GitLab Foundation and Fundación Santo Domingo Announce $1.6M Strategic Partnership to Advance Economic Mobility in Colombia
GitLab Foundation today announced a two-year, $1.6 million strategic partnership with Fundación Santo Domingo, a Colombia-based family foundation, to implement economic mobility and development projects focused on Colombia’s populations of migrants, informal workers, and youth. Fundación Santo Domingo has committed to deploy efforts to match GitLab Foundation’s in-market funding, maximizing the impact of every dollar spent.
Over the last year, GitLab Foundation and Fundación Santo Domingo have worked closely to advance grantmaking strategies focused on these high-priority populations. Between 2015 and 2019, about 1.8 million displaced Venezuelans relocated to Colombia. According to the Joint Data Center on Forced Displacement, about 90% of Venezuelan migrants and 60% of native Colombians work in the informal economy — the highest rate of any country in Latin America. And Colombia’s youth unemployment rate is nearly 20%.
“This investment represents our first international co-funding partnership. As a well-respected and high-impact foundation with a shared focus on economic mobility, Fundación Santo Domingo is an ideal partner,” said Ellie Bertani, CEO of GitLab Foundation. “This is a unique opportunity to engage local expertise to help us broaden our international investments and empower communities with the resources they need to thrive.”
Together, the collaborating organizations will use GitLab Foundation’s innovative approach to evaluate potential grants and measure impact — this model ensures a comprehensive assessment of economic mobility by considering both absolute and relative income gains. All grants will aim to double the annual income of participants for less than $1,000 per person.
Fundación Santo Domingo will serve as a key partner to source investable projects, evaluate and measure impact, and communicate with on-the-ground partners. They will also serve as facilitators for regional collaborations, policy initiatives, and social enterprise investments.
"Through our territorial development line of work, we aim to improve the well-being of Colombian families through programs and projects that foster employment opportunities, entrepreneurship, and the boosting of productive capital. We are thrilled to partner with GitLab Foundation, which will allow us to amplify our impact and continue strengthening the economic potential of the Caribbean region and the country," said José Francisco Aguirre, Executive Director of Fundación Santo Domingo.
This grant will build on the more than $2 million that GitLab Foundation has invested in social sector organizations since launching their Colombia strategy last year. As part of the foundation’s mission to improve people’s lifetime earnings through access to opportunities, it aims to increase its Colombian investments to $3 million in the coming year. Fundación Santo Domingo implements and manages more than 100 projects per year, and co-funds initiatives alongside partners including Inter-American Development Bank, Conrad Hilton Foundation, and international aid vehicles such as USAID, to drive investment across Colombia and connect individuals to life-changing economic opportunities.
Together, their partnership will lead to more locally-led grantmaking, and enhance the ability of both organizations to rapidly respond to time-sensitive opportunities.
To learn more about the GitLab Foundation’s Colombia strategy, visit the foundation’s handbook.
Return on Investment
Projects funded through the partnership with Fundación Santo Domingo aim to double participants' yearly income with an investment of less than $1,000 per person. Early estimates suggest that the average cost to double a person's income over their lifetime will be only $342 for the projects of this partnership.
$916,000 invested
