Letter from Program Director, Nancy Pope – March, 2026

Letter from Program Director Nancy Pope

When asked if I would write this piece for New Mexico Community Foundation’s March e-newsletter on Women’s History Month, I paused and thought, “Why me”?

Upon further reflection, it occurred to me that my Mom, who passed at the age of 96 in 2020, was a self-defined “Women’s Libber” back in the 1960’s when she and my Dad were raising my three older sisters, me, and my younger brother.

My mom was adamant that all four of us “girls” would be the first generation in our family to graduate from college and be able to “stand on our own two feet” and add something positive to the world.

It was women like my mom, and two grandmas, that helped establish Women’s History Month which began as a local event in California in 1978, was declared a national week by President Carter in 1980, and expanded to a full month by Congress in 1987, honoring women’s contributions from suffragettes to modern leaders.

This entire e-newsletter is dedicated to highlighting just a few of the incredible women that New Mexico Community Foundation is honored to work with and support. It includes:

  • Global Give-A-Book, a grantee organization that is female-led
  • New Mexico Historic Women Marker Program, one of our fiscally sponsored organizations
  • Animal Protection New Mexico, a women-led fundholder organization

I hope you enjoy and learn from these remarkable women and continue in your work to make contributions to all New Mexicans in whatever way you are able. And, for me, I will hopefully attain the status of “Women’s Libber” as my mom would hope.

Sincerely,

Nancy Pope
New Mexico Community Foundation
Program Director