De Colores Rapid Response Fund to honor Ray Santiago Published on May 12, 2015
De Colores Rapid Response Fund (RRF) is a staff-directed and -managed fund in honor of retiring Development Officer, Ray Santiago. In his many years working for the farmworker movement, “De Colores,” a traditional Mexican folk song that celebrates nature and diversity, was and still is one of Ray’s favorite tunes.
De Colores RRF is looking to impact positive, dynamic-shifting opportunities, rather than provide emergency response-type crises support. It is designed to make funds available for quick, short-term delivery to hot spots of opportunity for organizing in marginalized urban and rural communities.
Criteria for grants from the fund will include:
- Organizing in U.S. grassroots communities, with a focus on communities of color, poor and working class;
- Opportunities for strategic intervention (i.e. Ferguson & Baltimore moments);
- Opportunities to impact new and strategic shifts (i.e. Occupy);
- Opportunities to amplify the effects of in-the-moment issues; and
- The ability to combine the grant with a strategic capacity building proposal out of The Sustainability Project.
Our goal is to raise $100,000, which would provide approximately $5,000 a year in grants, these being no larger than $1,000, and no smaller than $500. To donate to this fund in Ray’s honor, click on the button below and be sure to put “De Colores” in the Notes section. Thank you!
De Colores
De colores, de colores se visten los campos en la primavera
De colores, de colores son los pajarillos que vienen de afuera
De colores, de colores es el arco iris que vemos lucir
Y por eso los grandes amores de muchos colores me gustan a mi
Y por eso los grandes amores de muchos colores me gustan a mi
