A Message to Our Community

HAPBWA FOUNDATION, INC. 

d/b/a Women's Leadership Impact Initiative  •  Founded 2010 

Orlando, Florida  •  August 2026

To our members, donors, sponsors, partners, and friends:

On or about August 26, 2026, Asociación de Mujeres Hispanoamericanas Profesionales y de Negocios, Inc. — which also identifies itself publicly as HAPBWA Association — published to its social media accounts a graphic and statement captioned “Official Clarification.”

In its English edition, that publication states:

“THERE IS NO HAPBWA FOUNDATION.”

And in its Spanish edition:

“NO EXISTE HAPBWA FOUNDATION.”

Because that statement has been sent to our donors, our sponsors, and the community we serve, we owe you a plain answer.

HAPBWA Foundation, Inc. exists.

We were incorporated in the State of Florida on December 20, 2010, under Document No. N10000011728. Our status is active. We are a § 501(c)(3) public charity in good standing, employer identification number 27-4369587. Every one of these facts is a matter of public record, and anyone may confirm each of them in a matter of minutes at sunbiz.org and through the Internal Revenue Service.

We note, without further comment, that in separate written correspondence circulated on or about August 24, 2026, the same organization states that this Foundation “was established in approximately 2010 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.” We are content to let the two statements sit beside one another.

On the question of affiliation, we agree.

HAPBWA Foundation, Inc. is a separate legal entity from HAPBWA Association. We have never represented otherwise, and we do not do so now. Federal law governing public charities requires that separateness: a § 501(c)(3) organization exists to serve a charitable purpose and a community, not to serve a private membership organization. Our independence is not a departure from our mission. It is a condition of it.

For many years the two organizations worked side by side, and much good was done in that period by women whose names deserve to be remembered rather than argued over. That collaboration has ended. Its ending changes nothing about who we are or what we were formed to do.

Our work continues.

For fifteen years this Foundation has served the women and families of Central Florida through mentorship, education, scholarship, and community programs built by volunteers who asked for nothing in return. That work did not pause this week, and it will not.

In June of this year we adopted a new public identity, the Women's Leadership Impact Initiative. We chose it ourselves, on our own timetable, to reflect the breadth of the community we serve. Our legal identity, our charitable status, our board, and our obligations to our donors are unchanged.

To our sponsors and donors: your contributions have been received, recorded, and applied exactly as you intended, and our records are open to you as they have always been. If you have been given reason to doubt whether we are here — we are here. We have been here since 2010.

Beyond this correction, we will not conduct this disagreement in public. Our members deserve programs, not spectacle, and the women who built these institutions deserve better than to watch them quarrel. The matter is in the hands of our counsel and will be addressed there.

Questions may be directed to our counsel, Euribiades Cerrud II, Esq., Cerrud Law, P.A., at Euri@CerrudLaw.com.

With gratitude for your continued trust,

The Board of Directors

HAPBWA Foundation, Inc.  |  Women's Leadership Impact Initiative