Leslie Dorosin is Co-Executive Director of the Grove Foundation and Board Secretary of Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR). Through the Grove Foundation, Leslie has been a supporter of Immigrants Rising since 2011 and currently serves on the Leadership Council.

How did you get connected to our organization?

I met Kathy Gin in late 2009 at a Northern California Grantmakers’ Immigration Briefing where I mentioned that the Grove Foundation had been doing some funding around the DREAM Act. She followed up with an email and another email and the rest is history.

I remember being one of the early foundation funders and arguing with a colleague who didn’t think the organization was ready for foundation dollars. Clearly, she didn’t know Kathy as well as I did. We made our first grant to E4FC [Educators for Fair Consideration, now known as Immigrants Rising] about 18 months after Kathy and I first met, and have continued to support the organization, with an emphasis on legal services and entrepreneurship.

What stands out in your mind when you think of our organization?

There are all these passionate, articulate young adults who are working toward a better world despite all the challenges put in front of them. Truly inspiring.

Do you have a particular memory or story?

E4FC changed my child’s life. When my daughter was a Sophomore in high school I pulled her from school to come to a panel that E4FC was putting on at Council on Foundations. She met Jose Arreola and listened to the panel and it really turned her into an advocate – she did her AP Language Ted Talk on the Dream Act. Now she is a student at Pitzer College, where she has helped distribute E4FC materials and joined in putting on a DREAM Run, which raises money for college scholarships for local high school students.