“Dr. Colón and the Foundation have done remarkable work over the past thirty years to build bridges between Latinos and African Americans to create positive and sustainable change, particularly in building a coalition focused on boys and men of color,” said Luz Vega-Marquis, president and CEO of Marguerite Casey Foundation.
Nelson Colón has been the President of the Puerto Rico Community Foundation since January 2000 and is also the Director of the Consortium for Community Economic Development of the Foundation. Dr. Colón received a Master of Art in anthropology from the State University of New York and a doctorate in education from Harvard University.
HIP Board Chair Awarded Patiño Moore Legacy Award
We are thrilled to announce that the Puerto Rico Community Foundation, headed by our Board Chair Dr. Nelson Colón, has been awarded the 2016 Patiño Moore Legacy Award. The $150,000 award recognizes the foundation’s work to unite Black and Brown communities in a shared vision of economic and social well-being.
Dr. Colón, the foundation’s director, received the award in Washington D.C. on November 12, 2016.
The Patiño Moore Legacy Award was created jointly by ABFE, Hispanics in Philanthropy, and Marguerite Casey Foundation. The award is named after Dr. Douglas Patiño and Wenda Weekes Moore for their ongoing legacy of work to improve relations between Black and Brown communities. Dr. Patiño, vice chancellor emeritus for the California State University system, is a board member of Marguerite Casey Foundation. Mrs. Moore is a former trustee of W.K. Kellogg Foundation and a former board member of the Council on Foundations.
The Puerto Rico Community Foundation (PRCF) is the first and oldest community foundation in Latin America and the only one in Puerto Rico. Since its inception, the PRCF was envisioned as an engine to promote the transformation of communities while increasing community assets, and strengthening their potential to achieve social and economic transformation through their own empowered processes. Over the past thirty years, PRCF has focused on areas including education, health, community leadership, housing, economic development, arts, and social justice.
PRCF has also provided invaluable technical assistance and capacity building to local nonprofits, hence, strengthening the ecosystem that serves vulnerable populations. The PRCF is a bridge builder among countries and regions. Led by Dr. Nelson Colón, one of the few AfroCaribbean CEO’s in the field, the Foundation has continuously worked to bring together black and Latino communities in Puerto Rico, the U.S., the Caribbean and Latin America.