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Grantee Spotlight – The Birthing Tree
For many parents, knowing they have someone by their side during pregnancy and childbirth can provide a profound sense of relief. A trained doula can make the difference between feeling overwhelmed and isolated and feeling supported and cared for throughout the journey of birth. In communities across Northern New Mexico, The Birthing Tree helps ensure more families experience pregnancy, birth, and postpartum with compassion, dignity, and continuous support.
The Birthing Tree provides birth and postpartum doula services for families navigating one of life’s most vulnerable and transformative experiences. Doulas offer emotional, physical, and informational support before, during, and after birth, helping families feel informed, heard, and connected throughout the process.
This support is especially important in rural communities, where maternal healthcare resources may be limited and families can face barriers related to distance, language, finances, or navigating complex healthcare issues and systems. Through bilingual doulas, Spanish-speaking families can better understand their options, communicate with providers, advocate for themselves, and receive care that honors their language and culture.
Doula support can strengthen parent-infant bonding, increase breastfeeding rates,improve communication with providers, reduce postpartum depression and anxiety, and contribute to safer and more positive birth and postpartum experiences. Remarkably, 85% of The Birthing Tree’s services are offered free of charge to parents, making this vital support accessible to everyone.
Support from donors and community partners makes this work possible and helps expand access to compassionate, culturally responsive care, for families across Northern New Mexico.
To learn more about The Birthing Tree, or to support this important work, visit thebirthingtree.org
Nick Derda is the new Grants Coordinator for the New Mexico Congressional Delegation and is housed in Senator Heinrich’s Office. Nick’s role is to help organizations with letters of support for federal grant applications, support grant searches, and disseminate a weekly grants newsletter with new federal grant opportunities.
- Letters of Support Request Form: https://forms.office.com/g/GfwD1gLiZj
- Grant Search Request: https://forms.office.com/g/8gNjTtNUZp
- Newsletter Sign-Up: https://forms.office.com/g/kAWRnq1677
Nick is based in Albuquerque and welcomes you or your grantees to reach out to him:
New Mexico Congressional Delegation
Nick Derda, Grants Coordinator
400 Gold Ave. SW, Suite 1080, Albuquerque, NM 87102
E: Nick_Derda@Heinrich.Senate.Gov
T: 202-578-5612
Fundholder Spotlight – The Sheffield Future Heritage Fund
Anna Sheffield is a world-renowned artist who creates jewelry that is elegant, irreverent, and truly original. Anna’s earliest memories are of life in Northern New Mexico, among the splendid high desert environs and the Native American cultures of the Four Corners area. Anna’s childhood in the Southwest has had an enduring influence on her work, setting the stage for a lifelong interest in natural beauty, spirituality, and all forms of art and design—from architecture to Indigenous crafts. These diverse interests led her to pursue a degree in sculpture. After moving to New York City, Anna shifted her attention to jewelry, drawing upon her Fine Art fundamentals to create her singular style.
NMCF is honored to have The Sheffield Future Heritage Fund, a partnership that aims to preserve and protect the cultural heritage and landscape of the Southwest. In a recent discussion with Anna, we asked about her inspiration to open The Sheffield Future Heritage Fund.
Why do you have a fund with NMCF? I believe, as an artist who is fortunate to be where I am in my career, it is important to share, uplift and contribute to a larger creative community and work to preserve nature’s majesty. New Mexico has cultures that are firmly rooted in both. And being from New Mexico, I knew that partnering with NMCF on a fund would be the best way to serve that purpose meaningfully.
What inspires you, and why? Connection is the word that comes to mind. I am humbled and inspired by the interconnectedness we get to experience in this life– between artists, within community, as well as between ourselves and nature, the divine—even the sentient. I work with natural materials in my art and jewelry, and I always aim to honor their earthly origins. They inspire me endlessly.
Sheffield Future Heritage Fund has a focus on Native American and wildlife/environmental organizations. Why? I feel that contributing to preservation of place and culture by supporting what is Indigenous, or Native, to a land and people so wonderful and generous (as they are in New Mexico) is both an honor and a responsible return to a source that is dear to me.
The Sheffield Future Heritage Fund has supported these nonprofits (in the last 10 years):
- Amigos Bravos
- Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute
- Institute of American Indian Arts
- Institute of American Indian Arts Foundation
- Keres Children’s Learning Center
- Tewa Women United
- The DigDeep Right to Water Project
- WildEarth Guardians
The Sheffield Heritage Fund is a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) held at New Mexico Community Foundation. DAFs are an easy and accessible tool for nearly any donor.
If you are interested in starting a DAF, or learn more about them, visit our website, give us a call at 505.820.6860, or email Janice at jmorrow@newmexicofoundation.org.
Spring is in the air. A time of renewal and rebirth. One of my favorite things to witness is the fresh, new green leaves reemerging on cottonwood trees as they awaken from their winter slumber. That green is so vibrant and clean, shimmering in the sun, quietly announcing that a new season has arrived. All around us, we see regeneration at work—the revitalization of life so that all may continue to live, grow, and enjoy the gift of being here.
This season of renewal is not just something happening in nature. It is something happening within us, too—if we allow it.
I recently attended the Council on Foundations conference. The theme was Building Together. At first glance, the phrase seemed simple, even ordinary. But what unfolded over three days was anything but. There were deep, heartfelt conversations about how we understand and address our differences, our divides, and our vulnerabilities in ways that still allow us to see the humanity of others—despite disagreements, despite differing worldviews.
That kind of work is not easy. It requires self-reflection. It requires us to learn, and in some cases, to reprogram our own thinking. It asks us to unwire learned patterns of misjudgment and to confront the quiet assumptions we carry about one another. Unfortunately, much of our learned behavior is rooted in misjudgment—shaped by perception, fear, and a natural instinct for self-preservation. These instincts, meant to protect us, can also cause us to see others through a lens of suspicion, division and fear.
And yet, spring reminds us that dormancy is not permanent. Renewal is always possible.
This month, millions will gather to celebrate graduates at every level. We will come together to honor their achievements, to recognize their potential, and to encourage them as they step into what comes next. For a moment, we see each student clearly—not through assumptions or fear, but through hope and pride. We celebrate who they are and who they might become.
We will also celebrate mothers and life-givers, offering gratitude for their love and sacrifices and praying for their health and well-being. Many of us will plant flowers and tend gardens, placing seeds into the soil with the anticipation of growth and life.
These moments may seem unrelated: the cottonwood leaves, the conference conversations, the graduation ceremonies, Mother’s Day, the planting of gardens. But they are deeply connected.
They all point back to our shared humanity.
We are all of this earth. We all came from a mother. We have all learned and experienced things that have shaped our perceptions—sometimes in ways that divide us. But just like the mighty cottonwood tree, we too have the capacity for renewal. We can grow new leaves of understanding. We can question our fears. We can challenge the narratives we have inherited. We can choose to see our neighbors not through the lens of division, but through the lens of shared life.
When we do this, something remarkable happens. We begin to treat one another with the same dignity and possibility that we offer a graduate walking across the stage. We begin to recognize that every person carries a story, a struggle, a hope, and a future worth honoring.
I invite you this season to renew the conditions where humanity can flourish again. To allow new leaves of compassion, understanding, and grace to emerge.
And in doing so, we may discover that the renewal we admire in nature has been waiting all along to take root within us.
Sincerely,
Justin Kíí Huenemann
President and CEO
New Mexico Community Foundation
RELAY Santa Fe, a fiscally sponsored organization of NMCF, is a flexible creative space that provides accessible opportunities for artists, makers, and audiences to create, exhibit, and collaborate. By bridging traditional and emerging practices, RELAY cultivates dialogue, innovation, and growth within Santa Fe’s evolving creative ecosystem.
With a mission to explore vibrant exhibitions, RELAY Santa Few showcases the talent and creativity of local and international artists. Their space provides a platform for artists to express their unique perspectives and engage with diverse audiences. This month, they are exploring interactive light and sound environments, sensor-based installations, networked objects, performance-driven systems, and hybrid physical-digital pieces. What they share is an engagement with the idea that intelligence – in the technological sense – is already present in our built environment, and that creative practice can engage with it, reveal it, and give it new meaning.
To learn more about this month’s exhibition, CURRENTS x RELAY: Ambient Intelligence, visit their website. Currents and RELAY are partnering to produce low-to-no cost new media exhibitions and public programs year round. Donations help pay artists fairly, funds free programs, and keeps the space running. Every dollar you give is matched 1-to-1 now through May 15, 2026.
Ha’ Agua Water Tz’itz – a poetic documentary created by a partnership with YAKANAL and The Cultural Conservancy (shown above).
YAKANAL is a grassroots organization based in the Pueblo of Laguna, New Mexico, which is dedicated to strengthening Indigenous food systems, cultural knowledge, and leadership through land-based practices. Founded in 2011 and fiscally sponsored by the New Mexico Community Foundation, YAKANAL endeavors to strengthen cultural identity and leadership through intergenerational mentoring while supporting the broader community’s reconnection to traditional foodways grounded in balance, respect, and stewardship of land and water. Its name combines the word for “corn” in the Western Keres and Yucatec Mayan languages, affirming YAKANAL’s kinship to the land and ancestral responsibility to food.
YAKANAL’s programs respond to community priorities related to access to traditional foods, revitalization of farming practices, seed stewardship, health, and the transmission of cultural knowledge. YAKANAL’s integrated initiatives include traditional agriculture fields, fruit orchards, bee apiaries, community hornos, hoop houses for food and medicinal plants, cultural astronomy, and cultural exchanges. These programs are implemented in close collaboration with Tribal leadership, local farmers, elders, and culture-bearers to ensure alignment with Indigenous governance, land-use practices, and cultural protocols.
Recognizing the importance of “water as life,” YAKANAL participants produced and edited a video called “Ha’ Agua Water Tz’itz” that serves as a reminder of our sacred relationship to thunder, clouds, rain, and sustainable ways of living in relationship to water.
Ha’ Agua Water Tz’itz is a video-poem—a poetic documentary—created in partnership with the The Cultural Conservancy over the course of one year and four documentary trainings. It was created by youth from 14 distinct Indigenous communities. Through images, sounds, words and feelings, the film celebrates the indigeneity that roots us in our lands with the flow of water that connects us all.
YAKANAL’s vision for the future is to establish a Native Foods Center for processing and distribution of agricultural gifts, honey, fruit, and wildlife, complemented by an educational Learning Hub for hosting gatherings and workshops.
For more information, visit YAKANAL.org or send email to info@yakanal.org
YAKANAL’s integrated initiatives include community hornos (shown above).
The work of River Source (RS) is rooted in advancing water and land protection and restoration to achieve long-last impact by partnering with local communities. They partner with community members, schools, and land managers to spark action for caring for water, forests and land by connecting youth with ecological science, intergenerational learning, and ecological restoration. RS’s goal is to be weavers, bringing together elders, youth and land managers for collective action for watershed restoration and for creating job pathways for young adults to nurture the next generation of land and water protectors.
Since 1997, RS has seen a growing demand for their programs which include: (1) Watershed Watch to provide outdoor watershed education through schools, (2) the Watershed Academy to create paid work/learn experiences for youth focused on on-the-ground watershed restoration, (3) Youth for a Secure Water and Climate Future to amplify youth voices, and (4) technical assistance to advance ecological and watershed restoration. Through these integrated efforts, River Source advances environmental protection, cultural preservation, and climate resilience.
As they see New Mexicans living on the front lines of climate change, RS builds capacity for people to slow, sink, and spread water, improve soil health, increase desirable vegetation cover and monitor and learn from ecological restoration efforts. Learning comes from, and connects, youth with elders who hold traditional ecological knowledge that offers important insights for how we can care for the land and water that sustains all of us. River Source is honored to partner with several tribal schools and communities to offer river restoration experiences such as river forest restoration that combine with traditional practices such as willow basket making.
The New Mexico Community Foundation offers crucial support for River Source’s work. An investment made to River Source connects New Mexican youth, particularly in rural communities in northern New Mexico, with science and stewardship of local rivers and creates job pathways in water, land, and forest conservation.
Support River Source by clicking here!
River Source is a Fiscally Sponsored Organization of NMCF.
Our beautiful planet continues to provide all she can for our survival and enjoyment—and nowhere is that more evident than in New Mexico. As we celebrate Earth Month and reflect on our relationship with the natural world around us, it is important to recognize that local actions and care for our immediate environments can have as much, if not more, impact than national political efforts.
While the idea of “environmentalism” is often politicized, the responsibility of stewardship is not. Caring for our planet is a shared human obligation that calls for daily action on every scale. Every action counts. Over time, I have come to appreciate the reciprocal relationship we have with the Earth: when we take care of her, she takes care of us. When we fail to do so, we experience the consequences.
At the New Mexico Community Foundation, we have been on a journey to better understand our role in supporting communities as they care for their local environments. As a result, we have formally adopted Thriving Environments as a core funding priority and will soon begin implementing this focus to help steward New Mexico’s landscapes and communities for generations to come.
Justin Kíí Huenemann
President and CEO
New Mexico Community Foundation
Global Give-A-Book (GGAB), an NMCF grantee, was founded in Albuquerque in 2020 by Sylvia Maser with a simple but powerful belief: every child deserves to own a book. GGAB fosters early childhood literacy and school readiness by providing new, award-winning, culturally diverse books to low-income children from birth to age five across New Mexico.
Sylvia shares, “During the earliest years of life, access to books plays a critical role in school readiness. Yet many children in underserved communities grow up with few or no books at home.” GGAB works to close that gap by partnering with community organizations—including food pantries, schools, and early childhood programs—to deliver books directly to families. At GGAB, children do not just receive books — they own them, helping create the foundation for a lifelong love of reading.
GGAB is an all-women board, working together to strengthen families and expand literacy opportunities across the state. The organization also partners with Peter’s Paycheck, a woman-owned nonprofit that employs adults with special needs who carefully package each book before distribution.
Together, these partnerships ensure that children across New Mexico—including rural communities—have access to books and opportunity. Sylvia further shares, “By placing books into the hands of young children, we support school readiness and lifelong learning. With the support of donors and community partners, we can ensure every child can own a book and begin school ready to learn because when a child owns a book, they begin to see that their story matters too.”
GGAB is hosting a ribbon cutting and open house event to showcase their newly designed space on Friday, April 17, 2026 at 3:30 p.m. on the CNM Montoya Campus, RSVP on their website.
Written by: Elisabeth “Lisa” Jennings
Executive Director, Animal Protection New Mexico
Animal Protection New Mexico (APNM) is a woman-led organization with a significant percentage of its staff and board identifying as “female.” This demographic mirrors the national composition of animal protection advocates who are predominantly women. My mother was and my father is very strong-willed and generous people who always encouraged me to speak my mind and care about others with actions, not just words. Also, our board and staff are filled with generous, kind, brave, and intelligent people who inspire me every day!
Established in 2014, the Equine Protection Fund Endowment (Equine Endowment), held at the New Mexico Community Foundation (NMCF), serves a vital role in Animal Protection New Mexico’s Helping Horses, Donkeys, & Mules program. This permanent endowment that pays for crucial equine services provides a unique legacy of ensuring New Mexico’s equines are treated with dignity and kindness throughout their entire lives.
The Equine Endowment generates an enduring stream of income to pay for statewide services like feed assistance, veterinary care, gelding, farrier care, and PZP birth control for free-roaming mares.
APNM considered it crucial that the Equine Endowment be housed at the NMCF because its presence there elevates equine welfare as an issue deserving of community foundation interest and support, while also making equine needs visible to a broader, statewide audience of NMCF supporters. To date, the Equine Endowment has generated $296,610 for equine services through APNM. As the EPF Endowment grows and endures into the future, investment earnings will be able to comprise an even greater portion of New Mexico’s equine direct service needs.
While the state began its Official Scenic Historic Markers program in 1935 to encourage tourism, seven decades later, with nearly 500 markers in place, women were still barely a footnote in 2005. Today, thanks to the New Mexico Historic Women Marker Program, a fiscally sponsored organization of NMCF, 120 women are now recognized on over 100 markers, and school curriculum has been developed.
In 2006, the International Women’s Forum–New Mexico secured funding from the New Mexico State Legislature to erect roadside markers celebrating women whose actions and influence helped shape the state’s history in ways that continue to impact our culture today. In partnership with the Department of Transportation and Department of Cultural Affairs, and through a statewide nomination process that drew responses from pueblos, tribes, the Navajo Nation, and every county in New Mexico, Historic Women markers began appearing in 2007. Representing the long, multicultural history of our state, the markers highlight the remarkable courage, resilience, and strength of public figures and ordinary women who faced extraordinary challenges—and changed the course of history.
While the markers spotlight renowned women such as artist Georgia O’Keeffe, suffrage leader Nina Otero-Warren, and San Ildefonso potter Maria Martinez, they also honor and credit lesser-known “unsung heroes” who contributed immensely to the arts, education, business, government, science, military, healthcare, and the growth and preservation of our culture and communities.
The initiative received additional legislative funding in 2022 for public outreach, K-12 curriculum development, digital archives, improved website capabilities, permanent and traveling exhibitions, and a speakers bureau. International Women’s Forum-NM’s Marker Program Committee Chair, Betty Downes said, “Nearly two decades later, the New Mexico Historic Women Marker Program now celebrates the lives and accomplishments of more than 100 women who have contributed to New Mexico’s fascinating history and unique culture. As the program grows, we hope to add more programming that will further enhance the recognition of women in New Mexico.”
Visit their website to learn more about the New Mexico Historic Women Marker Program https://www.nmhistoricwomen.org. Or, make a donation to the program https://newmexicofoundation.givevirtuous.org/donate/new-mexico-historic-women-marker-program
New Mexico Magazine https://www.newmexicomagazine.org is celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Rt 66! Historic Markers can be found when you click on the icon in the bottom left, “Plan your trip.”