National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund

The organization lobbied against the addition of a question on citizenship status in the 2020 Census. To assist in this venture, the organization created the National Latino Commission on the 2020 Census in 2018. The commission was co-chaired by then-California Secretary of State Alex Padilla (D) and Miami-Dade school board member Lubby Navarro (R) who stated that if the question of citizenship status was on the Census, it would “create an undercount,” meaning that Latinos “could lose representation.” ⁴

Monica Vargas-Huertas, the deputy-northeast director of the NALEO Educational Fund, testified in front of the New York State Complete Count Commission concerning the 2020 Census in the Bronx borough of New York stating that it was concerning to have the question of citizenship on the Census as the inclusion of the question would “significantly reduce Census participation rates.” ⁵

History

The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund is the charitable arm of NALEO, a 501(c)(4) membership organization that focuses on ensuring elected Latino leaders prioritize representing Latino communities. ⁶

The NALEO Educational Fund focuses on funding initiatives that promote Latino political engagement. It also promotes left-of-center talking points on issues such as immigration, voting rights, the Census, and election administration. ⁷

Although the NALEO was founded in 1976, the Educational Fund was established in 1981 with the intent of increasing Latino political participation. It released its first National Hispanic Roster of Elected Officials in 1984, and moved its headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles, California, in 1987. ⁸

Arturo Vargas joined the NALEO Educational Fund as its chief executive officer in 1994. As of March 2022, Vargas is the chief executive officer of the organization and its 501(c)(4) counterpart. ⁸

The organization launched the Harry P. Pachon Civic Engagement Program, a program that focuses on naturalization and civic participation, in 2000. It then, with partner organizations, created the ya es hora campaign in 2007 to build upon the immigration marches of 2006. The campaign noted that more than 25,000 Latinos had registered to vote on its website by 2008. ⁸

According to NALEO’s Directory of Latino Elected Officials, nearly 6,600 Latinos, including members of Congress and state legislators, held office as of November 2017. ⁹

Financials

The NALEO Educational Fund recorded a total revenue amount of just over $12.8 million in 2018, around $12.6 million of which came in the form of contributions and grants. The organization’s total expenses amounted to approximately $10.3 million with just over $4 million being spent on salaries and wages, while just under $370,000 was spent on executive compensation. ¹⁰

The organization reported a total revenue amount of just under $14.5 million in 2019, approximately $14.1 million of which came from contributions and grants. Its total expenses amounted to around $12.7 million, approximately $4.7 of which was spent on salaries and wages, and just over $661,000 on executive compensation. The organization spent just over $1 million on grants. ^{10 11}

The NALEO Educational Fund’s revenue dropped in 2020 as it recorded just over $10.6 million in total with nearly the entire amount, around $10.57 million, coming from contributions and grants. It had just under $13.5 million in total expenses, with around $7 million being spent on salaries and wages. According to its tax returns, the organization only spent around $1.8 million on grants, and listed just over $4.6 million on “other expenses.” ¹¹

Funding

The NALEO Educational Fund receives the majority of its revenue in contributions and grants from private grantmaking foundations.

The Gates Foundation

One of the largest funders of the NALEO Educational Fund is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, also known as the Gates Foundation. Formed in 2000 by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, the Gates Foundation is a left-of-center private grantmaking foundation that had nearly $48 billion in total assets as of year-end 2018. ^{1 12}

The Gates Foundation’s first grant to the NALEO Educational Fund was for $50,000 in 2004 for “K-12 Education.” The foundation then granted an additional $70,000 in 2005 and $375,000 in 2007 for “K-12 Education.” ¹

The Gates Foundation continued to supply grants to the NALEO Educational Fund but changed the grant topics. The foundation granted the Educational Fund $661,414 in 2009 for “U.S. Education, Poverty, and Family Homelessness Public Awareness and Analysis” under its “Global Policy and Advocacy” grant division. It then granted $1,441,861 in 2011 for “Public Awareness and Analysis,” $1,890,000 in 2013 for “Pacific Northwest Education and Human Service Needs,” and $1.4 million in 2015 for “Postsecondary Education.” ¹

The foundation granted $3,066,000 in 2016 for “K-12 Education.” Since then, the Gates Foundation has granted $200,000 in 2018, two grants amounting to $3,037,379 in 2019, and $1,750,000 in 2021, all of which were listed as “Public Awareness and Analysis.” ¹

W.K. Kellogg Foundation

The W.K. Kellog Foundation, also known as the Kellogg Foundation,  is a left-of-center private grantmaking foundation that focuses on providing grants to education and race-based causes. ¹³

The Kellogg Foundation’s first grant to the NALEO Educational Fund was a single grant of $565,034 in 1990 to “strengthen the leadership skills of Hispanic elected officials.” It committed $360,616 in 1991 to assist “Hispanic youth become leaders in their schools and communities,” $349,940 in 1997 to “strengthen Hispanic leadership at the community and public policy levels,” $100,000 in 2004 to for “Latino educational issues” and $459,500 in 2005 for health care access. ²

As part of its $28.7 million six-year initiative, Engaging Latino Communities for Education (ENLACE), which started in 2000, the Kellogg Foundation granted the NALEO Educational Fund another grant of $900,000 in 2005. It continued to provide support for “training” to elected Latino officials and fund charitable events of the NALEO Educational Fund through grants of $300,000 in 2009, $15,000 in 2010, $175,000 in 2014, $40,000 in 2016, and $600,000 in 2019. ²

Open Society Foundations

NALEO Educational Fund has received multiple grants from the Open Society Foundations (OSF), a private grantmaking foundation created and funded by billionaire financier and liberal philanthropist George Soros. OSF is the main hub of a Soros-funded network of more than 20 national and regional foundations, making it one of the largest political philanthropies in the world. ³

The Open Society Foundations’ first grant was for $500,000 in 2016 for “general support.” The foundation also granted $145,000 for “policy development and advocacy initiative” regarding the 2020 Census in 2017, and $330,000 to support NALEO Educational Fund’s charity and Census work in 2018. ³

The NALEO Educational Fund created the National Latino Commission on the 2020 Census in 2018, which was co-chaired by Miami-Dade school board member Lubby Navarro (R). Navarro intended to lobby for the removal of the citizenship question from the 2020 Census. She stated that if the question of citizenship status was on the Census, it would “create an undercount,” meaning that Latinos “could lose representation.” Ultimately, the citizenship question was removed from the 2020 Census. ⁴

The NALEO Educational Fund also received three grants from Open Society Foundations in 2020. The first was $175,000 for “general support,” the second was $400,000 for “non-partisan civic engagement,” and the third was $200,000 to “ensure the Latino community is accurately counted in the 2020 census.” ³

Other

The NALEO Educational Fund has received multiple grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, a private grantmaking foundation founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 that, since being headed by Vartan Gregorian, has awarded substantial grants to left-of-center organizations including the Tides Center, Center for American Progress, and the New Venture Fund.

The Carnegie Corporation of New York granted the NALEO Educational Fund $375,000 in 2004 and again in 2007, $500,000 in 2009, $10,000 in 2014, $200,000 in 2016, $550,000 in 2018 and again in 2020. All grants were filed under its “Democracy” program. ¹⁴

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation is a left-of-center grantmaking foundation that supports environmental causes, population control programs, and three programs created by David Packard: the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the Packard Fellowships in Science and Engineering. The foundation provided two grants to the NALEO Educational Fund; one grant of $3 million in 2018, and another of $2 million in 2019, both for “organizational effectiveness.” ¹⁵

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (also known as the Hewlett Foundation) is a private foundation that awarded over $465 million in grants in 2020 to issues involving education, environment, gender equity, and governance. The Hewlett Foundation granted the NALEO Educational Fund $1.5 million in 2017, $500,000 in 2019, and again in 2021, all for “general operating support.” ^{16 17}

NALEO Educational Fund also received multiple grants from the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, a private foundation that provides grants primarily to left-of-center activist groups, with a focus on supporting liberal expansionist immigration policy, LGBT interests, education, and organizations in the San Francisco Bay area. The foundation granted the NALEO Educational Fund $100,000 in 2011 and $75,000 in 2013 for “immigrant rights,” and $5,000 in 2016. It also granted $50,000 in 2020 and $25,000 in 2021, with both grants listed under “democracy.” ^{18 19}

The Democracy Fund is a public policy-oriented foundation that contributes to center-left and left-wing organizations including the New Venture Fund’s 2020 Census Project and Center for American Progress. NALEO Educational Fund received $200,000 in 2017 and $475,000 in 2019 under the label “governance,” and $250,000 in 2020 under the label “elections.” ^{20 21}

NALEO Educational Fund received two grants from the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that gives grants to non-profits that provide medical care.

The Commonwealth Fund granted $50,000 in 2020 to increase “Latino policymakers’ understanding of the 2020 presidential candidates’ healthcare proposals.” According to the grant, Commonwealth Fund “experts, grantees, and resources” were the “primary source” of information at NALEO’s 37th Annual Conference. The Commonwealth Fund also granted $682,500 in 2021 to identify “pathways” to broaden “COVID-19 vaccine uptake,” through the United States COVID-19 Vaccine Poll. ^{22 23}

The Bauman Family Foundation, also known as the Bauman Foundation, has donated millions of dollars to left-of-center causes over the past decade and has ties to the Democracy Alliance. The Bauman Foundation granted the NALEO Educational Fund $4,000 in 2015, $20,000 in 2017, $50,000 in 2018, and $25,000 in 2019. All grants were listed as “general support.” ^{24 2526}

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has also provided NALEO Educational Funds with grants. The controversial watchdog of extremist groups, which has been criticized for its financial practices and for characterizing non-violent conventional conservative organizations as equivalent to violent extremists, granted the Educational Fund $150,000 in 2020 to facilitate “full Latino participation in the American political process.” It also granted $200,000 in 2021 to “support voter mobilization in local elections and the 2022 midterm elections.” The grant was part of SPLC’s Vote Your Voice initiative. ^{27 28}

The NALEO Educational Fund received two grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (also known by its abbreviation, RWJF), a left-of-center foundation that was a key funder of groups advocating for the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. RWJF provided funds to Enroll America, an organization that the Obama administration used to recruit sign-ups for Obamacare health plans. Since 1995, the foundation’s financial influence on health care alone has accounted for almost 45 percent of all giving in the area of health policy. ²⁹

RWJF granted the NALEO Educational Fund $308,000 in 2010 to engage “Latino leaders in childhood obesity issues,” and a grant of $200,000 in 2021 to poll “diverse communities to understand the barriers to COVID-19 vaccination.” ³⁰

The Arizona Community Foundation (ACF) is a left-of-center grantmaking organization and one of the largest community foundations in the state of Arizona. The ACF has approximately $903 million in assets as of March 2020 and has provided $853 million in grants since 1978. ^{31 32}

Through the Arizona Community Foundation, which contributed $35,000 from its 2020 Census Fund, the NALEO Educational Fund received $50,000 from both the Helios Education Foundation and the Phoenix IDA Community Development Fund to assist the Educational Fund’s 2020 Census work in 2019. ³³

State Farm granted $565,000 to the NALEO Educational Fund in 2021 to support its Legislative Summit, annual conference, and programs such as workforce development, and emergency response and management. The Educational Fund also received $15,000 from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust in 2015 for its 32nd annual conference. ^{34 35}

The NALEO Educational Fund has received multiple grants from the left-of-center Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, which uses legacy monies from the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco fortune to fund North Carolina-based liberal agendas and organizations. The foundation granted the NALEO Educational Fund $15,000 in 2015, and named the organization as a recipient of the foundation’s Fall 2018 and Fall 2020 Grant Awards, although no amount was specified. ^{36 37 38 39}

The NALEO Educational Fund is named as a grantee for Solidarity Giving but no specified amount is noted. Other left-of-center organizations that receive a Solidarity Giving grant include the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Foundation, Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Earthjustice, New Venture Fund, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. ⁴⁰

Advocacy Activities

Vote411

The NALEO Educational Fund partnered with the League of Women Voters Education Fund (LWVEF) in 2020. ⁴¹

LWVEF is the educational and fundraising arm of the League of Women Voters (LWV) of the United States, an advocacy group for electoral system changes, and many other left-of-center policy issues. LWV lobbies and advocates on several left-leaning issues, and although it is nonpartisan under IRS nonprofit rules, it has been widely criticized for pushing left-leaning policies including co-signing a letter that denounced nuclear power as “dirty energy” (nuclear power plants produce no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions). ^{42 43 44}

Its Vote411 election tool provides registration information, voter guides, and candidates’ political positions on a variety of issues. The NALEO Educational Fund partnered with LWVEF to translate the Vote411 website into Spanish. ^{45 41}

Vaccination

The NALEO Educational Fund granted a total of $500,000 to seven organizations to “combat the spread of COVID-19 misinformation and boost vaccination uptake among Latino and African-American communities.” According to Arturo Vargas, the chief executive officer of the NALEO Educational Fund, the grant was created with the intent to “empower young people of color to make more informed choices when it comes to their health and combat the spread of vaccine misinformation.” ⁴⁶

The Chula Vista Community Collaborative, Calexico Wellness Center, California Black Women’s Health Project, Orange County Communities Organized for Responsible Development, Legacy LA, Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy, and the Youth Action Project were the organizations that received money from the grant, although no specified amount was noted. ⁴⁶

2020 Census

The NALEO Educational Fund was against the addition of a question regarding citizenship status to the 2020 Census.

The Educational Fund created the National Latino Commission on the 2020 Census in 2018, which was co-chaired by Miami-Dade school board member Lubby Navarro, and then-California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who was part of the Democratic Party. ⁴

Navarro intended to lobby for the removal of the citizenship question from the 2020 Census. She stated that if the question of citizenship status was on the Census, it would “create an undercount,” meaning that Latinos “could lose representation.” ⁴

Monica Vargas-Huertas, the deputy-northeast director of the NALEO Educational Fund, testified in front of the New York State Complete Count Commission concerning the 2020 Census in the Bronx borough of New York on March 11, 2019. Vargas-Huertas claimed that the accuracy of the 2020 Census was “in jeopardy” due to “insufficient Congressional funding” and the creation of “last-minute changes” to the Census, referencing the question of citizenship. Vargas-Huertas testified that it was concerning to have the question of citizenship on the Census as the inclusion of the question would “significantly reduce Census participation rates.” ⁵

Ultimately the question on citizenship status was removed from the 2020 Census.

PeopleArturo Vargas is the CEO of both the NALEO and the NALEO Educational Fund, a position which he has held for both organizations since he joined them in 1994. ⁴⁷

Before joining the NALEO, Vargas held multiple positions at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), a left-wing litigation and advocacy group focused on immigration, election procedure, and Census and demographic interest issues. These positions included vice president for community education and public policy, and the director of outreach and policy. Vargas also directed MALDEF’s 1990 Census program. ⁴⁸

Vargas also worked as a senior education policy analyst at the National Council of La Raza, now known as UnidosUS, a left-of-center nonprofit organization best known for its aggressive defense and promotion of expanded immigration and giving legal status to illegal immigrants. He also served on the United States Census Bureau National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations. ⁴⁸