Help Us Transform Lives
Over 50 years, the IAF has supported 5,000+ local partners—from smallholder farmers to civil society leaders, women entrepreneurs to youth innovators—to strengthen community resilience throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Our grants empower local people to develop their own ideas for creating more prosperous, peaceful, and democratic communities.
Today, we have more than 300 grantees in 24 countries throughout the hemisphere, reaching 1.8 million beneficiaries.
Celebrate our 50 years of impact with a $50 donation so that we can continue championing grassroots development throughout the Americas: #50for50.
Help Us Respond to Emerging Crises
Your donation will help us champion community-led grassroots solutions to pressing crises affecting the region.
Migration Crises
We partner with communities in Latin America and the Caribbean that send or receive migrants fleeing political, economic, and social upheaval. In Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, our grantees provide displaced Venezuelans and receiving communities with psychosocial support, job-readiness training, and basic services. And in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, our grantees create jobs, feed communities, and build safe spaces—especially for youth—in areas struggling with poverty, crime, violence, and out-migration.
Natural Disasters and Environmental Crises
After disaster strikes, we rapidly mobilize fellow donors and channel funds directly to local organizations rebuilding communities and kickstarting local livelihoods—whether they’re recovering from hurricanes in Haiti or earthquakes in Mexico. We also partner with grassroots groups in the Eastern Caribbean to ensure that local economies and infrastructure can withstand future disasters.
Political Strife
We help people rebuild peace and prosperity from the ground up. Through our Colombian Peacebuilding Initiative, we’re investing in a network of grassroots peacebuilders that now includes more than 500 local organizations. And as Nicaraguan families struggle to make ends meet amid economic crisis and civil unrest, we’re working with community leaders and entrepreneurs to develop their small businesses and bolster smallholder agriculture.
Frequently asked questions
Recent News and Stories
Common(s) Knowledge: Grassroots Resource Governance
By sustainably harvesting forests, Mexican community organizations are stemming deforestation and ensuring opportunities for all people to thrive in their home communities.
Getting the Ball Rolling: Argentina’s Youth-Led Citizenship-Through-Soccer Program
Few would have imagined in the early days that former IAF grantee partner Fundación Defensores del Chaco would become a youth-led powerhouse mobilizing entire towns to advocate for themselves. But what started as a street soccer team became a space where young people and their communities could bring their problems and find solutions together.
Not Counting Chickens: Insights on Community-Led Development from Ramón Daubón
"Government is not separate from the people. “Government” is us. But the government doesn’t necessarily automatically carry out the will of the people. It responds to scrutiny. It is the responsibility of every citizen to know what leaders are doing," said Ramón Daubón, former IAF Vice President for Programs, in our recent conversation.