Mission/ Giving Statement: Taos Community Foundation is committed to helping donors realize their charitable goals and inspire lasting legacies through the establishment of professionally managed funds designed to provide support for changing community needs; for today and for the future.
Grantmaking Program Areas: Basic Needs; Health; Youth; Environment; Arts and Culture; Education; Community Leadership
Grantmaking Program Area Descriptions:
Basic Needs: The unique regional, social and economic factors in a community can have a detrimental impact on the family and an individual’s ability to fully participate as a productive member of society, whatever their age. In order to ensure that all residents can attain, maintain and sustain self-sufficiency, basic needs must first be addressed. Before people can benefit from skills training, participate fully as a parent, or engage in community opportunities, they have to have access to food, clothing, and shelter. TCF recognizes the enormous and unmet potential of these most vulnerable people. We must extend the reach of proven programs and invest in helping people become self-sufficient. In addition to many basic need grants we partner with numerous non-profit and faith-based community programs, to provide new clothing, socks and merchandise to children throughout the northern New Mexico region.
Health: TCF aims to improve health and quality of life through the prevention and treatment of social, physical and mental health conditions by investing in the promotion of healthy behaviors. Supporting health is not just about good physical and mental health. It also includes access to health care, preventative activities, healthy choices and healthy foods. Through this path we work to support the development of a community environment where people feel safe and can lead a healthy lifestyle.
Youth: TCF’s commitment to young people begins with the goals of access to prenatal care and safe birth, then preparing children to enter school, and creating opportunities for youth of all ages to have access to quality programming that engages both their academic and social needs. Providing children and young people with the support and services they need to thrive, from healthy development during infancy through their successful transition into adulthood, is the mission of the Youth investment pathway.
Environment: Investments in this pathway enable the community to permanently protect traditional farmland, preserve water habitat, and maintain the scenic aspects of Taos. Emphasis is on local land-based traditions and culture as well as increasing public awareness of the overall benefit of land preservation.
Arts & Culture: TCF values the experience and wisdom of local artists in all their diversity and affirms their power to unite and build social change. The arts funding is highly responsive to the culture, capacity, and aspirations of the grantees. This area invests in key local institutions and nurtures local leadership and talent. Our cultural sector is the heart of our community identity and not an extra part. It is through the support of our music, our literature, our art, drama and dance that we tell the story of our past and we express our hopes for the future. Artists challenge our assumptions and push us to view our world in new and unexpected ways.
Education: Apart from our goals of helping citizens meet basic needs, TCF and our partners plan initiatives for education and information access, creating a firm foothold and making possible the step-up for individuals and families to think and do differently, and thereby to contribute to positive change in our communities. One of the main goals of TCF is to develop the informed citizenry, and through that development help individuals achieve personal success and self-sufficiency which will redouble our contributions and efforts as they in turn give back to the community through their own successes. Many would agree that education is key to a child’s success in life, to the stability of a skilled and robust workforce, and to the health of a community’s future. Knowing that a strong education system enables both youth and adult students in our region to realize their individual potential as well as that of our larger community, TCF continues its strong commitment to education, using all the tools available: grant-making, convening and advocacy.
Community Leadership: Through Community Leadership activities we demonstrate our commitment to convene individuals and organizations around a particular need or opportunity. We seek to harness our collective influences and strengths of our board, donors, grantees, partners and staff to tackle persistent problems that defy simple solutions. We believe it is through these networks we can develop the nexus where the energy, talent, ideas and resources of those who care about their communities converge to respond to the needs of our region. Community Leadership projects are not funded through direct grants, TCF directs strategic investments toward areas of community interest and need - we debate, we incubate ideas and the result may be a fiscal sponsorship of a new organization or project to directly address the area of need. With emphasis on the value of community, place, common interests and communion, we seek to engage a collective action for social transformation.
Type of Funding/ Funding Restrictions: Taos Community Foundation awards grants with an overall philanthropic strategy and intentionality to be responsive to the needs of the area. Effective grant making promotes social capital and supports the value of community. The Foundation's funding seeks to impact systemic change, and increase opportunities for people to overcome economic, political and social barriers. The Foundation funds in Taos County and Western Colfax County.
Application Instructions: Grant application instructions available online.
