What is the only federal heritage month that starts mid-month? It began in 1968 as a single week, signed into observance by President Lyndon B. Johnson, and was expanded to a full 30 days in 1988 under Public Law 100-402. The title of this blog gave it away: it’s Hispanic Heritage Month!

Hispanic Heritage Month begins mid-month because a host of celebrations for the Latino diaspora all land about this time in mid-September: September 15 is the independence anniversary of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Mexico's Independence Day follows on September 16 and Chile's on September 18.

The full 30 days now speak to more than 70 million people in the United States who identify as Hispanic, per Pew Research Center's 2025 estimate. It’s a community with hundreds of stories spread across generations, countries of origin, languages and regions, and the nonprofits working within it reflect that same range. Some are rooted in a single county. Some run national programs focused on law, medicine and corporate leadership. Some are keeping a musical tradition alive for the next generation.

This article is part of our Breakthrough Nonprofits series, an extension of our monthly newsletter for nonprofit professionals. The series shines a light on organizations that refuse to accept the status quo, finding new ways to clear the path for the people they serve. Supporting any of the nonprofits below means contributing to a world that is more connected, more resourced and more represented for Hispanic and Latino communities everywhere.

The nonprofits

The Give Lively member nonprofits featured below are leading examples of breakthrough work in Latino and Hispanic community advancement: from Acacia Network, housing more than 4,000 families a year out of the Bronx, to Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy, teaching guitar, accordion and folk dance to kids in San Pablo, California; and from Centro Latino, running the food pantry and after-school tutoring that anchor Hispanic families in Catawba County, North Carolina, to organizations funding law school tuition, building STEM pipelines out of middle school, backing Latino-owned small businesses and more.

Acacia Network

Rooted in the Bronx since 1969, Acacia Network is one of the largest Hispanic-led nonprofits in New York State and assists more than 150,000 people a year across health, housing, social services, economic development and cultural revitalization. Its federally qualified health centers see over 12,000 patients annually, its affordable and supportive housing puts roofs over 4,000+ families and it is a major New York City provider of transitional housing for 7,500 individuals. Youth development and after-school programming reach upwards of 5,000 families, including 2,600 young people ages 3 to 18. The work stretches from four of the five New York City boroughs to Buffalo, Albany, Rochester, Syracuse and Puerto Rico.

Mexican American Bar Foundation

The Mexican American Bar Foundation has been putting Latino law students through school in Los Angeles since 1991, with scholarships and bar exam study stipends for learners at Loyola, Southwestern, UCLA and USC. It has awarded more than $4.6 million and 644 scholarships to date, including 20 awards totaling $160,000 in 2025. Recipients are selected based on financial need, academics, community service, leadership and first-generation status, which means the money reaches people for whom a stipend is the difference between sitting the bar exam and postponing it. The foundation has no full-time staff, is run entirely by volunteer lawyers and judges and spends less than 15% of revenue on overhead.

HNBA VIA ("Vision in Action") Fund

The HNBA VIA Fund is the charitable arm of the Hispanic National Bar Association. It exists to move Hispanic students and attorneys into the parts of the profession where they have been least represented. It funds law school scholarships, the Uvaldo Herrera Moot Court awards and bar prep support, with 100% of scholarship dollars going directly for tuition, books, fees and living costs. Its Intellectual Property Law Institute, launched with Microsoft in 2013, selects up to 30 law students a year for an immersion in intellectual property and technology law, a field where Hispanic attorneys are especially scarce. The fund also backs the PODER initiative, which works to increase the number of Hispanic general counsels at Fortune 500 companies.

Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy

Founded by Eugene Rodriguez in 1989 in San Pablo, California, Los Cenzontles is an arts academy, touring band, production studio and community space all at once. Neighborhood kids and families take classes in guitar, singing, accordion, dance, folk arts and cooking, and study traditions through programs like the Fandango Project, Mariachi Tradicional and P'urhépecha Uekani. Academy alumni go on to make up the performing band, so the teaching and the stage feed each other directly. Alongside the classes, it produces albums, music videos and documentary films that put Mexican regional traditions in front of audiences far beyond the East Bay.

HACE

The Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement (HACE), has been building a pipeline of Latino professional talent since 1982, and its network now numbers more than 105,500 members nationwide. From its Chicago headquarters, it runs leadership development programs including Hombres de HACE and Elevando, along with career fairs, scholarships, an annual summit and year-round professional development. It works the other side of the equation too, advising corporate partners on how to recruit and keep Latino talent rather than leaving that to chance. The throughline is representation at every level, from a first job out of high school to the executive suite.

Centro Latino

Centro Latino grew out of a 1998 vacation bible school in Hickory, North Carolina, and incorporated the following year as the region's only Latino-specific human services nonprofit. Today it manages advocacy for its clients, a food pantry, adult English and Spanish classes, Know Your Rights immigration education and scholarships, all led by local Hispanic leaders. Its Abriendo Puertas program, launched in 2004, provides after-school tutoring and enrichment for school-age children and has followed hundreds of students into adulthood. The Latino population of the surrounding Catawba County is now close to 12% and growing, and Centro Latino is the place families go when they need a door opened.

Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber

Since 1994 the Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber has worked to grow the wealth and assets of the Latino community across Oregon and southwest Washington, with offices in Portland and Vancouver. Its small business development work includes technical assistance, e-commerce support, asset protection and resiliency grants for Latino-owned businesses. Its Latino Scholarship Program has awarded $1 million to 1,271 Latino students, and its Latino Leadership Program has graduated 19 cohorts. Alongside the direct services, it advocates on policy, on the premise that individual businesses do better when the conditions around them improve.

The Pathway Initiative

Founded by Dr. Lawrence B. Mensah and based in Boston, The Pathway Initiative opens careers in medicine, life sciences and biotechnology to talented students from low-income and underrepresented communities. It starts early, with a middle school STEM academy, and carries through a high school STEM academy, paid after-school enrichment, a summer workforce internship and a STEM research internship. The model takes a deliberately long view, described as an end-to-end wraparound ecosystem in which graduates come back as mentors. The goal is not only getting students into the professions but getting them back to the medically underserved communities they came from.

The Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA)

LMSA represents, supports and unifies medical trainees across the United States and its territories, with a particular focus on those who identify as Hispanic or Latina/o/x. Its origins reach back to 1972, when two Harvard medical students founded the Boricua Health Organization; decades of mergers between regional Latino medical student groups produced the unified LMSA in 2009. It now operates through five regions – Midwest, Northeast, Southeast, Southwest and West – offering scholarships, mentorship, specialty sections, national conferences and pre-med resources through LMSA PLUS. In the Northeast alone the network spans more than 60 medical school chapters and 1,300 student members.

Hispanic Scholars Program

For 35-plus years the Hispanic Scholars Program has worked to heal divisions within the Latine and Hispanic community, build bridges beyond it and prepare the next generation of leaders through theological education. Since 1989 it has taught over 2,000 students and trained more than 150 non-Latine and non-Hispanic faculty and administrators, expanding what seminaries and universities across the country actually offer. Its work spans education through J-Term and summer sessions, mentorship and discernment workshops, professional development in fundraising, pedagogy and storytelling, and public scholarship including published volumes on theological education. It is an unusual combination: rigorous academic training paired with a mandate to change the institutions that deliver it.