The Foundation’s inaugural report details a record year of grantmaking and more than two decades of lasting change across New Mexico.
The Thornburg Foundation has released its inaugural 2025 Impact Report, “Systems Change in Action,” a look at how the Foundation and its grantee partners worked to advance durable solutions across New Mexico over the past year.
2025 was unlike any year in the Foundation’s 25-year history. As federal funding shifts created uncertainty for nonprofits across the state, the Foundation responded by deploying the largest grantmaking effort in its history, issuing 187 grants totaling more than $7.1 million, with record investments in water, education, and agriculture.
The report also tells a longer story. Systems change does not happen overnight, and over 25 years the Foundation has built deep, lasting partnerships that turn policy analysis and advocacy into real legislative wins for New Mexico.
Highlights from the report include:
- More than $300 million in public investment secured for water infrastructure and conservation
- A tenfold increase in Career and Technical Education funding, from $5 million to $50 million over five years
- 64,905 acres of land improved through conservation projects across 93 percent of New Mexico counties
- 69 percent of grantmaking directed to organizations the Foundation has partnered with for three or more years
The report also takes an honest look at what remains unfinished. Between 2017 and 2024, rents in New Mexico rose 60 percent and homelessness climbed 87 percent, more than twice the national average. Public funding for the state’s nonprofit sector remains as critical as ever.
The Foundation credits the partners, advocates, and leaders across New Mexico who made this work possible, and looks toward 2026 as a year to build on it, with plans to deepen its investments in water, land and agriculture, K-12 education, and a new statewide housing initiative.