El Centro Hispano Recognizes HIP for Leadership in North Carolina

Hispanics in Philanthropy received the Service Award from El Centro Hispano at the organization’s 20th Anniversary Gala Celebration. El Centro is a HIP grantee and one of the largest Latino organizations in North Carolina. “Tonight we gather to celebrate the many people and organizations that have positively impacted our center and the Hispanic/Latino community we serve,” El Centro Hispano President and CEO Pilar Rocha-Goldberg said in her written welcome address for the sold-out gala. The event featured dinner and dancing with a Latin band for the more than 300 guests on June 2 at Durham Convention Center at the Durham Marriott City Center, 201 Foster St., Durham, N.C. “Hispanics in Philanthropy has been instrumental in supporting and funding El Centro Hispano’s efforts to improve and strengthen data management, services for youth, our membership program and other fundraising activities,” El Centro said in conferring the Service Award. The award acknowledges a person or organization that El Centro views as having been instrumental in supporting and developing its Support Services Program. El Centro Hispano was founded in 1992 as a joint project of the Catholic and Episcopal churches and now has two locations in Durham and Chapel Hill, NC. El Centro Hispano served 11,000 people during 2011-2012. HIP’s North Carolina Funders’ Collaborative, and particularly the Triangle Community Foundation and the A.J. Fletcher Foundation as local funding partners, have helped to support El Centro Hispano since 2003. “El Centro Hispano is a shining example of a Latino-led organization that has transformed the community,” said HIP North Carolina Program Manager Althea Gonzalez.