OVERVIEW: The Santa Fe Community Foundation limits grantmaking to the northern New Mexico counties and supports arts, economic opportunity, education, environment, health and human services, and criminal justice.
IP TAKE: The Santa Fe Community Foundation has come a long way from its early years, when it struggled “to stay afloat with bake sales and art auctions.” Now it awards around $10 million in grants annually. This is an accessible funder with two grant cycles per year. Unfortunately, the Community Grants program is competitive, which means competition will be fierce considering how many different areas the foundation supports. Luckily, however, the foundation does not accept applications for all areas at the same time, but this means grantseekers will need to check the website carefully to make sure they apply to the right grant cycle. This is a local powerhouse: the largest LGBTQ funder in New Mexico and one of the largest supporters of indigenous causes in the U.S. Ultimately, all nonprofits in its funding area will want to keep SFCF on their radar.
PROFILE: Established in 1981, the Santa Fe Community Foundation manages donor-advised funds and engages in discretionary grantmaking as well. This community foundation was established as a signatory to Philanthropy’s Promise, an initiative of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy that involves at least 25 percent of grantmaking going to social justice strategies. These include programs that promote advocacy, community organizing, and civic engagement. Grantmaking areas of interest include arts, economic opportunity, education, environment, health and human services, LGBTQ, and animal welfare.
Grants for Arts and Culture
SFCF supports arts and culture organizations in Santa Fe, Mora, Rio Arriba, and San Miguel counties through its Competitive Community Grants program. Arts grants support increasing engagement and access to the arts, strengthening the local creative economy, and using the arts to “improve future success of marginalized youth.” Culture grants are awarded for cultural and historical preservation opportunities. Grantees include Museum of New Mexico Foundation, Mora Creative Council, Artsmart, Women Make Movies, and Lensic Performing Arts Center.
Grants for Animal Welfare
The community foundation supports domestic and wild animals via the Competitive Community Grants program. Animal welfare grants specifically focus on population control, preventing cruelty to animals, improving animals’ overall wellbeing, and supporting efforts to reintroduce or conserve native New Mexico species. Grant recipients include Santa Fe Animal Shelter, Santa Fe Conservation Trust, WildEarth Guardians, New Mexico Wildlife Center, and Espanola Humane.
Grants for Education
SFCF’s Competitive Community Grants program supports efforts to help “children and youth succeed in education prepared for a career.” Funding priorities include school readiness, reading proficiency, math proficiency, high school graduation rates, and opportunity for youth engagement. Education grants also support advocacy for public policy supporting increased learning opportunities for marginalized populations and integrated student and family supports for more parental involvement. Previous grantees include College and Career Plaza, The Santa Fe Girls’ School, Reading Quest, Santa Fe Alliance for Science, and Santa Fe Public Schools.
Grants for Environment
Grants for the environment are also awarded through SFCF’s Competitive Community Grants program, including support for public policy and advocacy, energy conservation, strengthening ecosystems, and natural resource management. Grantees include New Mexico Environmental Law Center, New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, Earth Care International Earth Care New Mexico, Hermits Peak Watershed Alliance, and Camping and Education Foundation.
Grants for Economic Development
The Competitive Community Grants program’s support for economic development organizations includes addressing housing insecurity, increasing access to job training and high quality employment opportunities, and advocating for “public policy, civic engagement, community organizing or public information to improve economic opportunity.” Economic opportunity grantees include True Kids 1, Alliance for Local Economic Prosperity, Casa Milagro, Women’s Economic Self-Sufficiency Team Corp, and Santa Fe Habitat for Humanity.
Grants for Health and Human Services
SFCF supports health and human services organizations in its funding area through the Competitive Community Grants program. Funding priorities include access to affordable housing, food security, safe and violence-free communities, healthy neighborhood living conditions, senior services, and “culturally appropriate and equitable access to quality health and wellness services.” Grants have gone to New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness, The Food Depot, Scott’s House, Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood, St. Elizabeth Shelter, and Las Cumbres Community Services.
Grants for Early Childhood Development
The community foundation supports early childhood development efforts via the Santa Fe Baby Fund, which seeks to “promote the healthy development of babies and toddlers in Santa Fe and to raise awareness about the critical importance of investing in the early years of life.” It prioritizes funding to increase access to education and care for children, improve access to reproductive healthcare for young women and girls, and support programs for young parents, grandparents, and other caregivers. Grantees include Many Mothers, Family Learning Center, Growing Up New Mexico, Kiwanis First Born of Northern New Mexico, and Las Cumbres Community Services.
Grants for BIPOC
A relatively new source of funding, the Empower! Black Futures Community Fund seeks to “support nonprofits across New Mexico that are uplifting Black life, arts, and culture.” Its inaugural round of grantmaking took place in Spring 2025.
Grants for LGBTQ
According to SFCF, the Envision Fund is “the first and largest LGBTQ+ funder in the state of New Mexico.” Its priority areas include combatting HIV and LGBTQ+ discrimination in New Mexico, advocating for a safe and healthy learning environment for LGBTQ+ youth, and “promoting holistic reproductive health and gender-affirming healthcare.” Grantees include Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico, Equality New Mexico, New Mexico Community AIDS Partnership, The Sky Center/New Mexico Suicide Intervention Project, Solace Sexual Assault Services, and Health Equality Alliance for LGBTQ New Mexicans.
Grants for Indigenous Rights
Santa Fe Community Foundation is “one of the largest community foundations to grant to Native Communities.” The Native American Advised Fund works with Native-led organizations to support programs and projects that increase equity for and empower Native people. Past grant recipients include Kha’p’o Community School, Nat’l Indian Youth Leadership Development Project, Chainbreaker Collective, Tewa Women United, Three Sisters Collective, Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, Roadrunner Food Bank, and Santa Fe Indigenous Center.
Other Grant Opportunities
The foundation occasionally awards Special and Urgent Needs (SUN) grants to help with nonprofits’ unexpected, short-term needs. These grants are “relatively small,” but the turnaround time is quick, typically application decisions are made with 14 days.
Learning Hub offers collaborative programs focused on community-identified needs, events for networking and development, and a well-stocked Nonprofit Resource Library with materials relevant to area nonprofits.
Important Grant Details
Competitive seasonal grants are typically $5,000, $10,000, $15,000, or $20,000 for general operating support depending on a nonprofit’s budget. The foundation awarded over $10 million in grants in a recent year and held more than $130 million in assets.
SFCF accepts unsolicited grant applications from nonprofits before established deadlines.
- SFCF grantmaking is limited to the northern New Mexico counties, including Los Alamos, Mora, Rio Arriba, San Miguel, Santa Fe, and Taos.
- SFCF generally only makes general operating support grants.
- The foundation does not support startup nonprofits, and only organizations with three years of operation are eligible for grants.
- As a general rule, nonprofits are generally only allowed to apply for funding once per year.
- SFCF has made it a priority to streamline its grantmaking process so that nonprofits are not spending a lot of time preparing application materials.
Direct general questions to the foundation staff at 505-988-9715 and foundation@SantaFeCF.org.
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