Skip to main content

Advised, Community & Designated Funds

father_son.jpgAdvised Funds provide opportunity for an individual (Donor Advised) or a group of individuals (Community Advised) to connect their financial dollars with impactful programs.  By establishing such a fund, grants can be made to non-profit organizations that support the donor area of interest.

Designated Fund support a specific charitable organization, program, or project.  By establishing a Designated Fund, grants are made for the exclusive use of the designated recipient organization, program, or project.

Donors can choose to make grants anonymously.

NMCF can advise on the most effective use of the funds, manage the grant and track the grant’s performance.

Some examples of grants that have been made through established Donor Advised Funds at NMCF:

  • The Gila River Discovery Trunk Project set out to develop a series of educational ‘trunks’ for grades 3-5 to increase students’ awareness of the natural and cultural values of the Gila River, the last free-flowing river in New Mexico.   Along with staffers from the Gila Conservation Coalition and the Gila Conservation Education Center, the Upper Gila Watershed Alliance, worked collaboratively to develop two ‘trunks’, provided training workshops for volunteer presenters (including adults and high school students) in the use of the ‘trunks’, and provided field trips to the river.   During the course of the grant, the Project successfully conducted 43 ‘trunk’ presentations which successfully spread the message of the ecological and cultural values of the Gila River and reached 665 students!   Test your knowledge of the Gila River.
  • Connecting 3rd grade students with the environment all around them, the Experience Science Program gives children of eight disadvantaged schools in Southern NM a deeper understanding of the Chihuahuan Desert. Through a combination of classroom activities, teacher resources and a field trip to the desert’s Nature Park, the program emphasizes science, math and the beauty of this natural environment.
  • In Carlsbad, a donor fund is supporting the Power Hours After School Program, through which children are given help with their homework, engage in physical activity, and are provided with nutritious snacks. Teachers and principals identify the children among those living with family stresses that may negatively impact their personal, social and academic development.
  • The Española Wildlife Center provides a wildlife rehabilitation and education center in New Mexico, that carries out over 300 science-based educational programs and 500 tours each year. An NMCF donor fund supports this extensive outreach program, which educates and delights adults and children, introducing them to the richness of the wildlife of New Mexico and teaching them how we all co-exist.

Examples of grants made through NMCF’s established Community Advised Funds include:

  • New Mexicans for Sustainable Energy and Effective Stewardship Fund (NM SEES) is a non-partisan statewide coalition of organizations including civic leaders, scientists, academics and citizens. Its purpose is to promote renewable energy technology and hazardous waste clean up for the state. NMSEES also seeks to: shift the mission of New Mexico’s national labs towards tackling these two vital areas; create exemplary public participation; and high standards for state enforcement of waste clean up. Southwest Research & Information Center (SIRC) coordinates NMSEES activities. Grant recipients have included: Amigos Bravos, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, Citizen Action, Embudo Valley Environmental Monitoring Group, Honor Our Pueblo Existence, Nuclear Watch NM, Peace Action NM, among others.
  • The NM Community AIDS Partnership Fund continues to support a number of projects in New Mexico, including: International AIDS Empowerment’s Border Health Consortium, the only regional HIV/AIDS program in the Southern NM/No. Mexico area. By incorporating awareness, prevention, testing, treatment, care and social services, the consortium assures a regional continuum of HIV care and is a model of transborder, international collaboration utilizing Promotoras (lay health advocates). Albuquerque Area Indian Health Board’s Community Readiness Model, an innovative method for assessing the readiness of a community to develop and implement culturally appropriate prevention and other intervention strategies. Santa Fe Mountain Center’s AIDS AmeriCorps Program which aims to improve the capacity of five agencies in the Alb /Santa Fe area to provide HIV Prevention services by placing an AmeriCorps Member in five collaborating agencies. Planned Parenthood of New Mexico’s Stepping Stones Program, which helps to address the immediate needs of homeless and transient women and reduce HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases. Additionally PPNM is assisting the replication of the Stepping Stones Program in Dona Ana and Bernalillo Counties in partnership with Families & Youth Inc., Albuquerque Healthcare for the Homeless and the Bernalillo County’s Metropolitan Detention Center. > More information on the National AIDS Fund.
  • The Consortium of Major LANL Subcontractors Fund is the ad hoc collaborative by which the Major Subcontractos pool their individual resources designated for the diversification of Northern New Mexico’s economy. The Consortium recommends grants in support of two key areas: Youth Entrepreneurship and Industry Cluster Development. The Youth Entrepreneurship grants support programs serving young people, ages 13 to 22, in developing businesses. The funds are used towards developing entrepreneurial skills while advancing business activity and opportunity. Grant recipients have included: Movimientos’ Youth-Organized Agricultural Project, Los Alamos Commerce & Development Corporation’s Youth Enterpreneurship and Summer Business Projects and the Taos Community Foundation’s Business Spirit Network in partnership with the Taos Middle School. The Industry Cluster Development grants support technical service providers such as commercial kitchens, small business incubators, formalized cluster groups, cluster associations, small business technical assistance providers and micro-lenders who serve Northern NM. Grant recipients have included: Accion New Mexico’s Financial Literacy Training for Northern NM Entrepreneurs Series, Espanola Fiber Arts Center’s Innovation of Incubator Facility, Luciente’s Village to Village: A North-Central NM Rural Economic & Cultural Initiative, Northern NM College’s Commercial Kitchen and Dehydrator Project, Santa Fe Farmer’s Market Institute’s Campaign for a Permanent New Home, and the Taos County Economic Development Corporation’s Taos Food Center.
  • The Northeastern Regional Community Foundation is a supporting organization to NMCF. Two of its recent grants focus on improving children’s healthy eating habits in the towns of Roy and Las Vegas, NM. The CATCH program in Roy has been developed around a classroom curriculum, cafeteria menus, physical education, with a strong family component. Las Vegas’ Bridge nutrition project is designed to give students the scientific background they need to make good nutritional choices and improve eating habits, and the tools they need to pass this knowledge on to their families.
  • A School Based Health Center is an accessible, friendly place where students can receive a wide variety of health care services. Legislation and state funding has allowed New Mexico to double the number of school-based health clinics from 36 to 72. The United Health Foundation has provided NMCF with a one million four-year grant to support this program. In its first year, the focus of the school based health clinics aimed to serve Native American children, many of whom live in rural areas far from health care facilities. In its second year, the focus for development is on the border area, which faces issues of poverty, teen pregnancy and lack of access to healthcare. Future areas of focus will include rural and urban areas around the state. SBHC’s are supported by the United Health Foundation, the Coca-Cola Corporation and funding from the American Legacy Foundation, which addresses tobacco cessation in Native American Communities.

Examples of grants made through NMCF’s established Designated Funds include:

  • Eli Farmer Scholarship Fund provides funds annually towards scholarship assistance to students enrolled at the Santa Fe Preparatory School in Santa Fe.
  • Embudo Valley Library Fund provides grants annually towards operating costs of building maintenance of this rural community library in Dixon.
  • El Centro de los Ninos Permanent Fund provides annual grant distributions towards unrestricted administrative support to El Centro de los Ninos in Tierra Amarilla.
  • Arca Foundation Permanent Fund provides annual grant distributions towards unrestricted administrative support of the ARCA Foundation in Albuquerque.
  • Laguna Rainbow Corporation Permanent Fund provides annual grant disbursements towards unrestricted administrative support. The Laguna Rainbow Corporation in Casa Blanca provides shelter, recreational, nutrional, nursing and service facilities for elderly Native Americans.