Charity Spotlight: Eva Longoria Foundation

By: Lindsay Flanagan

Who: Eva Longoria

Charity: Eva Longoria Foundation

Why This Charity is Significant:

The Eva Longoria Foundation notes sixty percent of the United States’ growing population in the next four decades will be Latinos and Latinas and yet the opportunities for them are limited, due to poverty and lack of access to higher education. To off set this, successful Latina actress Eva Longoria started the Eva Longoria Foundation to help and encourage Latinas to pursue higher education and business training. Longoria believes that “Latinas are one of the nation’s greatest untapped resources,” as nearly eighty percent of Latinas have expressed interest in going to college and Latina-owned businesses are some of the most rapidly growing in the U.S.

The Eva Longoria Foundation provides programs to help Latinas be successful in high school and provides them opportunities and training to attend college. The Foundation has created programs for Latinas to become successful in today’s competitive world. They create avenues such as parent engagement, which provides training to parents to learn how to be involved in their children’s education;  Latina entrepreneurship, which provides loans and business training for low-income Latinas; STEM extracurriculars, offering additional training in science, technology, engineering and math; and Latina mentorship, which, partnered with the Boys’ & Girls’ Clubs and the Howard G. Buffet Foundation, provide successful Latina mentors that teach Latinas about leadership and healthy living.

How You Can Get Involved:

You can donate to the foundation by mailing a check directly to the headquarters. The donations will go toward the programs as described above as well a, helping parents keep their children in school and assisting them in going to college; providing loans for Latina business owners, assisting Latinas learn the necessary STEM skills that will be needed for future jobs, connecting Latinas with successful mentors and also providing the needed funds to conduct necessary research with the Foundation’s partners – the UCLA Civil Rights Project.

Social Media and Websites:

http://www.evalongoriafoundation.org

https://www.facebook.com/evalongoriafoundation

https://twitter.com/EvaLongoria (@EvaLongoria)

https://evalongoria.com