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All Together NM opens fund for residents affected by recent wildfires

All Together NM opens fund for residents affected by recent wildfires

Posted on by David Izraelevitz

The New Mexico Coalition of Community Foundations and the All Together NM Fund are  excited to partner with UpTogether to provide one-time cash assistance to New Mexicans, with priority to those who have been adversely impacted by the Calf Canyon and Hermit’s Peak wildfires, the largest fires in New Mexico history.

The New Mexico Cash Assistance Fund application opens on Monday, November 14, and closes at 11:59 pm on Sunday, December 4, 2022. Applications will be randomized for approval once the application window closes. Eligible households will each receive $1,000.

The New Mexico Cash Assistance Fund will focus on the following counties for this program: San Miguel, Mora, Colfax, Lincoln, Sandoval, or Sierra. Applicants from San Miguel, Mora, or Colfax will be highly prioritized. To be eligible, applicants must reside in one of these counties in New Mexico. To apply for cash assistance, visit https://app.uptogether.org/fund/alltogethernm

As of June 2022, almost 900,000 acres had burned across the state, including 31 fires greater than 100 acres. Many New Mexican were displaced and grieved the loss of their homes and personal belongings all while trying to rebuild their lives.

“This year was a difficult one for our neighbors, especially those in the north,” said Lisa O’Brien, Taos Community Foundation Director “Partnering with UpTogether to support New Mexicans was important for us to ensure residents are receiving money directly as they start to rebuild.”

“Direct cash assistance supports communities with the relief they need and the flexibility to adapt in a crisis,” said Randy Royster, Albuquerque Community Foundation and New Mexico Community Trust President & CEO. “It also breaks down assistance barriers for New Mexicans who need help now.”

UpTogether centers its work around the strengths and initiatives of people living in financially under-resourced communities and highlights the role social networks play in helping people accomplish their goals faster and achieve long-term socioeconomic mobility.

“This program would have not been possible without the support of local residents, businesses and corporations who donated to the All Together NM Fund,” said Christopher Goett, Santa Fe Community Foundation President & CEO. “With their support, we will be able to give a total of $1,000,000 directly to New Mexico residents.”

Questions about the direct cash assistance program? Visit alltogethernm.org or call 505-988-9715

About UpTogether

UpTogether is a community, a movement, and a platform to highlight, invest in and accelerate the initiatives people in historically undervalued communities are taking to improve their lives and move up, together. Learn more at uptogether.org

About All Together NM

The All Together NM Fund was established in 2020 by the New Mexico Coalition of Community Foundations in conjunction with the Governor’s office to help New Mexico respond to and eventually recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Fund has been used to address immediate needs and offer long-term support for the recovery work that continues to lie ahead.

The New Mexico Coalition of Community Foundations includes Albuquerque Community Foundation, Community Foundation of Southern New Mexico, Los Alamos Community Foundation, New Mexico Foundation, Santa Fe Community Foundation, and Taos Community Foundation. Donate and learn more at alltogethernm.org

2022-2023 Nonprofit Training Program

2022-2023 Nonprofit Training Program

Posted on by David Izraelevitz

Registration is encouraged on a per-organization basis. Each organization may bring up to three people to help drive home the learning and encourage continued conversation upon returning to the office. Board members, staff, and volunteers are all welcome.

Cost: registration is $50 per organization (up to three participants) per session or all three sessions for $125. Individual registration is at the same rate ($50/session or $125 for package of three).

Questions? Send an email to info@losalamoscf.org

Title:  Building Systems: Development and Marketing for Nonprofits, by Albuquerque Community Foundation and New Mexico Community Trust
Date:  Tuesday, October 25, 2022
Time:  9:30 am – 11:30 am
Location: UNM-LA Student Services Auditorium (Building 2, Room 230)
Register here: COMPLETED
Presenters: Juaquin Moya, Vice President of Philanthropic Advising; Kate Leung, Donor Development Senior Associate; Denise Nava Wyrick, Marketing and Communications Director; Clarissa Earl, Communications and Events Associate.

Description: Staff from Albuquerque Community Foundation and New Mexico Community Trust will work with participants to think intentionally and develop plans for growing their systems for marketing and fundraising. We will share tips from our years in philanthropy and our personal experiences working with and for nonprofits, and provide structure for organizations to have discussions about their internal strengths and areas for improvement. The session will include some brief networking time and is intended to be a resource for all those serving our New Mexico communities.

Title: Nonprofit Governance and Meeting Management: Practical Advice for Boards
Date:  Tuesday, January 24, 2023
Time:  9:00 am – 11:00 am
Location: UNM-LA Student Services Auditorium (Building 2, Room 230)
Register here: losalamoscf.org/ticket
Presenters: David Izraelevitz, Los Alamos Community Foundation Board Chair and J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Committee Vice-Chair; Sara Scott, First Born Los Alamos Board Vice-Chair. Both David and Sara have extensive experience serving in leadership on local boards and commissions, including as Los Alamos County Councilors.


Description: Involvement in a board of directors can be either, or even at the same time, a rewarding activity or a frustrating one. Board member responsibilities may be ill-defined and meetings ineffectual or inconclusive, or alternatively, participating in a board may result in the satisfaction of contributing to the direction and impact of a worthwhile organization.We will discuss the basics of board governance, including differences between policy and operational roles, fiduciary and other board responsibilities, and related topics. We will provide practical advice on making roles and responsibilities clearly defined and applied. We will also discuss the bane of boards – the board meeting. There are ways to make board meetings more efficient and effective; Robert’s Rules are just a means to desired ends, and we will concentrate on the product rather than parliamentary minutiae while providing advice on how to structure and participate in meetings that get the job done.

Title: Internal Financial Controls for Nonprofits: Viable Solutions that are Easily Applied
Date: Wednesday, February 22, 2023
Time:  9:00 am – 11:00 am
Location:  UNM-LA Student Services Auditorium (Building 2, Room 230)
Register here: losalamoscf.org/ticket
Presenter: Chris Daniels, CEO, The Family YMCA

Description: Geared toward nonprofit boards and staff, this session will focus on protecting the value of the organization’s reputation. Even the slightest of fraud events can be devastating to your organization’s standing as a trusted steward of donor contributions and grant funds. We will examine real world examples of fraud, discuss lapses in financial management, and present simple steps that can be taken to protect funds from fraud in both the real and virtual worlds. Many organizations have few or no professional staff, thus limiting their ability to implement extensive financial controls; but it is essential to have some basic financial policies and procedures in place.

The LACF Nonprofit Training Program is made possible in part through the support
of the Diane Warther Soran Endowment for Community Programs.

Endowment supporting Los Alamos Little Theater announced

Endowment supporting Los Alamos Little Theater announced

Posted on by David Izraelevitz

LACF News – The Los Alamos Community Foundation announced today that longtime resident and community theatre participant, Ken Milder, has established the Los Alamos Little Theatre (LALT) Endowment Fund with a seed gift of $10,000. The purpose of the fund is to provide unrestricted operating support to LALT.
“I want to support the Little Theatre because it’s tough to sustain a performing arts center, put on plays, and provide educational programs and opportunities for experience and learning,” said Milder. “I also want to make sure that the Little Theatre has financial support in down years because things like the pandemic can be devastating, and unfortunately not every play makes money,” he added.

LALT, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit community theater group, was founded in 1943 and has been providing entertainment since the days of the Manhattan Project. Productions take place in the Performing Arts Center (PAC), which LALT operates on behalf of Los Alamos County.

Milder, who worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory for 38 years, believes there is a strong relationship between science and the arts. “During my time at the Lab, what I observed almost without exception is that LANL Fellows have a strong foundation in the arts, humanities and music,” said Milder.

“A foundation in the arts helps people apply technical knowledge in creative and outside-the-box ways. For our country to remain a leader in science, engineering and design, we need the arts,” Milder said. “Personally, I’ve benefited greatly from the arts. I’ve been involved in performing arts since I was 13, and when I moved to Los Alamos the very first organization I joined was the Little Theatre.” Milder added, “We must add arts to science, technology, engineering and mathematics education and call it STEAM!”

Steve Laurent, Executive Director of LACF, noted that Ken’s contribution is just a first step. “There is a need to grow the endowment significantly so it can relieve LALT of the pressure to raise funds and allow it to focus on what it does best – providing the gift of theater to the community. I encourage anyone who has been a member of, or has been entertained or touched by, the Little Theatre to consider contributing to the fund,” Laurent said.

To donate to the LALT Endowment, go to losalamoscf.org/donate.

About the Los Alamos Little Theatre: Founded in 1943, LALT has been providing entertainment on the “Hill” since the days of the Manhattan Project. LALT serves the following purposes: to produce plays and other dramatic works; to promote the interest of the public in drama and dramatic productions; to instruct and educate members in the dramatic arts and related subjects; and to furnish the community of Los Alamos with a source of dramatic talent. For more information, visit www.lalt.org.

About the Los Alamos Community Foundation: Established in 2015, the Los Alamos Community Foundation seeks to improve the quality of life in our community by inspiring, facilitating and supporting enduring philanthropy and building the capacity and success of our local nonprofit organizations. The Los Alamos Community Foundation currently stewards fourteen locally endowed funds and has total assets of nearly $900,000. For more information about the Los Alamos Community Foundation, visit www.losalamoscf.org.

Enterprise Bank and Trust Matches Third Year Community Challenge

Enterprise Bank and Trust Matches Third Year Community Challenge

Posted on by David Izraelevitz

By CAROL A. CLARK
Los Alamos Daily Post
caclark@ladailypost.com

On Wednesday, the Los Alamos Community Foundation (LACF) received the latest matching funds from Enterprise Bank & Trust as part of the bank’s three-year Community Challenge. Enterprise created the Community Endowment in 2019 and committed to funding the endowment $50,000 per year for three years. Presented as a challenge to the Los Alamos community, the commitment of Enterprise was based on LACF securing equal matching funds from local donors.

“Enterprise Bank is proud to partner with Los Alamos Community Foundation. The establishment of this Endowment secures beneficial programming for our community forever,” said Liddie Martinez, Enterprise Bank President – Los Alamos Region and Director of Community Engagement.

Each year of the effort, the community rose to the challenge. The first two years were successfully completed and LACF has secured $50,000 in pledges to complete year three. Although $40,000 was presented Wednesday, Enterprise will fund the final $10,000 endowment amount once all the outstanding pledges have been collected.

“Enterprise Bank & Trust has been a valuable partner to Los Alamos Community Foundation since its inception more than six years ago,” LACF Board President David Izraelevitz said. “They host our office in their building and provide financial management services to us as well. These matching funds will allow us to make a greater impact on our community, supporting the great nonprofits in Los Alamos and our region. We look forward to more partnerships with Enterprise in the future.”

The purpose of the Enterprise Bank & Trust Community Endowment is to provide grants for charitable, scientific, literary or educational objectives that benefit residents of Los Alamos County. As an endowment, LACF invests the principal and earnings are distributed to the community in the form of grants to local nonprofits. Funds are awarded through a grant cycle that takes place each spring. The endowment principal is never touched, ensuring the endowment will be giving back to the community in perpetuity.

“Enterprise is such a great supporter of the community. This endowment is a truly wonderful gift that will keep on giving. We are equally grateful for the amazing group of local donors who saw this opportunity and stepped up generously to provide the matching side of the funds,” LACF Executive Director Steve Laurent said. “I could not think of a better way for Enterprise to show its long-term commitment to Los Alamos than by creating this endowment. These funds will be generating income to support our community essentially forever. Liddie and her team at Enterprise secured the commitment and challenged the community to raise a matching amount, and we did. This is a tremendous success story all around, especially for the organizations doing such important work in the community who will benefit from the endowment for years to come.”

Laurent explained that just because Enterprise Bank fulfilled its initial commitment does not mean the endowment is complete.

“Our ongoing job is to continue to grow the endowment through additional contributions. Anyone can contribute to the endowment at any time,” he said. “One of the important things is that the endowment funds are unrestricted, meaning that funding is not limited to a specific organization or cause. This means that funding will always be available to address changing needs in our community, now and well into the future. The mission of the Los Alamos Community Foundation is to build enduring philanthropy to empower our community’s nonprofit organizations. To learn more about how you can participate in building lasting support for our local nonprofits, go to losalamoscf.org or call 505.661.4420.”

To date, the Enterprise Bank & Trust Community Endowment has supported a number of local nonprofit organizations including: Self Help, Inc., Los Alamos Visiting Nurse Service, Los Alamos JJAB, Los Alamos Retired and Senior Organization, Family Strengths Network, Los Alamos Makers, First Born Program of Los Alamos, The Family YMCA, Los Alamos Arts Council, Los Alamos Public Schools Foundation, Pajarito Environmental Education Center and Mind&Melody. To learn more about Enterprise Bank & Trust, visit enterprisebank&trust.com.

About the Los Alamos Community Foundation: Established in 2015, the focus of the Los Alamos Community Foundation is to build enduring philanthropy to empower our community’s nonprofit organizations. The Los Alamos Community Foundation currently stewards 14 local endowed funds and has total assets of more than $975,000. For more information about the Los Alamos Community Foundation, visit www.losalamoscf.org.

LACF Awards  Funds To  Eleven Local  Nonprofit Organizations

LACF Awards  Funds To  Eleven Local  Nonprofit Organizations

Posted on by David Izraelevitz

LACF News – Eleven local nonprofit organizations are the recipients of more than $37,900 in discretionary and donor designated grants from the Los Alamos Community Foundation (LACF) this year. Committees comprised of LACF board members and community members selected the following organizations through a competitive proposal process.

Discretionary grants to improve financial health:

Family Strengths Network ($5,000)

“Funding from LACF is helping Family Strengths Network (FSN) achieve its goal of user-friendly service for our clients, and improved data management. This funding will simplify registering for programs, and using FSN’s Beth Ladino Family Resource Library and the Toy Library. It will also streamline data management for staff, which will free up valuable time for FSN’s important work with families.” -Carie Fanning, Executive Director

Los Alamos Arts Council ($5,000)

“This grant supports new technology at LAAC. We will be utilizing this grant to initiate the purchase of several new computers and to upgrade an aging infrastructure at Fuller Lodge Art Center.” -Maria Crane, Executive Director

Los Alamos Makers ($3,931)

“This funding will allow us to safely expand our technical training and skills badges offering by including laser manufacturing training. The project is in line with our mission of helping all individuals have access to skills-building opportunities and help build confidence in exploring career opportunities.” -Prisca Tiasse, Director

Los Alamos Public Schools Foundation ($1,300)

“We’re grateful to Los Alamos Community Foundation for awarding a grant for $1,300 to refresh our website. This funding will help us complete the project and further our goal to offer timely, updated and interesting information in a visually appealing way that encourages the LAPS Foundation community to use the website as a valuable resource. We’re here to support the Schools, and we want people to know about the exciting things we do.” -Jenny McCumber, Executive Director

Mind & Melody ($5,000)

“Mind & Melody will use this grant to launch the first of its programs in the state. Our organization uses music to help seniors regain pieces of themselves while instilling purpose and empathy in younger generations.” -Cristina Rodriguez, Executive Director

The Family YMCA ($5,000)

“As we look at our capital needs over the next several years, we need to provide training for both key staff and board members to expand fundraising capacity. This funding will allow us to send staff and board leadership to a national training that has proven successful in helping us increase our fundraising efforts and success in the past. Having access to these resources will keep our small staff inspired and help us build stronger relationships in our community, with our partners as well as our members and participants.” -Chris Daniels, Chief Executive Officer

Donor-Designated and Field-of-Interest Grants

$500 to Los Alamos Community Winds from the Community Endowment for Music Organizations

$1,531 to the Los Alamos Arts Council from the Rosalie Heller Annual Memorial Lecture Endowment

$1,668 to support LACF’s Nonprofit Training Program and Community Philanthropy Series from the Diane Warther Soran Endowment for Community Programs

$1,700 to The Family YMCA to the Cherry Bombs roller derby team from the Los Alamos Community Endowment for Youth Sports

$2,000 to Los Alamos Public Schools Foundation from the Paul A. and Susan E. Bombardt K-12 Music Education Endowment for Los Alamos Public Schools

$2,063 to Los Alamos Public Schools to support ongoing maintenance of the Duane Smith Auditorium from the Endowment for Duane Smith Auditorium

$3,250 to United Way of Northern New Mexico through a grant from Con Alma Health Foundation

About the Los Alamos Community Foundation:

Established in 2015, the focus of LACF is to build enduring philanthropy to empower our community’s nonprofit organizations. LACF currently stewards 14 local endowed funds and has total assets of more than $975,000. For more information about the Los Alamos Community Foundation, visit www.losalamoscf.org.