Who We Are

Who We Are

In 2001, policy makers and health-consumer advocates collaborated to establish Con Alma Health Foundation as the best way to invest more than $20 million from the sale of Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico. State law required that its assets be set aside for a nonprofit dedicated to health in New Mexico.

A year later the nonprofit Banner Health Systems sold Los Alamos Medical Center to a for-profit corporation, creating a fund from some of the proceeds to serve the health-care needs of people living in Los Alamos, Rio Arriba and northern Santa Fe counties. We partner with the Hospital Auxiliary of the Los Alamos Medical Center as the Northern New Mexico Health Grants Group (NNMHGG) to award annual grants from the fund.

For over 20 years, we have followed our collaborative roots – investing more than $14 million in nonprofits improving health in New Mexico and bringing people together to work toward health equity.

CAHF’s assets go beyond the dollars with which it makes grants. The Foundation advocates for health policy and brings people and organizations together, acting as a catalyst for improving health, especially for the underserved.

Highlights from the Con Alma Video History Project

Con Alma Health Foundation - The Heart and Soul of Health in New Mexico

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Our Mission

Con Alma Health Foundation is organized to be aware of and respond to the health rights and needs of the culturally and demographically diverse peoples and communities of New Mexico. Con Alma seeks to improve the health status and access to health care services for all New Mexican communities and advocates for a health policy that addresses the health needs of all in New Mexico. The Foundation makes grants, contributions, and program-related investments to fulfill its Mission.

Did you notice the yucca plant in our logo?

For centuries the Yucca–tough and hardy state flower of New Mexico–has been used for food as well as fiber for weaving baskets and sandals. Similarly, Con Alma strives to be of enduring utility to all New Mexicans.

Core Values

Guiding Con Alma Health Foundation are six core values:

1. Improve the health status of all New Mexicans;

  • The Foundation will focus on the needs of the uninsured and the medically underserved.
  • The Foundation will work to reduce health disparities by promoting greater access to health care and improved quality of health care for all New Mexicans–with a special emphasis on people of color and rural and tribal communities–in order to protect the rights of all New Mexicans to adequate health care.
  • The Foundation will make grants that emphasize the importance of education, prevention, and personal responsibility.

2. Maintain the public trust;

  • The Foundation will remain true to its corporate and charitable Mission.
  • The Foundation will adhere to the highest standards of accountability by providing accurate financial and programmatic reporting and public disclosure, by adherence to a strong conflict of interest policy and code of conduct, by evaluating and reporting outcomes of grant making activities, and by engaging communities in meaningful dialogue and problem solving.

3. Involve, collaborate and partner with New Mexico communities;

  • The Foundation will involve local and indigenous communities in its decision making by appointing and electing members of these communities to policy making and advisory positions.
  • The Foundation will engage all communities in health care needs assessments and evaluation processes, both quantitative and qualitative, which facilitate community self-definition and self-determination, and which strengthen and develop their local community health infrastructure and institutions.
  • The Foundation will make grants to build the capacity of grantees to more effectively accomplish their health Missions.

4. Innovate and lead;

  • The Foundation will define health broadly to include components of environmental, psychological, emotional, behavioral, social, economic, and spiritual health and well-being.
  • The Foundation will search for new solutions to old problems and have the courage to risk failure in order to succeed.
  • The Foundation will support the identification, preservation and communication of traditional practices that maintain, foster, and improve health status.

5. Teach and learn;

  • The Foundation will develop partnerships with educational and health care institutions and grass roots community organizations to improve cultural and linguistic competencies and thereby improve the health status of all New Mexicans.
  • The Foundation will support the development of health care professionals who reflect the cultural and linguistic diversity of New Mexico resulting in greater opportunities for those underrepresented in the health care fields.
  • The Foundation will support the creation of new knowledge that broadens the understanding of health issues.

6. Be an effective advocate for a health policy which supports the Foundation’s charitable Purpose and Mission.

  • The Foundation will encourage consumer participation in health policy formation and individual health decisions to develop their skills and capacities so that consumers may become advocates in their own communities and better understand the reality they seed to transform.
  • The Foundation will support programs that provide analysis of health data and health policy issues and programs which advocate health policy positions that foster the Foundation’s Mission.
  • The Foundation will seek to shape health policy and implementation consistent with the Foundation’s Mission and Core Values.

Con Alma shall respect and respond to the values and experiences of all peoples and communities in New Mexico. Con Alma will make grants that promote systemic change and will be outcome oriented. Grants made by Con Alma may complement, but will not replace federal, tribal, state, city, town or county government health programs.

Con Alma Health Foundation is a member of Grantmakers in Health, Hispanics in Philanthropy, Council on Foundations, and the New Mexico Association of Grantmakers

Con Alma Health Foundation - The Heart and Soul of Health in New Mexico

Keep Up to Date!

To ensure you are receiving the latest grant cycle information sign up here for email updates and select “Grant Cycle Information”. Check back to our website often and follow us on social media for important news and announcements.