By the 1960s, the demographics in Cali, Colombia, were changing. Marked by steady rural-to-urban migration, the city was among the fastest growing in the world. Yet municipal authorities had limited capacity to keep up with the quick development; no urban planning or government oversight of new urban areas was in place. Poor and working class settlements lacked basic services such as primary schools, water and sanitation, or roads.

Fundación Carvajal was founded in 1961 by the Carvajal family in response to the growing needs of Cali’s urban poor, many of whom worked for the Carvajal company. The company had started in 1904 as a small printing house in Cali. By the end of the 20 ^th century, Carvajal Corporate Group was a multinational diversified into seven different activities.

As then-company manager and first manager of the foundation Manuel Carvajal Sinesterra puts it: “A healthy company cannot prosper in a sick social environment, because sooner or later, it will have serious repercussions on its performance. Therefore, a responsible business person must necessarily become engaged in solving social problems.” ^[1] The family donated 40 percent of its corporate shares to the foundation. So instead of the company owning a foundation, the foundation owned a significant share of the company. This ensured the foundation’s independence, a steady income, and allowed it to leverage its investments by seeking external funding.

Five decades . FC first worked with five Catholic parish centers in the eastern section of Cali known as the Aguablanca district. The Catholic Church was then one of the few institutions operating in the impoverished area. Under an agreement, FC operated the parish centers, which provided health care, basic education, job training, nutrition, family planning, sports and recreation to thousands of people.  By the early 1980s, change was evident in the areas immediately surrounding the parish centers.

But on the periphery of the ever-expanding district, poverty and a lack of basic infrastructure and services continued to be the norm. In 1982, FC returned the parish centers to church administration, along with a fund to sustain them. The foundation then moved into needier neighborhoods on the outer border of Aguablanca . While retaining some of the elements of the parish centers, it evolved its own strategy. In the words of Maria Eugenia Carvajal, a family member on the FC board, “our approach was to reverse the direction of the arrow: instead of inviting the people to participate in FC’s initiatives, FC became involved with the people’s own initiatives.” ^[2]

Over the next decade, FC created three centers for community services within Aguablanca ( comunas 13, 14 and 15). Housing was a priority need, so FC mobilized banks and municipal authorities to help local families improve housing. For example, private banks opened branches inside the community centers to help local families access credit and other banking services. FC also supported local initiatives and small businesses. Public institutions such as notary public offices or the national civil registry located in the centers as well.

By the 2000s, conditions in Aguablanca had improved. Families were still poor, but infrastructure and access to services had improved. In addition, public and development institutions had moved into the area. FC was looking for a new challenge. But first, it went through a leadership and organizational change.