Adriana Cortes

Adriana Cortes has been the General Director of Bajio Community Foundation (FBC) in Guanajuato, Mexico since its inception in early 1998. FBC aims to strengthen the philanthropic vision and participation of community to help engender a climate of social responsibility and promote long-term social investment.

Ms. Cortes is a native of Irapuato, and has spent much of her professional life working to develop and strengthen Irapuato's non-profit community. She is the founding member of more than ten non-governmental organizations in Irapuato, the majority of which work with adolescents, children, or individuals with disabilities. Ms. Cortes has worked with numerous Irapuatan NGOs including serving as the director of the Youth Orientation Center, where she earned the Vasco de Quiroga de Plata, a prestigious local award for community service. Ms. Cortes has also been honored with the Guanajuato Educa con el Ejemplo award, giving her statewide recognition for her work, and has worked for the state and local governments in social development themes. She continually seeks to encourage government and business collaboration with civil society, emphasizing the importance of a tri-sector approach to community development.

Ms. Cortes was trained at the University of Guanajuato in accounting and psychology.

The mission of FBC is to generate, collect and channel resources that promote local development and enable the participation and linking of civil society groups, government and private initiatives, to collectively achieve community well-being. FBC is founded on the belief that local development for long-term transformation must consider the nature of relations between the education sector, business, government and civil society, that citizenship participation in development is essential, and that all stakeholders must construct the meaning of local development together.