Susana “Susy” Villegas is all about giving back to her community. A public relations professional, former San Diego City Council policy advisor, and generous philanthropist, her extensive volunteer work includes serving on the governing boards for the Barrio Logan College Institute, the Chula Vista Chamber of Commerce, the Chula Vista Charitable Foundation, and more. Her latest venture: San Diego Foundation’s (SDF) El Camino Fund, a fund geared toward addressing unique challenges facing the region’s Latino community.
“There are a lot of needs in San Diego’s communities, the Latino community among them,” Susy says. “My husband and I have been involved in supporting philanthropy to all communities. The El Camino Fund is a good way to identify, with others, issues that matter the most to Latino communities and then, together, deploy philanthropy to address those issues.”
Seeded with a $2.5-million SDF endowment, the El Camino Fund was founded on the premise that strengthening Latino-owned businesses and entrepreneurial ventures generate jobs, wealth, and opportunity – laying the foundation for a thriving economy and healthier families. Beside entrepreneurship, the El Camino Fund invests in workforce training, financial literacy, and homeownership to pave a new pathway – a better “camino” – to help Latinos in the region thrive. Grantmaking is guided by community input and data-driven research on local challenges, and the fund distributed $500,000 in its inaugural grant cycle to seven Latino/a-serving organizations.
The fund is expected to have a $4.3 million impact over the next five years.
The need is profound. A 2024, SDF-commissioned report, developed at the behest of the El Camino Fund and published in partnership with the Policy & Innovation Center, found that more than half of San Diego County Latinos earn less than $40,000 annually, and that Latinos in the region earn almost $28,000 less per year than White, non-Latino San Diegans.
Dedicated to Giving
Born and raised in Mexico City, Susy holds a degree in Communication Sciences from Universidad del Valle de México and a Corporate Communication Certificate from the Cornell University Johnson College of Business. When her telecommunications company moved her to its San Diego office, Susy soon found herself working on political campaigns and, eventually, for then-San Diego City Council President Ben Hueso, for whom she served as a liaison to the many immigrant communities in his district. She also founded a successful public relations firm, SVPR Communications, to provide culturally sensitive and linguistically precise messaging for clients in the region’s Spanish speaking community.
She has long been involved with SDF; her husband, Pedro, is a former SDF board member.
“As a City Council representative and later while working at a nonprofit, I saw firsthand how philanthropy can help solve problems that often take too long for local governments or the private sector to solve,” says Susy. “Collective philanthropy is nimble, made up of contributions of all sizes, and can help address the most intractable problems immediately. As a nonprofit board member, I’ve seen it happen at several organizations – the Barrio Logan College Institute (BCLI), which I chaired, Olivewood Gardens & Learning Center, the Chula Vista Chamber of Commerce, which I also chaired, inewsource, and Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center. Today, my firm advises clients when well-placed philanthropy in support of a cause can be an effective tool in accomplishing a client’s community and business goals.”
She pointed to Panchito, who – with the help of the BCLI – became the first in his family to earn a degree when he graduated from San Diego State University and is now an 11th-grade history teacher mentoring future college students. “This was all made possible by donations to BCLI that transformed their lives through access to a college education,” says Susy.
How does she inspire others to give? “I introduce others to places, people, and causes that they may have not otherwise have known about, and I get them excited about supporting those people, places, and causes.”
Building the Future Together
Although San Diego County is home to more than 1.1 million Latinos who make up nearly 35% of the overall population, the Latino community, which is at the heart of San Diego’s cultural identity, is facing challenges few others must deal with: less access to high-performing schools, discrimination by financial institutions, and a measure of uncertainty as to whether the government is always there to represent and protect them.
Here’s to hoping you can find it in your heart to help make a difference in uplifting our community by donating to the El Camino Fund.
Said Susy: “I think that ‘philanthropy’ is a big fancy word that makes many people think that philanthropy is something that only big corporations and the megarich do. That’s not the case. I’ve seen families raise a few hundred dollars, maybe a thousand if they’re lucky, selling mole dinners and tamales for their church or their kid’s school. I’ve also seen people who are wealthy drop several hundreds of thousands of dollars on things that they care about or to leave a legacy about those things that they care about. It’s not about the amount. It’s about the intent.”
