At a recent forum convened by Tepuy and its learning community, La Cordada, more than 100 organizations from across Latin America came together to discuss a topic that is gaining ground in the region: how to mobilize international resources for social and environmental causes. Caring for Colombia was glad to join the panel, alongside APC Colombia and The Resource Foundation, in a conversation that made one thing clear: this is a pivotal moment for Latin American philanthropy.
When the panelists were asked to describe that moment in a single word, their answers mapped out the whole picture: growth (Ana María González, APC Colombia), change (Paloma Camelo, Caring for Colombia), and opportunity (Lucero, The Resource Foundation). Three different lenses that, together, tell the same story: a sector moving beyond the logic of charity toward something strategic, measurable, and sustainable.
What is fiscal sponsorship, and why does it matter?
The macro view: a region ready to be seen
With four decades of supporting organizations across Latin America and the Caribbean, The Resource Foundation brings a regional perspective. Its central message was direct: what donors are looking for, even before a well-written project, is trust. Unlike international cooperation, philanthropy is built on relationships. The organization that manages to captivate and cultivate a donor doesn’t receive a one-time gift but recurring donations—the real bet on sustainability.
Trust, however, does not replace an organization’s own work. Lucero stressed that organizations are the protagonists of their own story. Fiscal sponsors are bridges that help with visibility—essential when, as she noted, there are roughly 1.8 million organizations in the United States competing for local donors’ attention—but the first step belongs to each organization: a clear philanthropy strategy for how to approach individual, corporate, and foundation donors. Tools like Google Ad Grants, or something as simple as a breakfast to tell your story to two or three donors, can make the difference.
The micro view: Colombia as an example
If the region provides the context, Colombia offers a concrete case. Based in New York with a mission focused entirely on the country, Caring for Colombia acts as that bridge of trust between donors in the United States and high-impact organizations in Colombia.
Paloma Camelo explained the added value of fiscal sponsorship from hands-on experience. First, issuing tax-deductible donation certificates—an incentive for individuals and companies alike (think of corporate matching from companies like Google, Apple, or Amazon, which double their employees’ donations). Second, the peace of mind of knowing there’s an operation behind the scenes accounting for the legal and financial processes and for IRS audits. And third, the due diligence that identifies the organizations actually implementing impact on the ground.
A close-to-home example: after the floods in Córdoba earlier this year, CFC activated a matching scheme, contributing its own amount and multiplying the additional donations. And behind every channeling of resources are narrative, financial, and impact reports shared with the donor. That is precisely the practice that has sustained relationships with donors who have believed in the organization—and in the projects it supports in Colombia—for more than 15 years.
Cross-sector partnerships and the role of the public sector
One of the forum’s most valuable lessons was recognizing that anyone can be a bridge. Connecting the public, social, and private sectors is not a luxury but a condition for the conversation on philanthropy to mature across the region.
Here, APC Colombia’s contribution stands out. The Presidential Agency for International Cooperation led the launch of the first national philanthropy strategy in the hemisphere driven from the public sector. Its major conceptual shift: to stop asking what the big global donors do with their money, and start asking what we do with ours. Ana María González put it plainly—beyond remittances, which are an expense, the Latin American diaspora could channel donations equivalent to the taxes they already pay in their country of residence. For a small organization, a donation that a major donor wouldn’t even notice can be the difference between existing for another year or not.
That logic gives rise to initiatives like the Circles of Generosity: instead of waiting for the millionaire donor, identifying those who already believe in your cause—the aunt who has lived in the U.S. for 30 years, the cousin, the friend—and building relationships with them that go beyond the transactional.
The panel also left an important nuance: the public sector should convene and enable, but not control. The one who ultimately safeguards the proper use of resources is the donor, supported by the fiscal sponsor’s monitoring and reporting mechanisms and the corresponding audits in the United States.
Technology and AI in the service of impact
The forum also surfaced a component often left behind in the social sector: technology. Tepuy, the company that convened the space through La Cordada, works precisely to close that gap. Its impact-management platform supports organizations on four fronts—planning, measuring, communicating, and financing impact—and incorporates artificial intelligence for tasks such as funder mapping and, soon, mapping the fiscal sponsors that genuinely align with each project, rather than a generic list.
As Ana María González noted, the internet and artificial intelligence mark a transition the sector cannot watch from the sidelines: the point is to adapt, adopt it, and take a leading role.
Three steps to get started
If one thing was clear, it’s that mobilizing resources doesn’t begin when a funding call appears—it begins much earlier. The forum left a simple roadmap, which the host summed up in three questions:
- To whom? Make a list of the people who believe in you—with name, email, city, even birthday—and nurture that relationship consistently.
- Why? Be clear on your added value: what problem you solve and what makes you different, so the donor falls in love with your cause and not another.
- How? Set up concrete tools, like a donation button: that “digital wallet” in the United States that lets you collect funds, process payments, and generate donation certificates automatically.
A conversation that's only just beginning
As was said at the close of the forum, this is a universe we’re only beginning to explore. At Caring for Colombia, we believe the path is built as a community: among organizations, donors, public-sector allies, and technology partners who, together, make it possible for resources to reach where they’re needed most.
You can watch the full recording of the forum here: Mobilizing International Resources for Your Cause – Forum: La Cordada.