How Sarahi Espinoza Salamanca Turned An Idea To Help Families Pay Rent During COVID-19 Into A $1 Million Fund

Sarahi Espinoza Salamanca is no stranger to innovating in order to fill gaps. In 2014, she started Dreamers Roadmap to make it easier for undocumented students to find college scholarships, given that most financial aid options are not available to them. 

As COVID-19 started settling in and the reality of how disproportionately it was impacting communities of color became apparent, Espinoza Salamanca knew the community in her own neighborhood of East Palo Alto would need help. 

“As soon as shelter in place was set to go statewide, my gears began to turn,” explains Espinoza Salamanca. “On so many levels, I saw how this was going to impact my community which includes low income, undocumented, and mixed status families of color.” 

While there was little that could be done to fill the physical health gap, Espinoza Salamanca saw an opportunity in creating a movement that would lessen the economic strain of those who are being disproportionately impacted. The #FirstOfTheMonth Fund was started with a $1 million goal in mind, which would help close the financial rent gap for close to 150 families, and would see the disbursement of funds to those families in need within 48 hours of qualifying for the aid. 

“One thing led to another, and we were connected to Heather Starnes-Logwood of Live In Peace, Inc, a beautiful grassroots local organization with a decades long history of serving the community,” explains Salamanca. “They were looking for ways to serve the hundreds of families they have in their networks as well. Between us, we knew that thousands of people were in jeopardy of losing their homes because they lost their jobs as service workers during shelter in place. Yet the rent was still due on the first of the month. We set up the metrics and criteria for an emergency relief fund, and we decided to work together to identify families on our immediate networks who’d been devastated by COVD-19, then we would vet each family in order to triage who needs rent relief the most, and #FirstOfTheMonth was born.” 

With #FirstOfTheMonth, Salamanca has rallied support from small individual donations to the likes of Jack Dorsey’s #startsmall initiative, to help ensure that those who need rent assistance in the East Palo Alto area have a direct connection to it. Because, as Salamanca notes, many of the resources that are available on a federal level don’t account for the digital divide and how inaccessible they can be for the communities they are trying to serve. After reaching its $1 million goal during its soft launch in April, #FirstOfTheMonth has raised its goal to $2 million in an effort to help 300 families. 

Salamanca credits her instinct to help her community to her own Latinx roots. 

“Being Latina taught me to look out for others,” explains Salamanca. “I love the saying: ‘When one grows, we all grow.’ I learned that from my friend Ana Flores from “We All Grow.” No pun intended. I take this to heart. The seeds were planted a long time ago and my wonderful friend Melanie Bielefeld reminded me, and now I am growing and branching out my network and resources to enable my community to grow with me.” 

Below Salamanca shares how she was able to bring the idea to life so quickly, how the organizations are connecting the dots, as well as some fundraising tips.

Vivian Nunez: What are some tactical things that helped bring the idea to life in such a quick time? 

Sarahi Espinoza Salamanca: We’re practicing what’s known as trust based philanthropy, working within our networks rooted in our neighborhoods. My network understood the need and believed that we could do this ourselves for our neighbors through direct mutual aid. We knew exactly who we needed to help because we’ve been collaborating with these families for years on issues such as navigating the education system. Tactically, the urgent fundraising was the most complex aspect. We had multiple volunteers in the community step up and help us raise funds by reaching out to leaders in the tech community who had the means to give. We took a pretty rudimentary approach - calling upon donors in our network and new donors via phone calls, emails and even cold outreach via Twitter messages.  

Nunez: How are all three organizations getting together to bring this to life? 

Espinoza Salamanca: When we began the planning we spoke daily coming up with the who, what, where, and why of the criteria. All of the groups bring something different: Kafenia Peace Collective focuses on making true meaningful connections between neighbors through intimate gatherings. While Live In Peace and Dreamers Roadmap work on the ground with families and kids in the community. The three of us found that each group’s perspective and skillset was vital to the success of this campaign, which has raised over $1 million in just a few weeks. We also found incredible help from volunteers including Barbara Weinstein and Melanie Bielefeld.

Nunez: What has been some of the most effective tools when fundraising from bigger donors? 

Espinoza Salamanca: It comes down to being unafraid to reach out to people and approach them with authenticity. Be raw and honest. Speaking your truth. Share the stories of our communities and the kids being affected by this pandemic.

Nunez: How are you navigating and speaking to smaller donors who may be split in where they want to spend their money right now? 

Espinoza Salamanca: It’s frustrating to see how many people just don't understand the true need and jump to quick conclusions. There is an assumption that, “Oh, they don't have to pay rent for 3 months per the moratorium.” But people who live paycheck to paycheck will owe all 3 months if they don’t pay it and if they are undocumented it’s even worse because they run more risk of being evicted and not getting any aid from the government. I like to share on my personal social media platforms as many relevant stories as possible to let donors small and large [know] the facts of the situations we are currently facing.

Nunez: What advice do you have for others who are looking to raise funds and support their initiatives during COVID-19 times? 

Espinoza Salamanca: Get a clear vision of what problem you’re solving. Explain why it's important that this is addressed and why you and your organization are the right people to lead this effort. Then find the people who care and can help, which can include volunteers, donors and foundations. Do your research and think about who might be willing to step up, be it because they’re neighbors or like-minded thinkers. 

Nunez: What advice do you have for Latinas who are working to find creative ways to fill the gap for their communities during this time? 

Espinoza Salamanca: Gather and organize. Put your ideas out into the universe or God. Find a badass team of collaborators. Know that we are not alone, there are people looking to help. Ask lots of people, even those who you wouldn’t expect to step up. The worst thing they can say is no. We are often used to working alone and I say that through personal experience, but this is the perfect time to join forces with likeminded people and create bridges for our communities across the country and globe.