Citi and the Citi Foundation Award $1,000,000 to the National Council of La Raza

Citi and the Citi Foundation presented a $1,000,000 grant to the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) in support of its efforts to build the capacity of its almost 300 affiliates across the country working at the state and local level. These affiliates help advance opportunities for individuals and families through the asset building, housing and community development programs.

“Citi and NCLR continue to be successful partners in transforming the lives of Latino families and communities across the country. Our support of the Raza Development fund in previous years to fund the growth of their community development facility and our current support of their capacity building efforts and pre-development grants to build housing, charter schools and community health centers is at the center of our partnership to build and support healthy communities across the country,” said Salvador Villar, Chairman & CEO, Citibank (Banamex USA). “Our strong partnership with NCLR, the leading Latino civil rights organization in the country, is based on mutual trust and a deep commitment to making communities better.” Through the Citi Foundation’s support, NCLR has assisted over 8,000 low- to moderate-income individuals in the first half of 2008.

“The Citi grant helps NCLR and its affiliates increase the impact of education, health, and housing initiatives throughout the nation. Citi’s investment also allowed NCLR to develop innovative ways to leverage other resources at its disposal to increase the impact of local projects. We firmly believe that by working together with Citi we can improve the quality and quantity of asset-building programs as well as deepen the impact of strategic community development initiatives targeted to the Hispanic community,” said Janet Murguia, President & CEO, NCLR.

The grant will support NCLR initiatives, including:

* Expansion of NCLR’s Latino Social Venture Fund which provides pre-development support for affordable housing, community facilities, health care clinics, charter schools, and homeownership counseling.
* Provide training courses to more than 130 new homeownership counselors in: HUD certification for housing counseling providers; mortgage default and delinquency counseling; predatory lending; financial counseling; and online client tracking.

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The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) is the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S., improving opportunities for millions of Latino Americans in 41 states, Wash, DC and Puerto Rico through its network of 300 nonprofit community-based affiliates. To achieve its mission, NCLR provides a Latino perspective in five key areas: assets/investments, civil rights/immigration, education, employment and economic status, and health.

Citi, the leading global financial services company, has some 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 100 countries, providing consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, and wealth management. Citi’s major brand names include Citibank, CitiFinancial, Primerica, Smith Barney, Banamex and Nikko. Additional information may be found at www.citi.com“

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