Philanthropy in Puerto Rico grew after Hurricane Maria. What will happen now?

Alma Frontera had never considered including radios and satellite phones in her nonprofit’s budget before hurricanes Irma and María pummeled the archipelago in 2017. However, when we spoke in early August, the president of the Boys & Girls Club of Puerto Rico (BGCPR) casually mentioned the amateur radio call sign assigned to operators on the archipelago—KP4—, as she had just submitted a grant to upgrade her organization’s communications equipment. 

Non-profits have faced and adjusted to shifting conditions in Puerto Rico over the past eight years. Immediately after Maria, the BGCPR busted open the doors to the buildings that once hosted their after-school program, and transformed them into vital community centers. Frontera, who joined BGCPR in 2024, explained how the organization turned the Isabela building into an emergency shelter, as it had dorms.

Many buildings and resources now have supplies, like food, water, and generators, to ensure that they are prepared for the next disaster, rather than having to improvise. Disaster preparedness—once relegated to a few specialty organizations—has now become an essential part of nearly every non-profit in the archipelago. Items many thought would be used exclusively during a disaster have now become commonplace. Although not everyone can afford radios, almost every organization had to invest in electrical generators to keep the lights on during storms or the daily blackouts that most Puerto Ricans face. 

‍“Nobody was prepared for María, but the support systems we see today in the third sector exist, in great part, because of that moment of the emergency,” said Frontera, who volunteered as Disaster Recovery Coordinator for Foundation for Puerto Rico right after hurricanes Irma, Maria and Dorian.

While contributions typically drop off shortly after a disaster, Puerto Rico had a different experience: both funders and investors suddenly focused on the tropical archipelago, which had declared bankruptcy the year before. With the exception of three organizations, investment from funders at least doubled between 2017 and 2023, according to an analysis by 9 Millones of organizations that received the most money in recent years. However, that increase in funding is beginning to erode for some organizations that received support post-María.

The disaster opened up Puerto Rico to donations from large U.S. and international philanthropic foundations, many of which had never before contributed to Puerto Rico, several experts told 9 Millones. Many attributed this to the media’s continued coverage of the devastation, as well as the Puerto Rican diaspora's persistent support. Social media, in particular, exposed the archipelago's polycrisis to the world, some interviewees said. According to a study by Filantropía Puerto Rico, the archipelago received over $375 million in cash contributions from just 41 grantmaking organizations. This money—60 times larger than the typical annual philanthropic support—was mainly directed to aid in immediate relief and long-term recovery. In total, these entities created 26 new funds that committed a total $310 million, according to the study.

However, that fateful night of September 20, 2017, which many experts described as a “before and after” in the nation’s history, was not the only socio-political upheaval to come. Puerto Ricans, fresh off 15 days of rage that unseated a governor, were literally shaken to their core by a series of earthquakes that displaced nearly 50,000 people in January of 2020. Two months later, those who still had homes then endured nearly two years confined indoors due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only to encounter the devastation of Hurricane Fiona two years later. Between 2021 and 2024, Puerto Rico’s electrical grid also became the worst in the United States, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

“The different emergencies open some funding opportunities for soliciting funds that, when you’re not in a state of emergency, you have no way of soliciting. Suddenly, we were in one state of emergency after another for quite a while. When we were closing down María’s opportunities, we were already talking about earthquakes, then COVID, then Fiona,” Frontera said.

‍The increase in philanthropic funding allowed organizations to undertake larger projects than ever before. The BGCPR, for example, has seen funding increase significantly since 2017, becoming the second non-hospital organization grantee to receive the most funding by dollar amount in recent years, according to data analyzed by 9 Millones. The first is Servicios Legales de Puerto Rico, Inc., which receives funding from the Legal Services Corporation, established by Congress to provide legal aid programs across the U.S. and its colonies.‍

The majority of nonprofits surveyed by 9 Millones received either less than 10% or did not take government funding at all. Meanwhile, four received between half and a third of their budget from government funds. BGCPR is one of the latter. 

Operating in a volatile environment

When asked about operating in a volatile funding environment, Frontera explained that external threats to nonprofits will always exist. The BGCPR is constantly working on diversifying their funding streams, planning for different scenarios, and reinforcing the message that their work with youths is important, as well as highlighting their economic impact on Puerto Rico, she said.

‍Their contributions surged by $3 million between 2017 and 2018. Between 2021 and 2022, they received a nearly $26 million spike in contributions, in great part due to the government’s Head Start program, which provides early childhood education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and families. In 2023, they received over $30 million in contributions. However, Frontera noted that such large jumps do not reflect their typical funding over the years.

‍

As part of their strategies, BGCPR has developed a partnership between its Head Start program and a charter school they opened in 2018—the first charter school on the archipelago. The school is part of a larger service center called Vimenti, that provides other services to students and families, like healthcare services and workforce training. The center has received pass-through funds from local government agencies. Charter schools, which receive government money but are operated independently of the state school system, have been routinely criticized by many, including teachers' unions, who argue they lack accountability and financial oversight. 

Puerto Rico’s poverty rate remains more than three times higher than every other U.S. jurisdiction, with 56% of children living below the poverty line, and these numbers have only increased since 2017.

BGCPR currently operates more than 50 active programs. Frontera takes particular pride in how they have strengthened their food program, which provides many children with the only hot meal they receive in a day. “It’s the first thing that happens when they get to the club, because we know the correlation between good nutrition and education,” she said. 

The organization’s assets have changed almost as much as their contributions in recent years. In 2022, it had $4 million in net assets that plummeted to negative $3.4 million in 2023. This swing corresponds to increased costs from opening new Head Start centers, as well as new programs targeting youth food security and child poverty, Frontera explained in a statement. However, things have somewhat stabilized: they had over a million in net assets in 2024, and are expecting similar conditions this year. 

A rising tide for all organizations

Although the Boys & Girls Club of Puerto Rico has experienced the most dramatic change in their funding, a rising tide lifted all boats. Several leaders told 9 Millones that they expanded the scope and reach of their programs, while also implementing disaster preparedness measures that activate during emergencies thanks to these increases in funding. 

Taller Salud, a feminist organization focused on women’s health and anti-violence initiatives, stands out among them. Post-María funding increases allowed them to expand their Acuerdo de Paz, designed to curb gang violence, serving 300 youths directly and over 20,000 community members who have participated through different events. The program, they explain, has also contributed to a 65% reduction in violent deaths in their native Loíza since 2012, when it launched. They also purchased one building in the archipelago’s southwest region, and rehabilitated a rescued school's kitchen in another municipality. Both function as rapid response sites in disasters, alongside a building in Loíza.

The organization also started targeting food insecurity outside of Loíza. A new study they conducted, among 87 participants of community kitchens in Loíza, found that 15% only have access to one meal a day, while 51% have access to two. Their investigation found that San Germán and Salinas, two southwestern municipalities, have similar patterns.

Food insecurity in Puerto Rico currently reaches one in three people. Meanwhile, among the elderly and children, that figure reaches nearly 50%, according to a 2024 Feeding America study. More than a third of Puerto Rico receives assistance from the Nutrition Assistance Program, which is the equivalent of SNAP for the archipelago. 

Funding uncertainty in the Trump era

Both Taller Salud and BGCPR have faced funding uncertainty, and one even lost support, due to recent White House cuts to government grants.

Even though the Boys & Girls Club of Puerto Rico has not seen funding cuts, they faced great uncertainty earlier this year, when the White House paused many government grants for reevaluation. It led Frontera and her team to consider possible program cuts, she explained. A funding lapse would prevent them from serving over 17,000 children and supporting over 520 employees in 25 locations. Luckily, the pause was lifted quickly. She also worried about possible federal funding cuts, which would include their early youth programs under Head Start, being discussed earlier in the year. (A government watchdog recently accused the Trump administration of illegally withholding funds from the Head Start program.) 

Taller Salud’s funding jumped to $5 million in 2023 from $2 million the previous year, largely due to a grant from the Department of Justice’s Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative (CVIPI) program that strengthened Acuerdo de Paz. Executive director Tania Rosario Méndez praised the grant’s impact—which allowed them an increase in the participants and neighbors they were able to reach, as well as in offered services—but noted that the Trump administration terminated it earlier this year, jeopardizing the program’s future. Because federal grants operate on a reimbursement basis, it left them with an unexpected $1.2 million hole in their budget. 

About 20 active participants and their families "immediately" lost access to the program’s services, which include leadership and workforce development, once the funding was cut. The entire program, which includes another 80 participants and other services like a psychologist for families affected by violence, is at risk of being put on pause in December if they do not manage to find the necessary funding. 

Rosario Méndez explained that they will have to get creative to replace the funding because there’s no one grant that could fully replace federal investments. Instead, it will likely have to come from a series of smaller grants. After the grant was pulled, Taller Salud received support from several foundations which have a history of contributing to their mission, such as the Puerto Rico Community Foundation (FCPR, in Spanish), one of the top 15 donors in the archipelago. While these grants helped cover some of the cuts, the program remains at high risk of closing by the end of the year.

“Many things are a little uncertain… There could be federal money to fund those services right now, but it’s called another way. They have changed the name of programs, canceled here and opened there,” Rosario Méndez said. 

Because of recent changes to the federal government’s nonprofit funding model, many organizations and foundations in Puerto Rico have seen their funding decrease or flatline around 2023, according to IRS data. President Trump’s targeting of nonprofits has caused many donors to become wary of donating to certain groups that they would have supported previously. Meanwhile, many organizations have had to self-censor their language or roll back critical programs amidst attacks from the White House. 

“The landscape of philanthropy feels like it’s under attack and some organizations prefer not to associate themselves with social justice causes. They don't want to be in the crosshairs of authoritarian policies, and they back off a little, and they don't want to take risks. Others are completely the opposite. It's the other way around. Let's move forward. And that’s where we are without a doubt,” said Rigel Lugo, interim executive director of María Fund, a project at the Tides Foundation.

Tides works as a fiscal sponsor for several organizations. María Fund, through Tides, is among the top 20 donors to Puerto Rico, according to an analysis by 9 Millones of informational tax returns. 

Founded in Hurricane María’s immediate aftermath to channel resources and funding for organizations doing disaster relief work, María Fund was originally conceived as a social justice fund and not a foundation, she explained. However, they shifted to becoming an intermediary organization moving resources towards grassroots groups  and strengthening connections through program and leadership development. While they don’t take government grant money, they mainly fundraise in the U.S., and then distribute funds amongst social movement leaders and organizers in Puerto Rico. 

“We invest in long term relationships […]. They’re relationships built on trust. We know the realities of these organizations and the struggles of our partners to be able to have an impact on what they need,” Lugo said.

Part of María Fund’s mission is that they give multi-year contributions to organizations for whatever helps them further their mission, whether it be administrative costs for a campaign, operational salaries, and everything in between. This type of unrestricted funding is vital to organizations in Puerto Rico, several leaders told 9 Millones, because it can fund all segments of a program, not just one portion or a specific program, leaving them to fundraise for other costs. 

Sofía Martínez-Álvarez of Titín Foundation, a local foundation, explained that the change in organizations’ needs led them to shift some donations to being unrestricted post-María. They have shifted focus towards operational needs to better serve these organizations and support them as they grow. Their current “CUENTA X2” (Counts for two) campaign is meant to raise unrestricted funds for different nonprofits. 

“When it comes to making demands, we began to consider many of the needs that organizations have and what they go through, so as not to make the path more difficult for them, but rather to make it easier.”

Titín Foundation, María Fund, and FCPR were three out of 22 foundations and donors who pledged to redouble their commitments to Puerto Rico in September 2020. The 22 foundations have continuously funded organizations in Puerto Rico, like BGCPR, Taller Salud and others, since first signing the pledge. 

“It was a moment where we needed to bet on what we had in front of us, a moment where we had to join together to create impact and, practically, raise our voices in the face of great need,” said Martínez-Álvarez

Reconsidering federal relationships and funding models 

The current volatility of government grants has certain organizations rethinking their relationships with federal government agencies. Meanwhile, others are attempting to shift their models to pre-2017 to better serve their mission. 

The Puerto Rico Community Foundation has been rethinking their grant relationship with the federal government due to recent changes, president Nelson Colón explained. It ranks among both the foundations that gave the most in grants by dollar amount, as well as the ones who received the most money from U.S. foundations. Their work primarily consists of moving resources towards communities through scholarships, donations to nonprofits, as well as programs related to access to water and electricity, gender equality, and sustainable development goals.

Except for 2022, the organization reported over a million dollars in losses annually since 2018. Although FCPR holds tens of millions in assets to sustain operations, giving a grant funded largely by the federal government could leave them stuck with a multi-million dollar bill if the government pulls out.

“One has to prudently ask whether these are the risks one wants to continue taking,” Colón said. 

Meanwhile, United Way of Puerto Rico, the archipelago's third largest donor in recent years, is returning to their pre-2017 funding model to reduce reliance on federal funding and refocus on its core mission. Glorymar Rivera Báez, United Way’s president, explained that depending solely on disaster-related funds would leave them unable to address ongoing problems outside crises every few years.

Rivera Báez explained that United Way has not faced funding cuts. However, she did raise concerns about reductions in programs that addressed climate change. She mentioned several organizations have had to modify grant proposal language to align with the federal government’s new guidelines. 

Colón likens the post-María funding increases to an economic bubble that’s deflating. Although it lasted four years longer than usual due to the series of disasters that befell Puerto Rico, its downfall was inevitable, sooner or later. The FCPR has been adjusting to the effects by strengthening their local capital and contributions, which he says have "enormous strategic value.” To him, one of the most effective solutions to Puerto Rico’s challenges are community-based initiatives. He gives an example of a community where, although not everyone can install solar panels on their roofs, they can pool money together to create a shared microgrid. 

“The path of opulence and all that has already been exhausted. We have to find our own resources, how to generate and how to increase our internal capital,” Colón said about the changes in the third sector in Puerto Rico since Hurricane María in 2017.

‍

There’s no doubt that Hurricane María deeply changed the philanthropic landscape of Puerto Rico, in no small part because organizations are still dealing with the aftereffects. In some cases, growth was sustained throughout five to six years. But eight years after the original disaster, many are seeing their funding flattening out or decreasing, while only a select few appear to be unaffected, according to informational tax returns analyzed by 9 Millones. Now, they face steeper funding challenges because of government cuts to critical services and political repercussions from the Trump administration. 

“It is not our role, nor do we have the capacity to take the place of the state [...]. But, even so, this reaffirms for us the importance of working harder to diversify funding sources and identify new sources of funding so that organizations do not depend exclusively on government funds,” Lugo said.

‍9 Millones ha recibido apoyo financiero de María Fund durante los últimos dos años.

‍Este artículo fue producido gracias a una beca apoyada por Lilly Endowment y administrada por el Chronicle of Philanthropy, para ampliar la cobertura de la filantropía y las organizaciones sin fines de lucro. 9 Millones es el único responsable de todo el contenido.

‍La periodista Laura M. Quintero editó y ayudó con la verificación de datos. Luis Alfaro corrigió el estilo.

‍