Santa Fe Baby Fund

Overview

The Santa Fe Baby Fund at the Santa Fe Community Foundation 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. A belief that the vitality of any society rests on the opportunities afforded to all children early in life inspired the creation of the Baby Fund, with an initial $1.1 million gift from Brindle Foundation, a private family foundation based in Santa Fe. The future prosperity of Santa Fe depends on its ability to produce strong, healthy children who will lead our community. With the Baby Fund, the Santa Fe Community Foundation and Brindle Foundation hope to give the issues affecting infants a louder voice.

Santa Fe Baby Fund Fall 2021 Grant Cycle - CLOSED

The Santa Fe Baby Fund Fall 2021 grant cycle was open to applicants from Mora, Rio Arriba, San Miguel, and Santa Fe counties. Organizations led by Black, Indigenous, immigrant, and people of color are encouraged to apply. Fall 2021 funding priorities are:

Increasing access to high quality, affordable infant and toddler care;
Supporting the early childhood workforce;
Improving access to reproductive health services for adolescents and young adults;
Supporting young parents ages 24 and under, and their infants and toddlers; and
Supporting grandparents or other non-parent kin raising infants and toddlers.

Advocacy and movement-building work related to the above-listed priorities will also be considered. Distinct from SFCF’s community grants, Santa Fe Baby Fund applicants and grantees are invited to apply every year. Applications will also be accepted from organizations that have applied to CHFA and SFCF grant cycles this year.

Santa Fe Baby Fund will follow the same grant cycle dates as all SFCF competitive fall grants programs. Santa Fe Baby Fund has its own review process.

How to Get Involved

For any questions concerning Santa Fe Baby Fund fall 2021 grants cycle, to find out more, get involved, or donate to the Santa Fe Baby Fund, please contact Sarah Amador-Guzmán, Program Director of Education & Opportunity Santa Fe, at samadorguzman@santafecf.org or (505) 988-9715.

A Critical Shortage: Infant Care in Santa Fe

As a community, we lack enough high quality, licensed child care to serve all the infants in need. Although state and federal policymakers have shown increasing interest in early childhood education, this support is often directed to three-and four-year olds. With positive school readiness results, these investments make sense, particularly in New Mexico where reading, writing, math and graduation rates remain very low. Unfortunately, the sound logic behind this welcome commitment to early childhood education and improved school readiness has so far not extended to improving access to, and quality of, infant care. It is time to address this critical gap.

The Santa Fe Baby Fund at the Santa Fe Community Foundation has released a report, A Critical Shortage: Infant Care in Santa Fe (January 2019), to aid in the process. Please read and share.

2021 Santa Fe Baby Fund Grant Awards ($45,000 Total)