Just when I was beginning to have some hope that philanthropy was getting better at meeting the needs of communities who have been underserved or marginalized in some way, a preview of a new report hit me like a slap in the face.

I attended a reception for Hispanics in Philanthropy (HIP) in San Francisco last week. At the event, HIP and the Foundation Center shared a preview of findings from a study they are working on about foundation funding for Hispanics and Latinos in the U.S. and for Latin America.

The preliminary findings are sobering. The percentage of grant dollars benefiting Latinos has remained flat for ten years, at about 1.3 percent of total U.S. grantmaking, while the Latino share of U.S. population has risen from 13 percent to 16 percent during that same time period. These findings are even more outrageous considering that the Pew Hispanic Center has just released a study showing that Hispanic children are now the largest group of children in the U.S. living in poverty.