NMELC Receives $2 Million Gift from

Yield Giving Open Call

The current staff of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center: Back row, from L to R: Jené Montaño (Office Manager), Dr. Virginia Necochea (Executive Director), Ann McCartney (Staff Attorney), Kacey Hovden (Staff Attorney), Eric Jantz (Legal Director); front row, L to R: Kendra Palmer (Paralegal), Maslyn Locke (Senior Staff Attorney), Sue Schuurman (Communications Manager).

Dear Community:

It is with deep gratitude that we share the news that the New Mexico Environmental Law Center was selected to receive a very generous gift of $2 million from the Yield Giving Open Call. We are humbled and still in disbelief!

Our Board and Staff have known and felt the many challenges we have faced as an organization over these past few years—from a major leadership transition that began in 2020 to significant budgetary challenges stemming from a loss of funding to the continued impacts resulting from the pandemic.

To say that these years have been challenging and overwhelming for NMELC is an understatement.

Receiving this amazing news that the New Mexico Environmental Law Center was among the organizations selected across the nation to receive this very generous gift, couldn’t have arrived at a better moment in the history of our organization.

Receiving this transformative gift is a testament to the power of movement lawyering – lawyering focused on systemic change and in collaboration with our frontline clients and communities most impacted by environmental injustices. It is a testament to our organization’s steadfast commitment to working alongside our clients and their families in our collective fight for clean air, land, and water and in advancing environmental justice across the state of New Mexico.

This beautiful gift will allow our organization to take a collective breath for the first time in years and spend much needed time reflecting on how we will continue to advance our work in a manner that reflects our commitment to equity, social justice, to New Mexico, and to the strong protection of our sacred Mother Earth.

I personally send my heartfelt thanks and deep gratitude to everyone involved in the Yield Giving Open Call and especially to MacKenzie Scott for her courageous and bold giving. Our sincerest thanks to every single person who has supported and continued to believe in our organization over the years. It is only through the support of our clients, community, allies, donors, and funders that our critical work continues strong and that we are able to provide free and low-cost legal services to clients who are the true heroes fighting for our fundamental human right to a clean, healthy, and thriving environment.

In solidarity,

Virginia

“We could not be more grateful to MacKenzie Scott’s Yield Giving for this incredibly generous award. I am deeply proud of our Executive Director, Virginia Necochea, and the rest of the NMELC team for their dedication to environmental justice and working hand in hand with New Mexicans to protect our sacred lands,” said Johana Bencomo, NMELC’s Board President. “This gift will go a long way towards our fight for clean air, land, and water.”

“Mackenzie Scotts' very generous award to the New Mexico Environment Law Center (NMELC) underscores the critically important role that NMELC has played in working with overburdened communities to address environmental injustices,” said NMELC Board Vice President Kristine Suozzi. “This award will enable NMELC to continue and expand this work to address the increasing demands to make New Mexico a safer and more environmentally healthy state for all.”

"As the only environmental justice law center in New Mexico partnering with communities directly impacted by the devastation of toxic soil, water, and air pollution, this generous award from MacKenzie Scott's Yield Giving will allow us to keep up this work led by our fearless Executive Director, Dr. Virginia Necochea," said Dr. Divana Olivas, NMELC Board Secretary.

Media Coverag

Ten New Mexico nonprofits including NMELC received a Yield Giving Open Call gift, and the generous grants are getting significant attention by media outlets including in the Albuquerque Journal, Albuquerque Business First, the Associated Press, and more.

Here is more information on the Yield Giving Open Call:

Yield Giving has announced the Yield Giving Open Call’s awardees working with people and in places experiencing the greatest need in the United States.

In March 2023, Yield Giving launched an Open Call for community-led, community-focused organizations whose explicit purpose is to enable individuals and families to achieve substantive improvement in their well-being through foundational resources.

The Open Call received 6,353 applications and initially planned for 250 awards of $1 million each. In light of the incredible work of these organizations, the donor team decided to expand the awardee pool and the award amount.

The Open Call was managed in partnership with Lever for Change, a nonprofit affiliate of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation that connects donors with bold solutions to the world’s biggest problems—including issues like racial inequity, gender inequality, access to economic opportunity and climate change.

More information can be found at https://www.leverforchange.org/challenges/explorechallenges/yieldgivingopencall

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New Mexico Environmental Law Center

722 Isleta Blvd SW

Albuquerque, NM 87105

(505) 989-9022



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