Who We Are
Strategic Plan
Today’s rapidly changing environment provides both challenges and opportunities for philanthropy and nonprofit organizations in New Mexico. Issues impacting Con Alma Health Foundation’s strategic planning includes our state’s changing demographics, the economic environment, health care and health care reform, as well as changes affecting governmental and nonprofit sectors.
Con Alma Health Foundation
Strategic Plan
Download Executive Summary (PDF)
CON ALMA HEALTH FOUNDATION
Strategic Plan Executive Summary
The Context for Planning: Our Changing Environment
Today’s rapidly changing environment provides both challenges and opportunities for philanthropy
and nonprofit organizations in New Mexico. Issues impacting Con Alma Health Foundation’s strategic planning include our state’s changing demographics, the economic environment, health care and health care reform, as well as changes affecting governmental and nonprofit sectors.
Voices from New Mexico’s Communities: Community Forums
We held community forums with people in Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Grants, Roswell and Santa Fe. Much of their discussion focused on potential ways Con Alma can help improve health in New Mexico (e.g., leader, convener, leveraging resources, etc.), in addition to our traditional grantmaking role. This plan represents the thoughtful participation by many individuals in a process of collective reflection and planning.
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 health status and access to health care services and advocates for health policies that address the health needs of all.
STRATEGIC GOALS
GOAL 1: Impact health policy to address health needs in New Mexico
- Serve as a leader in statewide health policy and planning
- Work toward systemic change
- Advocate for policies that are consistent with Con Alma’s mission and core values
- Serve as an independent, neutral voice to bring stakeholders together for collective impact (including collaboration, shared vision and shared measurement of results)
- Educate and inform policy makers and legislators
- Clearly articulate the role of Con Alma in improving health in New Mexico
GOAL 2: Be a resource to nonprofit organizations and communities
- Build the capacity of nonprofit organizations
- Facilitate collaboration among government, business and nonprofit sectors, including health care providers, public health, business and community organizations
- Provide grants to support initiatives that reflect Con Alma’s mission
- Increase involvement of national foundations in New Mexico
- Strengthen statewide support of nonprofit organizations
- Be a portal for information and education
GOAL 3: Strengthen the capacity of Con Alma Health Foundation to support its mission & goals
- Clearly articulate Con Alma’s mission, goals, and core values to grantees and other constituencies, emphasizing broad definition of health, social determinants of health and focus on health equity
- Develop human and financial resources, through leveraging local, state and national funding, and building the endowment
- Expand and diversify communication with stakeholders
Who We Are
Con Alma Health Foundation is New Mexico’s largest private foundation dedicated solely to health. We partner with organizations to improve health while placing an emphasis on supporting culturally diverse, rural and tribal communities, as well as the uninsured and underserved. We advocate for health policies which address the health needs of all. Promoting health equity – ensuring everyone has an equal chance at being healthy – is one of our priorities. We define health broadly: physical, mental, emotional, behavioral, social, oral, environmental, economic and spiritual health and well-being. We build partnerships, invest in systemic change, advocate for all, and serve as a resource for policy makers, nonprofits and the public.
Our People
Con Alma’s professional staff supports a Board of Trustees that is committed to insuring the public trust through thoughtful and strong governance. The Community Advisory Committee acts as community ambassadors and advisees the Board on how to fulfill Con Alma’s goals of improving health. Both reflect the state’s ethnic and geographic diversity.
Core Values
To fulfill Con Alma’s mission, we adhere to six core values to guide our policies, operations, and grant making:
- Improve the health status of all New Mexicans: Con Alma focuses on the needs of the uninsured and the medically underserved and works to reduce health disparities by promoting greater access to health care for all. This includes an emphasis on people of color and those in rural and tribal communities. We make grants that emphasize the importance of education, prevention and personal responsibility.
- Maintain the public trust: The Foundation adheres 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.
- Involve, collaborate and partner with New Mexico communities: Con Alma works closely with local and indigenous communities to insure engagement in health care needs assessments and evaluation processes which facilitate community self-definition and self-determination, and which strengthen and develop their local community health infrastructure and institutions. We make grants to help grantees more effectively accomplish their health missions.
- Innovate and lead: The Foundation defines health broadly to include components of environmental, oral, psychological, emotional, behavioral, social, economic, and spiritual health and well-being. We search for new solutions to old problems and have the courage to risk failure in order to succeed. And we support the preservation and communication of traditional practices that maintain, foster, and improve health status.
- Teach and learn: Con Alma develops partnerships with educational and health care institutions and grassroots community organizations to support the development of health care professionals who reflect the cultural and linguistic diversity of New Mexico.
- Be an effective advocate for a health policy which supports the Foundation’s charitable purpose and mission: The Foundation seeks to shape health policy and encourage consumers to become advocates in their own communities. Con Alma respects and responds to the values and experiences of all peoples and communities in New Mexico, and makes grants that promote systemic change and support the Foundation’s mission.
We Congratulate Our Most Recent Grant Recipients
In celebration of Con Alma Health Foundation’s 20 years of investing in the health of New Mexico’s communities, we are honored to announce 33 grants totaling $507,500. In addition to our annual grants, Con Alma awarded $525,000 in vaccine equity and community rebuild grants to help ensure COVID-19 vaccines are distributed equitably across the state and support communities to address the disproportionate impact the pandemic has had on them.
Con Alma understands that health is more than healthcare. As such, the Foundation’s grants reflect a diversity of strategies and issues that affect people’s physical, mental, emotional, behavioral, social, oral, environmental, economic and spiritual well-being.
Follow the link below to learn more about our latest grant recipients.