The Cuban American National Foundation, once the foremost voice representing the Cuban exile cause in Washington, is hosting a speech Friday by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in a bold move to recapture the group's prominence.

Its founder, Jorge Mas Canosa, long served as a symbol of stalwart anti-Castro sentiment. But since his 1997 death, the group has receded into the cacophony of Cuban-American voices.

The decision to host Obama is a daring move in a community generally more supportive of Republican candidate John McCain and even Obama's Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"Right now, it's a very important chapter in the history of Cuba. We are also at a turning point in our own community," said Francisco Hernandez, the foundation's president and co-founder.

Hernandez said the next president will have a unique opportunity _ now that Raul Castro has replaced his brother Fidel as Cuban president _ to promote change on the communist nation and is calling on the government to allow private organizations to send money directly to dissidents on the island.

The U.S. economic embargo, which the foundation still generally supports, prohibits such transactions with the Caribbean nation.

Obama's speech comes more than a quarter century after Hernandez and Mas Canosa founded the group with encouragement from the Reagan administration.

Since then, the foundation has backed both Democratic and Republican candidates. Its former president Joe Garcia is now running for Congress as a Democrat. Hernandez and other foundation leaders attended a McCain event Tuesday.

Today it is more difficult for one organization to represent the entire Cuban-American community than it was in the group's heyday. Exiles are far more diverse in terms of race and class, and immigrants often flee Cuba as much because of economic desperation as political oppression.

The foundation has also incurred the wrath of many in the exile community. It supports dialogue with members of the Cuban government _ Fidel and Raul Castro excluded.

And it recently released a scathing report on the Bush administration's funding to promote democracy in Cuba. The report comes as the federal government is set to announce the recipients of $45 million in aid to Cuba _ about five times the amount allocated in 2007.

The foundation alleges the Miami-based organizations that take federal funds spend too much on overhead with only about 20 percent of the money going to direct on-island assistance.

Organizations receiving the aid say they do the best they can, given U.S. and Cuban government restrictions on sending money directly to Cuba.

Others say the foundation's report distorts reality. Orlando Gutierrez of the Cuban Democratic Directorate, one the groups criticized in the report, said the allegations were false. His Miami-based organization was charged with building international solidarity for Cuban dissidents, so it is natural that much of its money would go to off-island activities around the globe, he said.

Gutierrez and others dismissed the foundation's latest efforts as merely a bid to garner media attention.

"They've become very marginal in this community. The one thing they have is Obama. That doesn't make them more relevant," Gutierrez said.

Hernandez is undeterred.

"Even those of us viewed as the historic hard-liners, 'the troglodytes,' realize we have not been able to communicate our true message," he said. "Our interest is not revenge. It is to help our brethren."