Inland Empire Community Foundation starts Latino fund

The Inland Empire Community Foundation has started a fund meant to help Latinos in Riverside and San Bernardino counties improve their lives.

The Cielo fund – Cultivating Inland Empire Latino Opportunity – is one of eight fund-drives launched by the foundation this year to mark its 80th anniversary, and its goal for Cielo is to raise $80,000, according to a statement.

“As the Latino community in the Inland Empire grows, so should investments in the frontline organizations providing critical resources and support to our families daily,” said Jesse Melgar, foundation board member and founding CIELO fund chair , in the statement. “Through this Fund we hope to catalyze a new network of community philanthropists at all levels of giving who are stepping up to invest in the communities we grew up in, live in, and that we will call home for generations to come.”

In the last 12 years, the Inland Empire’s population has gone from 47.3 percent to 51.6 percent, the foundation reported.

The Inland Empire Community Foundation is the oldest charitable organization of its kind in the Inland Empire. It has given out more than $127 million in grants and scholarships since its founding, according to the statement.