anyway, to your question, we receive proposals on an ongoing basis. We have phone calls. It's a very ad hoc. We don't, we rarely have, like, a big enough fund balance to do, like, a formal call for proposals for our border work.
But that's sort of intentional and by design. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Um, do you have maybe a, a recent story or a success story of, of, uh, someone I know you're not doing direct services, but, you know, organization you funded and then, you know, used to use that, um, donation to help people like, have you, because I'm sure you are always aware of what's happening.
Um, You have kind of a story that kind of touched your heart in someone that that's been helped. Yeah, family there, you know, there's so many. And, um, like I said, you know, for us, we're often we're thinking about success in terms of this, like healthy, resilient ecosystem of civil society who's able to respond.
And so, um, our partners are, When they're reporting to us, they're 1st of all, they're often protecting the identities and and, you know, the, the situations that they're, they're, they're beneficiaries are experiencing. But I do know from, you know, having done site visits and spending time with some of the organizations, I think 1 of the most.
Inspiring for me anyway, success stories was a young woman who came from El Salvador and, you know, had been in, I think she was in university in El Salvador, um, had, you know, family members who had been killed and felt like, and was being threatened by the, by the gangs. And so I felt like she had to leave left with her mother, um, every, everyone you speak to, if they are willing to share, as I'm sure, you know, you know, has these.
Harrowing stories of the journey that they take, um, to get to our border. And so all of these people are just such incredibly strong, uh, humans. And she, you know, young woman in her twenties, um, at the time of her arrival, I think when I, which was a couple of years ago, it was still really hard to get. Any sort of residency status, the Mexican government has since implemented some different types of humanitarian visas and whatnot.
But, um, in order to go to university, she had to have some sort of legal status. And so she worked with some of the local organizations to get enrolled, um, and is studying to be a lawyer, but at the same time. Became a community outreach coordinator. So she was living in the shelter which is a small shelter just for families.
And, um, she was living in the shelter and then, um, and then decided to continue pursuing this dream of becoming a lawyer. And, you know, it was really inspired by the legal services that had been provided to her. And I think that. You know, recognizing that, like, one of the most effective ways, as you know, to give back in these situations is, is providing your expertise as a lawyer and advocating for people.
And so, um, and so she's now in university, and she also has become a staff member of an organization that previously. Didn't even have a paid executive director, you know, and so those types of stories for me are like, that's it's the whole package, right? It's the organization has succeeded. They are, they're hiring people who aren't just, you know, benefiting migrants, but are themselves migrants.
Inspiring them to pursue careers that will continue to build the, the resources and the ecosystem. So, um, I know it's not exactly the heartstring story of, like, we have a lot of those 2. yeah, no, I totally get it. We need, you know, different perspectives and it's great to see that, you know, she's become, um.
You know, in a place where she wants to be, and it's also helping the cause and is, you know, benefiting the organization. And I get it. You're a foundation. So this is the stuff that you, you look like you look at too. And it's so, and it's so important. So, yeah, thank you for sharing. So, um, in terms of. If there are some wealthy listeners out there and they wanted to donate or create a fund, how would they do that?
Uh, they can contact me or or my colleague, one of my colleagues, but we can start with me. Uh, so you can contact me at my at my email, which is my name. E. L. I. Z. A. at I. C. F. D. N. dot org. And, um, you can check out our website. We're currently in the middle of a website revamp. We're hoping it will be, uh, the new website will be launched in January.
So our content is a little bit outdated. Um, but on our website, there's still sort of the basic information about the different types of funds that we manage. And, um, I mean, if you're interested in just contributing to the, to the border fund, um, we have a donation link for that. You can go to donate. Dot I see FDN dot org, um, and then search for the border fund and, um.
All the funds that go into that fund, um, as I said, are it's a, it's a rare discretionary fund just for our strategy to, um. To embrace and support the community of migrants and refugees and asylum seekers at the U. S. Mexico border. So, um, if people have, you know, larger interests and visions and want to set up their own donor advised funds, that's where they could contact me and we can help kind of hone in on what people's interests are and.
And how we can help put your dollars to work. Yeah. No, that's great. Thank you. I'm glad you mentioned that anybody could donate to the border fund as well. We, um, Oh, absolutely. Yeah. That we will definitely put that information, um, on the bio when we publicize the podcasts and. Well, Eliza, thank you for everything you do.
Um, it's, it's really been a pleasure. I love hearing about the foundation side is, I think this is the 1st time I've interviewed somebody from a foundation, um, about about the board of work. So, this is, this is great. So, thank you so much for all your time and hopefully we can have you back in the future.
Thank you. Thank you so much for the invitation and, and helping us to promote this important issue and, and everything you're doing in your volunteer time. Thanks.
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