The Latino Coalition for Community Leadership (LCCL) was originally formed in 2003 in response to our concern that Latino organizations were not receiving government funding to support their services in their community. As the LCCL engaged with, and learned from, community and faith-based organizations (Community Partners), we discovered that other groups working to address common community health and safety issues faced similar challenges. Although historically Latino focused, the LCCL is not Latino exclusive. The diversity of our Community Partners proves to be a strength in addressing social issues that affect the broader community in a more collaborative and comprehensive approach.

The LCCL is nationally recognized as a leading community facing intermediary organization that Finds, Funds, Forms, and Features nonprofits in marginalized communities meeting the needs of individuals and families. As a community facing intermediary, the LCCL largely focuses on grassroots organizations and small to medium size nonprofits that reflect the communities they serve. The organizations are primarily led by people who live, work, worship, raise families, and recreate in the same communities they serve. The LCCL creates access to funding, provides administrative/program infrastructure, develops organizational capacity and creates a more diverse community health and safety ecosystem for the benefit of individuals and families. The LCCL has a deep expertise with programs and services that address prisoner reentry, crime victim services, violence prevention and intervention, and youth and young adults involved in the criminal justice system.

The LCCL is intentional in framing its sub-grantees as Community Partners, to reflect the interdependence and mutual respect of the roles each play. An overall goal of this partnership is capacity building, which includes increasing access to public dollars and grants, data tracking, performance measurement, reporting and compliance monitoring, assistance with staff and leadership development, coordinating relationships between state and federal agencies and community partners, growth management, and succession planning for sustainability.

Since the LCCL’s founding in 2003, we have accessed more than $44.5m in Federal grants from the Departments of Labor, Justice, and Health and Human Services and almost $53.5m in State funding from the states of Colorado and California. Additionally, funding from foundations, corporate and private donors enables the LCCL to provide comprehensive grantmaking, capacity building and technical assistance to community and faith-based organizations while driving money deep into under-resourced communities. To date, the LCCL has partnered with more than 208 CFBOs in marginalized communities throughout the United States to leverage more than $102.5 million dollars invested into low-income communities, marginalized communities of color and rural communities.