Event brings together African-Americans and Latinos

CHARLOTTE, NC. Made in L.A. was recently featured as the "Saturday Night Event" at the Community Investment Network (CIN) Conference. CIN is a non-profit organization that encourages organizations and individuals to think and act more strategically with their giving to impel greater social change in their communities. The event brought together African-American philanthropists with members of Charlotte's Latin-American Coalition, and a number of other philanthropic leaders. The post-screening dialogue brought out themes of shared struggles and common goals and was such a beautiful reminder of the power of Made in L.A. to reach across perceived boundaries and help make change...

The story of how this event came about is particularly beautiful. Last May, at the end of the awards ceremony at the Council on Foundations Conference, where Made in L.A. received the Henry Hampton Award, we had the opportunity to meet Darryl Lester, head of the Community Investment Network (CIN). He expressed interest in Made in L.A. and we offered to send him a DVD so that he could see the film. A few months later Dionne Lester from CIN sent us the most beautiful e-mail explaining how moved she and Darryl had been by the film and inviting us to come show the film at their national conference!

The Community Investment Network (CIN), which was launched with the help of the Ford Foundation, is cultivating a new cadre of philanthropic leaders from communities of color who recognize their civic responsibilities and their power to influence mainstream philanthropy. With the goal of leveraging its social capital and charitable giving to create the communities it wishes to see, CIN is currently composed of nine giving circles of more than 130 new and seasoned philanthropists.