By Finance New Mexico

Philanthropic giving is a $300 billion industry in the United States, and New Mexicans do their part every year to underwrite the causes that matter most to them.

According to one organization that tracks philanthropic giving, the top recipients in 2014 were organizations devoted to education; human services; health; animals and the environment; public-social causes; arts, culture and the humanities; international disaster relief; and religion or spirituality.

While they seem invisible within these general categories, nonprofit organizations that promote grass-roots economic development — The Loan Fund, Accion and WESST among them — also rely on private giving to support and enable individual entrepreneurship in our state. Continue reading →

By Finance New Mexico

While Bernalillo County economic developers work hard to attract major industries to Albuquerque and unincorporated parts of the county, they understand that supporting the creation of numerous small businesses can lead to an equal number of jobs and opportunities.

This approach to growth has spawned a series of business summits over the past two years, each hosted by a Bernalillo County commissioner and highlighting a business opportunity or concern identified by that commissioner or the commissioner’s constituents. Continue reading →

By Finance New Mexico

The arguments for shopping at independent, locally owned New Mexico businesses before bargain hunting at national retail chains are many — and they’re all good.

Local businesses are more than twice as generous to hometown nonprofits that fulfill community-specific needs, according to the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA), and they are more loyal and accountable to the people they employ and live among. Local businesses are typically small, and this sector of the economy employs 48 percent of the private sector workforce. Continue reading →

By Jennifer Sinsabaugh, Interim State Director, New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership

Technology Leadership High School students during the Sandia Science and Technology Park Manufacturing Day 2015 tour

Like her classmates at Technology Leadership High School in Albuquerque, Paola Rodriguez always wondered what went on behind the doors of neighboring businesses in the Sandia Science and Technology Park. On Oct. 30, the 16-year-old freshman and about 60 other students and six teachers satisfied that curiosity on a tour organized by the New Mexico Manufacturing Extension Partnership as part of Manufacturing Day — a national celebration of American manufacturing.

“These buildings are all around you — businesses with names like ‘Air Products’ — and you wonder what they do,” Rodriguez said. “I was very curious.” Continue reading →