March 12, 2020

Dear Community Friends,

As you may be aware, today Governor Michele Lujan Grisham announced there have been four confirmed cases of COVID-19 in New Mexico. The Albuquerque Community Foundation is cautiously monitoring t... Read More

In late December 2019, Congress passed the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act. The legislation included changes in retirement plans, including traditional IRA contributions designed to enhance retirement savings. These... Read More

Imagine - fifteen great companies and ABQ’s two national laboratories “pitching” next to each other to compete to fill a combined total of over one thousand high paying positions. Imagine the exploding start-up scene scaling and cre... Read More

Over two decades ago, the Board of Trustees of the Foundation recognized the value of connecting with younger donors who were interested in learning about the power of endowment giving. 12 young community leaders were invited, mostly couples, to cont... Read More

The results are in. Americans gave an estimated $427.71 billion to U.S. charities in 2018. That’s great news. What’s not good news is that philanthropy from individuals declined from 70 percent in 2017 to 68 percent in 2018.

This shi... Read More

The Business Roundtable, an advocacy association of CEOs of America’s leading companies, recently released a revised statement of a corporation’s purpose – the reason for a business to exist. The new statement includes the usual top... Read More

Last year, when the world tragically lost Jennifer Riordan, those of us at the Albuquerque Community Foundation also lost a trusted colleague, a loving friend and a collaborative partner. Like so many others at the time, we sought ways to both honor ... Read More

The Albuquerque Community Foundation has hit a major milestone. Our assets under management have hit and surpassed $100 million. During a celebration with founders, current and former Trustees and Foundation staff, President & CEO Randy Royster a... Read More

The Albuquerque Community Foundation’s Scholarship Recipient luncheon this year took place at InnovateABQ. Recipients of scholarships for the 2019-2020 school year, their friends and family, guests and staff celebrated the $180,000 in awards gi... Read More

The latest report from Giving USA shows that Americans gave an estimated $427.71 billion to U.S. charities in 2018. This total rose just under one percent from the previous year. And that’s good news. Giving by corporations also grew by 5.4 per... Read More

Philanthropy comes in all shapes and sizes, just like people do. Whether you leave a bit of change in a donation bucket at a cash register, volunteer an hour at a senior center reading to those with failing eyesight, buy $50 worth of chocolate bars f... Read More

Other than the latest Avengers movie, everyone we know is obsessed with the final season of Game of Thrones. Each Sunday night, we’re enthralled by the rich storytelling, characters and conflicts. But what can a pop culture phenomenon tell us a... Read More

They say the number seven is lucky. And seven sure was the lucky number for the five nonprofit organizations chosen as recipients at the 7th annual Great Grant Giveaway sponsored by the Albuquerque Community Foundation. These community-based groups s... Read More

In 2016, the Albuquerque Community Foundation’s Board of Trustees authorized a social impact investing initiative to reallocate a portion of endowed assets into social impact investments. We committed to a five-year pilot period where up to 5 p... Read More

With the cost of college sky rocketing, financial aid and work study just aren’t covering as much as they used to. And we’ve all heard stories about the massive debt that some students incur to make it through their education. Every littl... Read More

For many nonprofits, funding cycles are a routine part of annual operations: an RFP is issued, a nonprofit crafts their proposal and submits an application. Sometimes the organization moves forward to present their program to a funder. Sometimes they... Read More

A 2017 study titled Community Foundation Business Model Disruption in the 21st Century commissioned by the Council on Foundations, discusses how the industry has seen a mass shift of philanthropic individuals entrusting their philanthropy to financia... Read More

It may seem counterintuitive, but in our current economic boom, people living in poverty are not benefiting like other populations are.  And we know, the majority of those living in poverty represent communities of color, immigrants and refugees... Read More

The Women’s Philanthropy Institute at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy recently released a study about how parents imbue their children with philanthropic values. The study also asked whether this transmission of generosity results in di... Read More

The latest Giving USA numbers on philanthropy in the United States for 2017 are in. We Americans are generous, giving a total of $410.02 billion last year. Some 70% of that came from individuals, up 5.2%. Corporate giving rose by 8.0%.

Broken do... Read More

When entrepreneurs have a good idea, the skills to execute, and a strong work ethic, all arrows should point to success. Yet many entrepreneurs in Albuquerque—especially entrepreneurs of color from Native and Latino communities—run into b... Read More

There is much talk about “ecosystems” these days. Ecosystems are defined as any system or network of interconnecting and interacting parts. We are all part of many ecosystems – our families, our neighborhoods, schools, churches, wor... Read More

As the country prepares for the 2020 national census, we have partnered with the Thornburg Foundation (Thornburg) to assist the State of New Mexico in assuring every New Mexican is counted. An undercount means the loss of federal funding available fo... Read More

There’s lots of good news to celebrate in New Mexico and Albuquerque right now. The unemployment rate has dropped to its lowest level since December 2008 (that’s right before the Great Recession). We’ve added almost 9,000 new jobs s... Read More

Five nonprofit organizations shared a record setting $134,475 in the 6th annual Great Grant Giveaway sponsored by the Albuquerque Community Foundation. The theme of this year’s grant giveaway was common ground, which Foundation Board Chai... Read More

A few years ago, a Foundation trustee stated, “we can’t wait for government to fix things anymore. If we want to grow our city to be a better place to live for all people, we’ve got to find ways to fix things ourselves.” At th... Read More

We’ve reached the final of our fields-of-interest, Human Services. It’s particularly appropriate that our last field of interest is Human Services, because our spotlight organization, Fathers Building Futures, demonstrates the inherent va... Read More

The countdown continues! Our penultimate field-of-interest is Health. Health grants focus specifically on meeting the mental health needs of individuals in the Greater Albuquerque Metropolitan Area. Populations served through mental health programs m... Read More

At the mid-point of our year end campaign, we’ve featured three of our fields-of-interest with three more to go. We’ve told stories of some of the successes our grantee organizations have created in our community. And we’ve cel... Read More

Almost half way through our year end campaign, and a big thanks to everyone!

This week we feature our Education field-of-interest. Field-of-Interest Endowment Funds ensure resources today and tomorrow. What better way to help today and tomorrow ... Read More

Week two of our year end campaign, What Matters, focuses on our Economic & Workforce Development field-of-interest. These grants support intentional, inventive efforts providing access to economic opportunities for underserved populations. Throug... Read More

We kick off our year end campaign, What Matters, by highlighting our Arts & Culture field-of-interest. Arts & Culture grants focus on two primary funding areas: organizations and programs that provide access to arts and culture for low-income... Read More

The Albuquerque Community Foundation is about to embark on its year end campaign. The theme is What Matters…Every Albuquerque resident getting the help they need to thrive?  Individuals with really good ideas getting funding to start a sm... Read More

The Foundation recently co-hosted a regional summit with the Council on Foundations and Philanthropy Southwest to discuss how work across the Southwest supports achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 17 SDG goal... Read More

Why entrepreneurship? That’s a good question, and one that we sometimes get here at the Albuquerque Community Foundation. Why are we so focused on funding and supporting entrepreneurs? Shouldn’t we be trying to lure businesses to Albuquer... Read More

Working at the Albuquerque Community Foundation, we see acts of generosity every day. We see volunteers giving their time and talent to worthy causes. We see donors sharing their good fortune. But at no other time do we see more generosity of time, t... Read More

It seems to us that more and more companies are directly connecting their corporate philanthropy with causes that matter to their customers. The idea of cause marketing in corporate philanthropy, the interesting ways corporations give back to their c... Read More

Grantmaking: A Focus on Self-Care for Health and Human Services Organizations

Imagine yourself in this situation: you’ve been a social worker for ten years at an organization working with victims of child abuse. Five years before that, you... Read More

Conventional wisdom says that having an education – meaning skills and training – is the path toward well-paying employment. Thus, learning new skills as an adult would be the way to improve one’s situation by getting a better job. ... Read More

In April, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Council on Foundations (COF) announced that Albuquerque-based Nusenda Foundation and the Albuquerque Living Cities Integration Initiative (now City Alive) were among the win... Read More

Eric Liu, founder and CEO of Citizen University and executive director of the Aspen Institute Citizenship and American Identity Program, spoke this year at the Council on Foundations Conference in Dallas, Texas.  He has recently published, You&r... Read More

Two congressmen from Texas, one Democrat and the other Republican, have shown us all that if we actually sit down and talk, we can find common ground on many issues. They are an excellent example of what it takes to make a partnership.

Beto O&rs... Read More

It started with a slam. Slam poetry that is, from three Albuquerque Poets Laureate – Hakim Bellamy, Jessica Helen Lopez and Manuel Gonzalez. The trio energetically set out the theme of the 5^th Annual Great Grant Giveaway – partnerships &n... Read More

This past fall, Albuquerque Mayor Richard J. Berry and the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council launched ABQKindness. This project is designed to promote, track and celebrate acts of kindness around the city. It includes a mobile app that allows user... Read More

As we’ve discussed in our last blog, the Albuquerque Community Foundation keeps an eye on activity at all levels that could impact us, the organizations we support, and our community. We’re paying close attention right now to what is happ... Read More

Last week, the Charitable Giving Coalition, a diverse group of organizations, private and community foundations, nonprofits and others, sent a letter to President-elect Trump. The group requested that the charitable deduction be excluded from potenti... Read More

With the end of 2016 just days away, January means a new president, and new policies. One of President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed changes for the country’s tax structure is to cap the total amount of itemized deductions. Read more abou... Read More

We’ve now entered the season when everyone’s inboxes, mailboxes and social media are filled with solicitations, exhortations and requests for support. What would happen if, as we sift through them, we asked ourselves, “what matters?... Read More

Each and every day we are bombarded with bad news – both at the national and local levels. Whether it is the most contentious Presidential election during most of our lives, or the constant reminder of New Mexico’s negative rankings in ke... Read More

Our local and national newspapers have been full of headlines about police shootings and police officers themselves becoming targets of violence. From Ferguson to Albuquerque to Baton Rouge to Dallas to Milwaukee, the wave of killings has escalated, ... Read More

We’ve talked before about the Albuquerque Community Foundation’s change in grantmaking to focus on realigning our grants to organizations providing access to economic opportunities.

PB&J Family Services was one of the organizatio... Read More

Today’s headlines are full of news that 80 people died after a truck drove into a celebration of France’s national holiday. This is only the latest in headlines that fill us at the Albuquerque Community Foundation with sadness, outrage an... Read More

It was sad to hear about the sudden, untimely death of music icon, Prince. During his "Purple Rain" years, many of us recognized his musical talents and became Prince fans.

With his passing, we learned about his musical legacy- the man... Read More

The Albuquerque Community Foundation has a long history of supporting organizations and initiatives whose goal is to make our community better. For years, we have made grants to many of our community's best nonprofit organizations. Organizations ... Read More

Now it’s easier than ever to make the gift of a lifetime.

IRAs can qualify for tax-free charitable distributions.

The Albuquerque Community Foundation can help turn your individual retirement accounts (IRAs) into tax-saving charitable... Read More

Randy Royster
President and CEO
Albuquerque Community Foundation

As we finish off the last of the leftovers, as we make our lists and check them twice, our thoughts turn to gifts great and small. But this year, let’s focus on both giving tha... Read More

The Foundation is hosting a series of deep dive community conversations about issues that Albuquerque is facing. The conversations will be hosted the weeks of January 26 and February 2. Register your attendance to denise@albuquerquefoundati... Read More

This afternoon, the United States House of Representatives failed to advance the Supporting America's Charities Act(H.R. 5806), a milestone bill that would have widely benefited philanthropy and charitable organizations across the country. The vo... Read More

No matter your political persuasion you are probably, as I am, glad the election is over so we can stop being bombarded by all of the negative political ads. It will be nice when the dust settles and Congress gets back to work.

In this time of polariz... Read More

Book written by:  John Mackey, Co-CEO of Whole Foods Market, and Raj Sisodia

In certain circles, “capitalism” can be a dirty word. It is, at the very least, a loaded one. Capitalism is often viewed as a mechanism for evil &ndash... Read More

In my 18 years at the Foundation, I’ve noted a transformation in the grant making world.   It can easily be described in one word, IMPACT. 

We used to make grants to organizations that were great at measuring activities.&nbs... Read More

On May 6, five Community Foundations joined together for the greater good of New Mexico. Their goal? Raise $500,000 for nonprofit organizations who support causes in communities where we live, work and play. The idea was part of a larger initiative, ... Read More

Americans are philanthropic. When a problem arises, we join hands to fix it, contributing our money, our time and know-how to local, national and international causes.

At times, it is frustrating.  There are so many urgent problems. Too many are ... Read More