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 – with a fast-paced verbal account of the partnerships and collaborations that make Albuquerque the fascinating, complicated city it is.

Each year, the Albuquerque Community Foundation selects a handful of nonprofits to present their good works to a room filled with hundreds of people eager to joyously give money away. This year, a check for $500 sat on each of the 70 tables, ready to be endorsed to one of the nonprofits by consensus of the table’s participants, and matched by the Foundation. Generous corporate donors [link to donors] waited in the wings to add contributions ranging from $2,000 to $5,000 during the event. Individual participants were also encouraged to donate what they could via cash, check or credit card. At the end of the event, over $106,000 had been given away to support the three causes chosen this year.

How did participants decide? They watched moving videos about each of the selected organizations produced by Media Desk, and heard from Randy Royster (Foundation President & CEO), Steve Keene (Board Chair) and Steve Maestas (Trustee) about how partnerships of every sort engage and enrich our community.

The three local partnerships were:

Living Cities Initiative, which approaches economic development using the power of collective impact. It received $38,562 toward its goal of creating 10,000 jobs by 2025 by supporting non-traditional entrepreneurs.

Healthy Neighborhoods Albuquerque took home $37,307 toward its goal of training locals for jobs, hiring more of them, and buying from local businesses to growth those businesses. The result is a healthier community, spurred on by seven anchor institutions.

Downtown Arts & Cultural District received $30,125 to continue its efforts to develop Downtown Albuquerque as a culturally vibrant hub for the growing creative economy sectors of film and digital media, the visual arts, branding and marketing, literary arts, performing arts and entertainment, and culinary arts.

Why these three? Because everyone in the Hotel Albuquerque ballroom that day wants results. We want to turn our collective giving into big local impact. Impact that improves access to economic opportunity for the people that make Albuquerque special, and combats our high degree of poverty, climate of exclusion, and lack access to economic opportunity for significant portions of our community.

When a group works together in a joint endeavor that pools common interests, resources and professional skills in order to promote broader goals and outcomes for everyone, that’s a partnership. The partnerships in the spotlight at this year’s Great Grant Giveaway are changing the fundamental systems that shape our community.

Watch the videos that moved the audience to write their checks. To see what happened when our corporate partners took over our social media, check out the Great Grant Giveaway Facebook page.